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How Safety Affects the Bottom Line
Ajax Paving’s Safety Director, Joe
Forgue has been working hard the
past several years at strengthening
the company’s accident-prevention
program. “We’ve increased our safety
training, and we’re keeping people up-to-date on new ways to stay safe. We’ve
also improved our reporting capabilities,”
he says.
The company has greatly increased the
use of personal protective equipment such
as hard hats, safety vests, and safety
glasses. “We’ve specified in the manual
when people have to wear them,” Forgue
says, noting that most Ajax employees are
affected by the specification. Ajax Paving
has strengthened its lock-out/tag-out
initiative, stipulating that employees working
around heavy machinery must lock
out — disconnect all potential sources of
power to the machine — during all types
of maintenance or repair.
A third new safety initiative involves
increasing CPR and first-aid training for
all employees; also, the company is training
more work-zone traffic supervisors,
who oversee temporary work zone set-up
and maintenance, to ensure better safety
for both workers and motorists.
Ajax’s approach to safety is proactive,
given that the enhancements to its safety-training
program build upon an already
excellent safety record. Over the last three
years, Ajax’s OSHA recordable case rate
— reflecting the number of injured
workers, per 100, requiring more than
basic first aid in a year — was an average
of 5.85, well below the industry rate of
8.9 in 2002. The company’s lost-workday
case rate — the number of workers, per
100, who lose workdays due to an injury
— over the last three years averaged 1.78,
compared with an industry rate of 2.3
for 2002.
Because of its effective safety program,
Ajax also benefits by paying lower insurance
rates, noted Forgue. The company’s
experience modification rating — derived
from balancing the number of losses
against costs and other variables and
used by insurance companies to set premiums
— has averaged 0.60 over the past
five years. This relatively low rate as compared
to the average rating of 1.0 has
enabled Ajax to save money on insurance;
hence, be more competitive in the bidding
process, Forgue says.
Besides taking steps to reduce the number
of injuries on the job, Ajax Paving is also
seeking to bring down the cost of litigation
through better administration and attention
to claims. It utilizes third-party administrators,
based in Chicago and Atlanta, who
work closely with the company’s attorneys
on workers’ compensation claims. Ajax
also retains a nurse case manager who is
closely involved with injured employees’
recovery to ensure that the process is
going smoothly.
Another initiative is striving to get injured
employees back in the workforce as soon
as possible. For example, a person capable
of working 60 percent of his or her
capacity might be offered a transitional
position in an office or garage until able
to return to his or her original position,
Forgue notes.
As Chairman of the Michigan Road
Builders Association Safety Committee,
Forgue is also active in working with the
MDOT for protection of workers on highway
construction sites — through more
use of concrete barrier walls or complete
traffic closures, for example. “Work-zone
safety is a priority. There needs to be better
education of the motoring public, which
can be accomplished through such things
as radio ad campaigns or improved work-zone
signage. Improving safety is not just
a matter of adapting the best company
policies, but also extends to better awareness
by the motoring public itself,”
Forgue concludes. |
