Workers’ Compensation Insurance
What if you could cut down on injury and illness in your workplace while also reducing workers’ compensation premiums?
When you work with a local, knowledgeable, and committed insurance partner, like HUB International, you can make both of these aspirations come true. Our business insurance professionals are here to do much more than just offer assurance that you’re meeting your workers’ compensation insurance requirements. We want to support you with one of your major areas of responsibility – keeping your employees safe on the job.
Why should this be an important goal for both you and your insurance professional? Well, for one reason, when work-related injuries and illnesses decrease, businesses like yours can experience the financial benefits of a safer and healthier workplace, which often include significant reductions in your workers’ compensation premiums.
In fact, according to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act), employers who have been proactive with workplace safety have seen remarkable results that go well beyond fewer accidents, including:
- Transformation of company culture
- Higher productivity and quality
- Reduced turnover
- Reduced costs
- Greater employee satisfaction
Implementing An Injury and Illness Prevention Program In The Workplace
So, how exactly does a business owner like yourself attack the problem of occupational injuries and illness? It’s not as complicated as you might think. There are actually just a handful of pretty commonsense steps that we think you should consider, that is if you haven’t done them already:
- Focus on finding all hazards in the workplace
- Develop a plan for preventing and controlling these hazards
- Actively involve managers and staff at all levels to ensure that all hazards are identified and addressed
- Train all employees on how to prevent workplace injury and illness
- Periodically evaluate your program to determine if improvements need to be made
There is no one-size-fits-all injury and illness prevention program, because every business is different, so you will need to scale and adapt these elements to meet the needs of your organization, depending on size, industry, and complexity of operations.
Workers’ Compensation Insurance Plays An Important Role In Any Workplace Safety Program
Despite four decades of double-digit declines in workplace deaths and reported occupational injuries, there still is no “cure” for work-related accidents. According to OSHA:
- Every year, more than 4.1 million workers suffer a serious job-related injury or illness.
- Every day, more than 12 workers die on the job – over 4,500 a year.
At HUB International, we specialize, across New England and beyond, in understanding each states’ laws to help ensure that your business has the required coverage and no critical gaps.
In addition, as one of the largest and privately-owned, independent insurance agents in Massachusetts, we choose to work with a selection of the top-rated workers’ compensation carriers and we use only the most cutting-edge business technology and tools. This enables us to identify the companies that will offer your business the best coverage options at the most reasonable price and that will deliver the high standard of service HUB International and you expect.
Our ability to work throughout New England also means that we are able to ensure that your policies will grow with you; if your business opens an office, property or operations facility in another state, our insurance team will make certain that your business and employees in this new location have the same thorough workers’ compensation coverage plan.
The Benefits Of Having A Solid Workplace Safety and Insurance Plan In Place
There is no question that programs designed to limit workplace injury and illness are inherently valuable. However, when you consider that an effectively implemented prevention program can help both workers and employers avoid the financial hardship that often accompanies these work-related incidents, then you realize, as a business owner, that this really should be a high-level priority for any company.
At HUB International, we liken the costs of an on-the-job accident to the hidden part of an iceberg, that massive chunk of ice that you can’t see underneath the water’s surface and that can sink ships the size of the Titanic. With workplace injuries and illnesses, the visible, or direct, cost is probably pretty obvious to you – you pay workers’ compensation premiums to cover medical and other related expenses. However, are you as clear about the indirect costs of such an event? These expenses, detailed below, can take huge bites out of your company’s budget and impact many other valuable resources, like your workers’ time and motivation:
- Wages paid to injured/ill workers for absences not covered by workers’ compensation
- Wage costs related to time lost through work stoppage
- Administrative time spent by supervisors following injuries and staff to deal with claims
- Employee training and replacement costs
- Lost productivity related to new employee learning curves and accommodation of injured employees
- Replacement costs of damaged material, machinery and property
Some states, including several that HUB International serves such as Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, have gone so far as to establish laws or regulations designed to require or encourage injury and illness prevention programs. Many of these states have created financial incentives for employers to implement these programs, in many cases providing or facilitating workers’ compensation insurance premium reductions for employers who establish programs meeting specified requirements. However, just as with Workers’ Compensation Insurance, itself, each state has its own regulations and whether your state’s program applies to you will depend on your company’s size, industry, and past accident history or experience modification rate.
That’s why it’s so important to work with a company that not only has extensive experience with your state’s Workers’ Compensation Insurance system, but also has broad knowledge of risk management and loss control best practices. The HUB International team provides this additional expertise at no additional cost to our customers. Our Risk Management and Loss Control Services include:
- Analyzing your Workers’ Compensation Experience Modification (Mod) Rating to help identify patterns that can be reduced
- Reducing the likelihood of claims by identifying ways you can change your business workflows or safety guidelines without interrupting functionality
- Monitoring workers’ comp claims and tracking them until they are resolved to help reduce your businesses policy premium
- And more…
Yes, almost every company is legally obligated to have Workers’ Compensation Insurance, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have options. You can choose to save time, money, and perhaps a lot of headaches by selecting a partner who is going to go above and beyond for you, your business, and your employees. Please feel free to contact HUB International for help making an informed decision about your workers’ compensation insurance program and for support with a healthier, safer workplace.
If you are ready for a more personal relationship with a trusted insurance agent who is always looking out for you and your business, then call us today at 833-GoCallHUB or stop into either of our two convenient Massachusetts offices.
Did You Know?
Workers’ Compensation Insurance is a separate insurance policy – and not part of your BOP (Business Owners Policy)
Workers’ Compensation provides important coverage when a workplace accident happens, regardless of who is at fault, including:
- Medical care for the injured/ill worker
- Partial compensation for income the injured/ill employee loses while unable to return to work
- A death benefit for the worker’s dependents in extreme cases
- Protection for employers from lawsuits by the injured/ill worker
Again, it’s critical that businesses understand their state’s specific workers’ compensation system, because no two states have the exact same laws or regulations. The business insurance professionals at HUB International are here to help you determine your workers’ compensation insurance needs, as dictated by your state, and to assist you in handling claims, resolving disputes, controlling costs, and most important, preventing accidents before they happen.
