Safety Tips Newsletter Archives 

June 2008, Safety - Slips, Trips and Falls: Employees’ Greatest Danger! - According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 261,470 American workers were injured in slips, trips and falls in 2006. An additional 827 lost their lives. Though 49% of those fatalities were from rooftops, ladders and scaffolding, 11% were falls on level ground or on stairs or steps. That indicates that even employees in “safe” environments such as office settings, medical facilities and retail stores suffered falls severe enough to lose their lives!

May 2008, Safety - Safety Programs: Are They Possible and Do They Really Work? - What value does safety have in your company? Is it an important element, or is it an afterthought when someone gets hurt? Is safety something you work at, but find it difficult to implement and enforce? If your Safety Program is not all you desire it to be, is it due to lack of information? Lack of “know how?” Lack of direction?

April 2008, Safety - How Many is Too Many? - Americans would be in an uproar…and well they should be!  Each of those headlines is totally unacceptable!  Yet, those are statistics we would read if those industries sustained only a 1% (or less) occurrence rate.

March 2008, Safety - Making Safety Fun! - Employees hate safety meetings!  Safety experts tell us they are important, but what a grind!  Who wants to sit through boring meetings, with a boring speaker, talking about a boring subject!  What a waste of time!

February 2008, Safety - Injured Employee Wins Multi-Million Dollar Settlement Against EmployerThat news would be enough to put many companies out of business.  How about you?  Could you withstand a multi-million dollar hit to your personal financial status, or to your company’s bottom line?

January 2008, Safety - A Look Back and a Look Ahead - A new year means new horizons and new goals. It means a fresh start in making the most of a brand new year. A new year also brings the opportunity to look back over the previous year and assess triumphs, victories, successes and failures. At CBR we set and assess goals every year, with the purposeful intent to serve our clients with excellence

December 2007, Safety - Know Your Liabilities -“I should have insisted that he wear his safety equipment.” - ”That guy has been doing this job for years. I didn’t think it would happen to him."
“He would still be alive if we had taken the time to show him the proper way to operate that machine.” No one wants to hear those words.  Unfortunately, statements like these are heard all too often after a worker is injured or killed on the job.  If, in worst-case scenario, such an injury or death occurred in your company, would these words ring true?

November 2007, Safety - There is a Reason! -“Why all the fuss about my employees’ job tasks?” Why can’t we just send injured workers to the nearest medical facility?” “What’s the big deal about getting injured workers back to work immediately?" The CBR Risk Department fields these questions regularly. There is a reason for each of these things, and you need to be informed! We strive mightily to balance the care of your employees with the cost to your company to provide workers’ compensation coverage. No one wants their employees neglected, and no one wants to pay excessive amounts for insurance coverage.

October 2007, Safety - "Safety Inspections and Job Hazard Analysis" - Statements like these are more common than they should be.  Far too often, accidents “just happen” out of the blue, resulting in thousands of injuries and millions of dollars in claim costs.  Could this be avoided?  What if you could reverse time and “undo” that accident.  Would you?  Of course you would!

September 2007, Safety - Training and Supervision - Injuries occur because of unsafe conditions and/or unsafe acts, 98% of which are preventable. However, if no one is trained to recognize those hazards, and no one is trained to protect against those hazards, then the risk remains high.

August 2007, Safety - Workers Comp "Cost Drivers" - Why are my company’s rates higher than my competitor’s rates?  Good question! Workers comp rates are affected by a company’s frequency and severity of losses. Perhaps your competitor has recognized how to drive costs down. Here are some downward cost drivers:

July 2007, Safety - Heat and the Human Body - Heat kills more people than hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes or any other weather-related cause.  Summertime is here and, in Arizona, heat is a tremendous concern.  However, in any state where you have employees working outside in above average temperatures, there is a significant risk of heat illness.

June 2007, Safety - Accident Prevention Workers Safe and Costs Down - All accidents are the result of either risky behavior and/or hazardous conditions. In one specific study, 75,000 accidents were analyzed and it was found that 66,000 (88%) were caused by unsafe acts. An additional 7,500 (10%) were cased by unsafe conditions. By reducing unsafe acts and unsafe conditions, injuries could be reduced dramatically.

May 2007, Safety - Return to Work Programs: Good for the Employee, Good for the Employer - There is a false belief among some workers that, if they are injured, they will be off work, but will continue to collect regular wages.  However, rarely are the true effects realized.The most dramatic cost effect may be on your company’s experience modifier (emod), particularly if you are a large company.   An emod is a factor that is applied to WC rates.  Therefore, it affects your entire payroll.

April 2007, Safety - Subrogation: How it Works and How it Saves You Money. The cause of injury could be the result of another person’s negligence or another company’s faulty product. If so, these claims should not be charged to your workers comp policy.

CBR is named the first PEO in Arizona to be honored as a BBB Ethics Award Finalist for 2006 and 2007.  This award applauds employers as they strive to ensure that ethics remains a driving force in their business.  read more hear the interview