Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Account Executive Amber Webb talk about the top five workers’ compensation claims that are impacting MEP contractors’ bottom line. 

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Director/Producer/Host: Alyssa Burley

Guest: Amber Webb

Editor: Lauren Stumpf

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

© Copyright 2021. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript

[Introduction Music]

Alyssa Burley:  Hi, this is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa’s Media Communications and Client Services Department. Thank you for listening to today's top Rancho Mesa news brought to you by our Safety and Risk Management Network, StudioOne™.

Welcome back. My guest today is Amber Webb, Account Executive with Rancho Mesa. She specializes in providing risk management and insurance to mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors. Today, we’re going to talk about the top five workers’ compensation claims that are impacting MEP contractors’ bottom line.  Amber, welcome to the show.

Amber Webb: Hi Alyssa, thank you so much for having me on the show today. I’m really excited to join the podcast world. [Laughs]

AB: If you’re an MEP contractor who’s listening and wants to impact both your productivity and profitably, then this episode is crucial for your success.  Our MEP Group at Rancho Mesa understands the importance of identifying the workers’ compensation claims that impact your specific industry and provide pertinent resources to help mitigate those risks.

So Amber, how did you identify the top claims affecting contractors in your industry?

AW: Well, we worked with the claims departments from leading workers’ compensation carriers and analyzed data provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is OSHA, to identify the top five workers’ compensation claims affecting specifically the MEP industry.

AB: I’m sure the carriers had some valuable data showing the types of claims that they’re seeing from MEPs.  I think we’ll be able to provide some resources to help prevent them from happening to our clients’ employees.

Okay so, what are the top most common workers’ compensation claims we’re seeing from MEP contractors?

AW: Unfortunately, none of these came as a surprise and all are actually preventable, so that part’s good. The data shows that cuts, punctures, scrapes and lacerations are pretty common.  So, wearing proper PPE like well-fitting gloves, long sleeves, pants, those can help mitigate these risks.

AB: I know sometimes employees will take off their bulky gloves in order to get into a tight spot or they can’t grasp something because the gloves are too thick, so making sure employees have the right type of glove that fits them is key to getting employees to wear them.

AW: Yeah, that’s exactly right, Alyssa. Another top claim is we were seeing is slips and falls. And that includes both from the same level and from a ladder or scaffolding.  Again, these claims can be prevented with proper training. In fact, one of our tier of our Safety Star program is specific to Ladder Safety which would be a great training for MEP employees.

AB: Absolutely, not only do we have trainings specifically for slips and falls, ladders and scaffolding, but we also have training on jobsite housekeeping, which is something that’s everyone’s responsibility.

AW: That’s a good point. Yeah, we also found that strains from lifting, handling, pushing and pulling are also a problem. Again, utilizing training to avoid these types of claims is key.  One of our programs in Safety Star is also Mobility & Stretch/A.B.L.E. Lift Protocol which is designed to warm up the body and muscles before the employee starts working to prevent those soft tissue injuries. And I know from my collegiate soccer days and even now, every morning when I go to the gym, I always try to dedicate time for warming up and stretching so I also prevent injuries for myself. [Laughs] So, getting your employees to adopt this concept will certainly help prevent future strains.   

AB: Yeah, and listeners can register for the Mobility & Stretch/A.B.L.E. Lift Protocol & Ladder Safety webinars on our website. We’ll put links in the episode notes. And, they are both part of our RM365 Advantage Safety Star™ program, for clients who are listening and want to take the courses as part of their certificate program.

What other claims did you find?

AW: We also saw a lot of incidents where the employee was struck by an object or had a foreign body in their eye. 

I can’t stress this enough, training is key to ensuring your employees don’t have to go through an incident like this.  Wear proper PPE and ensure everyone on the jobsite is aware of their surroundings.  Whether you need a spotter when equipment or materials are being moved, or a policy spelling out how to safely move materials, training is really the best way to prevent these types of injuries. Also, I know from my past experience working as a Safety, Health and Environmental Technician in the ship yards, not only is training necessary, but wearing the proper PPE is extremely important. We had an employee that took off his safety glasses on one of our jobs and hard hat to position himself in a space that was a pretty tight overhead area, but when doing that, he moved some of the temporary ducting that was overhead and a piece of scrap metal fell directly into his eye. It was pretty bad. Had he left on his PPE on, although it would have made his maneuver a little more difficult, it would have prevented him from getting metal in his eye. And I don’t know about you, but I know I only get this one set of eyes and I don’t want to do anything to mess them up.

AB: Absolutely, so Amber, these are all injuries that occur on the jobsite. Did you see any evidence that injuries from auto accidents are an issue for MEP contractors?

AW: Yes, motor vehicle accidents where the employee was injured is something that all MEP contractors need to think about as well.  Employees are driving to the jobsite and there’s always a chance they could be injured in an auto accident.  But there’s also ways to help mitigate that risk. We have a lot of driver training available to our clients, along with fleet safety training for management. I know also the day and age that we’re living in, the amount of distracted driving out there is alarming. So, this may be slightly off topic but one of our clients, recently we were able to take a look at all their past auto claims and determined a trend in rear-end accidents. Some of the accidents were from their employees rear-ending other vehicles and others were where they were being rear-ended by another driver. Luckily, for these claims, the employees were not actually injured so they were auto claims rather than work comp claims, but our Client Services team was able to move distracted driver trainings to the top of their training list in their Risk Management Center portal. Which is really great. It’s a service that we can provide for others as well, we would just need access to loss runs and I would highly suggest that everyone take advantage of these resources that are available with the Rancho Mesa team.

AB: Amber, if listeners have questions about how to prevent these types of workers’ compensation claims, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

AW: Yeah, listeners can reach me at (619) 486-6562 or they can email me at awebb@ranchomesa.com.

AB: Amber, thank you for joining me in StudioOne™.

[Closing Music]

AW: Thanks so much for having me today Alyssa. I really did have a blast on my first podcast. [Laughs]

AB: This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa. Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. For more information, visit us at ranchomesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.