Risk Management

Workplace accidents are a big liability to businesses. Not only is it a terrible tragedy whenever an employee is injured while performing their job, but it can also have big financial consequences for your company as well. Losing a valuable employee for any length of time is expensive, and workplace accidents will also raise workers’ compensation premiums, which can cut deeply into a business’s overhead.

Unfortunately, accidents are sometimes unavoidable, especially in high-risk industries like construction and manufacturing. In our previous blog post, we encouraged all businesses to implement a strict safety program to try and prevent accidents. As part of that safety program, we advised companies to perform thorough investigations into every employee accident.

An accident investigation should not be conducted to place blame, but rather to understand the underlying causes of the accident in order to prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future.

Here are the steps you need to take to conduct a comprehensive accident investigation once an accident has occurred in the workplace:

1. Appoint an individual to be in charge of the investigation. Depending on the size of the company and the nature of the accident, you may want to allow this individual to assemble a small investigation team.
2. Define the scope of the investigation. The lead investigator should make clear exactly what information he or she is looking for and what the goal of the investigation is.
3. Create a preliminary brief. The investigation team should put together an initial review of the incident, which includes a description of the accident, damage estimate, normal operating procedures, location of the accident, witness list and a description of relevant events before and after the accident.
4. Visit and inspect the accident site. The investigation team should spend time at the accident site, looking for details that might have been missed in the preliminary brief. They should also make sure the area is secured so that nothing is disturbed while the investigation is ongoing.
5. Interview victim(s) and witnesses. The investigation team should sit down and discuss the accident with the victim(s) and any witnesses to the accident. They will also want to interview other relevant individuals, such as those who regularly work in the accident area or who had contact with the victim before the accident. It’s useful to use a tape recorder to capture these interviews.
6. Look for abnormal circumstances. If your company has a comprehensive safety program in place, then it is likely that the program was not being followed in its entirety when the accident occurred. When reviewing the data collected about the accident, the investigation team should be on the lookout for odd circumstances before the accident, which could have contributed to it.
7. Determine the sequence of events. Using their notes, observation, and interviews, the investigation team should be able to determine a sequence of events and the likely cause or causes of the accident.
8. Prepare a summary report. The investigation team should put together a report that includes all of the collected data, the sequence of events, the presumed causes of the accident and recommendations for preventing future accidents.
9. Conduct a post-investigation briefing. The investigation team should provide the accident report to management as well as a briefing to review the report findings. The most important discussion topics will likely be the causes of the accident and prevention recommendations, which the management team can then approve for implementation.

While every accident investigation is unique, these steps will provide some basic guidance on learning how and why a workplace accident occurred so you can make your company a safer place to work in the future.

When working on a new construction project, there are plenty of things to worry about, including cost overruns, meeting all state deadlines, finding high-quality sub-contractors, making sure all the equipment arrives on time and in good shape, etc… Unfortunately, you also need to worry about theft and vandalism, which is all too common on construction sites in Southern California. Construction site theft eats away at your profit and could even cause an operating loss on a job. The best way to deal with theft is to try and prevent it with reasonable safety measures.

Below is a short list of steps you can take to convince thieves that your site isn’t worth the effort and risk of plundering.

• Create a job-site security plan and make sure all your site managers are familiar with it
• Encourage all employees to be security conscious when on the worksite
• If possible, enclose the job site with a strong security fence
• Make sure the security fence is closed and locked each night
• Limit access to the site as much as possible, even during the day
• Consider putting up cameras or motion-activated lights and posting big warning signs
• Consider hiring security guards to patrol the premise at night
• Keep tools in a secure area and lock them up at night
• Mark all tools and equipment for easy identification
• Stamp ID numbers conspicuously on all large equipment and keep records of the ID numbers
• Require all workers to sign tools in and out to better track them
• Require all keys to be signed in and out and limit the people on the site who are able to sign out keys
• When possible, immobilize equipment at the end of each work day (ex. Take the gas cap out of each vehicle)
• Keep all building materials in a secure and locked storage area
• Keep an inventory of all tools, equipment and anything of value kept on the worksite
• Remove equipment, tools and other materials from the worksite as soon as they are no longer needed
• Make sure all incidents of theft or vandalism are reported promptly by workers
• Contact local authorities immediately if a theft or vandalism has occurred
• Maintain complete records of all incidents of theft or vandalism
• Reach out to adjoining properties or local neighborhood watch groups and ask them to report any suspicious activity that they see on the worksite

With all or most of these security measures in place, the chances of theft and vandalism to your worksite will be drastically reduced, allowing you to worry about all the other important responsibilities that come with managing a construction project. If you’d like to protect against the financial loss of worksite theft or vandalism, consider purchasing inland marine insurance.

MyWaveConnect is a paid client portal that is available to Fusco and Orsini clients. Why are we offering this? To provide you, our client, with relevant, accurate and time-saving resources all in one place! MyWaveConnect provides a newsfeed of resources such as compliance posters, industry standards, policies like “Return to Work” policies and more, all accessible 24.7.

Here’s how it works:

Once logged in, the home page will display an Ad banner highlighting the latest industry trends and developments.

Located above the Ad Banner, you will find popular content category tabs that will help you explore content related to subjects you are interested in. You can also access these categories by clicking the explore menu option on the left-hand side of the page.

Directly below the Ad Banner is a newsfeed that is frequently updated with relevant and downloadable content and tools that are written and reviewed by a team of professional writers and attorneys. You will also be able to access a variety of industry-specific information including industry standards, compliance posters and more through the newsfeed.

On the right-hand side of the home page, you can view content that has been recently accessed and opened by other members of your company as well as trending topics that other employers are viewing.

On the left-hand side of the page, you will find a search tool that helps you locate content on specific keywords. Once you search for a keyword, you can view recommended content, FAQs, resources, and popular forms and policies.

Also on the left-hand side of the page, beneath the Explore tab, you’ll find the From Your Broker tab. Here you will find resource recommendations personalized to your company based on what the portal knows about your needs.

 Beneath the Explore tab, you will also find the Toolbox tab where you can set up a personalized and easy to navigate calendar of compliance deadlines that include relevant details and links to each event. You can even get email reminders of compliance deadlines.

On the top right-hand side of the page, you will see an HR Hotline button. This button allows you to connect with a team of HR experts available via email and phone to help you with your HR and risk management concerns.

In addition to having access to an abundance of resources, you can also customize email alerts and personalize your portal by tailoring your content to specific topic categories, locations, industries and more. For more details and setting up access to MyWaveConnect, please contact us at (858) 384-1506 or email us at mycoverageteam@foagency.com.