Each year Ohio employers have the opportunity to participate in BWC's Group-Experience-Rating Program or Group-Retrospective-Rating Program. While these programs are not required, they do provide you with an opportunity to significantly reduce your workers' compensation premiums, while increasing your awareness of safety and risk-management strategies.
Workplace safety is an important component of these programs. To succeed in accident prevention, we encourage you to use the many resources available to you. We believe a group-rating program is a partnership that includes you and your employees, your sponsoring organization or third-party administrator (TPA) and BWC. Each has specific roles and responsibilities, all designed to assist in preventing workplace accidents. This informatoin in this PDF Document outlines the safety services expectations you should have as an employer enrolled in a group-rating program.
Group-Rating Safety Accountability
Group Rating
The Bureau of Workers' Compensation offers a number of programs that allow employers to receive discounts on their premiums. This brochure includes a brief overview of each of those programs.
Hunter Consulting Company assists employers in choosing the most cost effective program for their company and then continues service by assisting the employer in meeting all program deadlines and requirements. (More Information)
10 Step Business Plan for Safety
With BWC's 10-Step Business Plan for Safety employers can focus on implementing a more effective safety plan one step at a time as opposed to getting lost in the "where to start" phase of the big picture. While some of the BWC programs require employers to complete the 10-Step Business Plan for Safety, it can also be a good resource for companies looking to implement a new safety program or simply improve an old one.
Safety Talk
Introduction
No business organization can expect good safety performance unless its top management demonstrates that safety is a key organizational value. A leader must communicate the need for safety to all employees. Accountability is one of the key factors to commitment. Every level of your organization needs to be accountable for its safety responsibilities. Make safety orientations for new and transferred employees a part of your organization's basic safety processes. (More Information)
What Could Go Wrong
By: Gary W. Hanson
When I visit my clients I often spend time observing employees performing their normal work routine. As I do so, I ask myself, is this the safest way to work and if not What Could Go Wrong. I am always looking at the potential risk factors of each job. Employees don't deliberately work unsafely, but many employees will take the quickest, easiest way to perform the job. Sometimes employees have not been trained in the safest method to perform their job and sometimes safe procedures have not been developed. (More Information)
Teaching Employees to Understand MSDS
By: Gary W. Hanson
Every employer that has one or more hazardous chemicals must comply with the OSHA Hazard Communication Program. This includes having a written program, having an individual responsible for overseeing the program, having a labeling program, securing and maintaining material safety data sheets. (More Information)
Major Elements of an Effective Safety Program
By: Gary W. Hanson
Safety, like any other management function, has key elements that need to be followed in order for the program to be successful in helping a company achieve its Corporate Mission. Too often, however, companies do not have an understanding of the importance of each of the elements of a Safety Program. Many companies have pieces and parts but not all of the necessary elements. (More Information)