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Safety Tips From the Pros 
If you want to improve your jump shot, talk to basketball great Lisa Leslie. If you need investment advice, Donald Trump’s your guy. If you’re an employer who wants to improve your safety program, a few fellow Texas Mutual Insurance Company policyholders can help. This fall, the company’s loss prevention department issued its second annual safety recognition awards. Loss ratio, premium size and hazard class were factors in qualifying for an award. Here are some of our winners’ tips for helping keep your employees safe and on the job.
Southside Wrecker Inc. • Austin
“Our employees know that they can call us 24/7 to report safety hazards, and they won’t be reprimanded. For example, if they think the brakes on a truck are bad, we expect them to report it. We don’t want that truck to leave the station until we know it’s road-ready. 
Once you establish trust in your safety program, the training and other steps you take are more effective. We start with a thorough new-hire safety orientation. We review the hazards of the job and teach the safest way to do each task. The new-hire orientation includes safe driving practices. They are obviously important in our line of business, so we reinforce them during the year. The training includes how to conduct twice-a-day vehicle inspections. If you have walk-in customers, there’s always the risk of workplace violence. Some of our customers are understandably not happy when they come to pick up their vehicle. We installed bullet-proof glass and extra security on our doors to protect our office staff. From there, it’s all about constant repetition of the safety message. We hold monthly safety meetings where we review accidents and talk about how we could have avoided them.”
Location Builders Inc. • Sonora
“Every employee attends regularly scheduled safety meetings. We review real-life safety hazards and discuss the safest ways to respond. That way, we get immediate feedback from our employees, and we take corrective actions. The process works better with incentives. We offer periodic bonuses for group safety achievements, as well as end-of-year individual bonuses. When employees do get hurt, we have a return-to-work program to get them back on the job. We coordinate with treating doctors to identify alternative productive duties that injured workers can do while they recover. We also offer modified duty to employees who suffer injuries that are not work-related. Our efforts have paid off. We have very little downtime due to injuries, which keeps us competitive. By controlling our claim costs, we’ve saved on our workers’ comp premiums. We also shaved our premium by joining the Texas Oil & Gas Association group discount program. We’ve used our premium savings, plus the policyholder dividends we have earned, to fund a comprehensive employee health insurance package.”
Missouri Valley Inc. • Amarillo
“We started by getting management buy-in. We are truly fortunate to have management and front-line supervisors who take their role in our safety program seriously. They take the lead and show, through their actions, that they support our employees. As a result, our employees know that their supervisors care and are truly concerned about them and their safety. They trust that they have the right to stop any activity if they feel unsafe. Achieving our safety record was not easy, and it did not happen overnight. If you involve your employees in your decisions, they will contribute to the success of your safety program and, in turn, your company.”
SACHEM Inc. • Austin
“When you miss a shipment, people tend to get over it. Serious injuries are never forgotten. We’re in a pretty high-volume setting. Our employees tend to get in a hurry. We train them to work at a pace that allows them to think about what they’re doing and practice the safe work habits we teach. Like a lot of companies, we have a new-employee orientation process. Our folks are exposed to a lot of dangerous chemicals. We cover HAZMAT regulations and the importance of wearing personal protective equipment. We don’t let them start work until they complete the training and show that they understand it. Management commitment is vital. We hold everyone accountable for following safety regulations.”
Improve your safety program
This website includes tools to help you prevent workplace accidents and control their costs when they do happen. The Safety and Return-to-Work section includes downloadable return-to-work kits for large and small businesses. The safety resource center offers interactive tools that make it easy to:
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Winter 2007