"The Safety Behavior Norm
For The Next Millennium"
Cost of Injury
By Emmitt J. Nelson
March 2009
Few employers really realize just how high the cost of worker injury is.
Those that do usually are people in a company that work directly with the workers' compensation insurance carrier or are doing injury case management.
These see the enormous costs that accrue for reserves and the frequently very long recovery times for the injured to get back to work. One other person in a company that will always know about the high cost of injury will be that senior executive who signs the premium checks that go to the workers' compensation insurance carrier.
It is not uncommon to see serious injury costs exceed $100,000 per case as determined by the medical costs and partial wage paid the injured while off work. Workers' compensation insurance premium varies widely, state to state across the USA. These costs from the highest cost state to the lowest cost state range as high as five to one. And the cost of premium from the highest cost trade to the lowest cost trade ranges as high as 20 to one, depending on the trade and state.
The high cost of workers' compensation insurance can cripple an otherwise healthy company. Preventing injury should be of major concern to any CEO. Unfortunately, too many CEOs are being told by their people that "injuries just happen!" Further. these people persuade the CEO that nothing else can be done.
There is another view. An opposing view. This opposing view is held by the CEOs who have led their companies into the realm of a the Zero Injury Safety Leadership Concept. In doing so they have found true safety excellence. The Construction Industry Institute at The University of Texas, Austin, sponsored research into how some employers and projects were able to work millions of hours without serious injury.
This academically led research effort revealed over 100 critical safety techniques that those employers choose from who routinely perform their work with Zero Lost Workday Cases. These have become 130 through additional research. Now many employers are working millions of hours with Zero OSHA recordables injuries. Utilizing all 130 is not necessary. Just use a majority of those that fit your job or company situation and you too can feel the surge of excitement as your BLS injury rates become even less than you imagined.
