Basic Risk Management Failure Shown By Safety Statistics
A recent Safety Statistics article was not kind to basic risk management. I was reading through a large amount of workers comp publications over the weekend. I came across what to me were astounding statistics on safety and risk management. The survey was produced by Staples(r)
Staples had surveyed 412 different small businesses with less than 50 employees. The survey showed that:
- 70% of all managers knew an emergency communication plan existed in their company
- 50% of the employees were unsure if a plan existed or said their company does not even have a plan in place
- 19% of employees thought their company was prepared for a medical emergency
- Managers were almost 50% more likely than non-managers to be able to locate their company’s defibrillators, eye wash, dust masks, and caution and wet floor signs.
This led me to the following conclusions:
- Managers are not properly communicating their safety programs to their employees
- Small companies are not ready to handle emergencies whatsoever
- These companies are likely going to pay much more in Workers comp premiums if they do not know how to handle a medical emergency.
There are many safety programs for smaller employers that are free or low-cost such as the Safety and Education Department for the North Carolina Industrial Commission. Almost every state has a department similar to this in state government. They are not OSHA related and do not report companies to OSHA or hand out fines.
One of the most disturbing statistics from the above list is only 19% of the employees feel they are ready for a medical emergency. One of the areas to consider is where does a company transport an employee to for emergencies? Keeping medical control of a Workers Comp claim is a critical key to workers comp savings in emergencies and non-emergencies.
I performed a study a few years ago on how much more expensive is a claim with or without medical control. I found that claims without medical control are 400% more expensive than claims with medical control.
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