Resources

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the population has been experiencing skyrocketing stress levels. Social distancing and working from home mean people are getting out less and looking at screens more. With all of these factors taking a toll on people's mental and physical health, some organizations are using wellness challenges to help their teams support each other's well-being and try to rebuild healthy habits that might have been lost in the transition to remote work.

It's that time of year again: time for companies to examine their current employee benefits and consider their options for increasing value - preferably without increasing cost. This year, such decisions are further complicated (and made more challenging) by a global pandemic.

Unsurprisingly, many companies are focusing on tools to help employees stay mentally and emotionally healthy while they engage in social distancing to protect their physical health. More and more employers are expanding employee benefits for virtual healthcare (telehealth) and increasing access to programs that will help improve and maintain employees' mental health and well-being.

In order to keep safety a top priority, every organization must develop and implement a systematic approach to investigating work-related accidents. The investigation process begins with fact finding and ends with a report that includes essential information about the incident (accident or near miss) as well as recommendations for preventing such events in the future. By following these four key steps, investigators can ensure that their incident reports are effective tools for the organization.

Few people would argue against the importance of safety in the workplace. Not only does careful attention to safety help companies protect their employees, but it also helps them avoid the negative financial impacts of job site accidents, work-related injuries and deaths, and fines. To keep employees safe and boost their organizational safety culture, many companies have added safety meetings to their normal routines.  

Employers that don’t put a premium on workplace safety can suffer both financial and reputational losses, thanks to work-related injuries or illness. In 2018 alone, work-related injuries cost companies $170.8 billion, broken down as follows:   

• wage and productivity losses of $52.4 billion 
• medical expenses of $35.0 billion 
• administrative expenses of $57.6 billion 
• employers’ uninsured costs of $12.8 billion  
• damage to motor vehicles in work-related injuries of $4.9 billion 
• fire losses of $8.2 billion 

Those figures alone ought to serve as strong enough impetus for any organization to commit to its safety goals. Safety inspections and the subsequent implementation of corrective measures are vital to meeting those objectives.