Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Greg Garcia, Account Executive in the Landscape Group with Rancho Mesa, discuss the importance of implementing a stretch and mobility program.

Show Notes: Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter

Director/Host: Alyssa Burley

Guest: Greg Garcia

Producer/Editor: Lauren Stumpf

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

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, everyone. My guest is Greg Garcia, Account Executive in the Landscape Group with Rancho Mesa. Greg specializes in providing commercial insurance and risk management to the lawn and landscape industry. Today, we're going to discuss the importance of implementing a stretch and mobility program. Greg, thank you for joining me.

GG: Alyssa, thanks for having me. I think this is the first podcast in the new studio?

AB: It's actually the second.

GG: Ok.

AB: We did record one yesterday.

GG: All right.

AB: But it's the first time that you've been in the studio.

GG: Yes, and you know, the Santee studio one was great. I think this is a bit of an upgrade here in Mission Valley. We talked about the plant that made it from Santee-

AB: Unharmed.

GG: Yeah, happy the plant got here okay, but, yeah, really excited to be here and talking about a pretty cool topic here with the stretch and mobility.

AB: Yeah, absolutely. So, we know that strains are one of the top worker's compensation injuries affecting landscape companies. And the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that back strains account for almost 20% of all worker's compensation injuries. For someone who helps the lawn and landscape companies manage their risk, what does this data tell you?

GG: Yeah, so taking a look at that data, it's kind of showing that maybe there's not enough preventive measures being taken to try to help reduce some of these claims. You know, for our landscape clients, a lot of their employees are getting out of bed early, getting on to job sites early, but they're missing a pretty important step. And that would be stretching their bodies and making sure that, you know, their bodies are physically engaged and ready to go for the day's work. So, I think they're missing a pretty big step in stretching before they get out there to those job sites and doing all the activity for the day.

AB: Yeah, and if an employer wants to implement a stretch and mobility program to reduce those strains, when might they actually do those stretches?

GG: Yeah, I think there's probably two really good options there that one would be at the morning huddle. So this would be the case where employees are meeting at the yard before they go to job sites and they're maybe in a group setting. Maybe, hopefully, they're discussing maybe a safety tailgate topic for that day. And then at the end of the meeting, you know, I've seen some of our clients where they'll get an employee to get in the middle and kind of engage the rest of the group into a stretching mobility program to make sure the guys and the employees are ready to go for the day's work. The other option would be if you're not doing the morning huddle and maybe employees are just showing up to the yard and getting into their trucks and heading out to the job sites would be doing it at the job site itself. That would be another opportunity. The common theme on both of these accounts would be that they're engaging in a stretch a mobility program before they're doing any kind of physical labor for that day to try to help reduce some of these strains that are happening in the worker's compensation activity.

AB: Yeah, so depending on how the employees meet in the morning, they could pick the time and location that works best for them. So, does Rancho Mesa have a program that clients can use?

GG: Yeah, we developed a stretch and mobility program and we actually collaborated with a personal trainer to try to help put this program together for us. And what we wanted him to do was to kind of come in here and create a program that was going to be easy, a quick 3 to 5 minutes, and something that our landscapers and our other clients could use before they went out for the day's work. The nice thing about our program is that it's available in English and in Spanish. It has pictures of all the exercises that are being performed as well as a description below the pictures. We see some of our landscape clients printing them out, double siding them, laminating them, and then putting them in each of the vehicles. That way, there's really no excuse for when somebody shows up to a job site to not perform the stretches. So, we definitely have something here at Rancho Mesa and we're proud of it. And we are trying to implement it with all of our clients that we can.

AB: Yeah, and it sounds like we also have two different versions, right?

GG: Yeah.

AB: One with a truck and one without?

GG: Exactly. Yeah. So, to kind of go over both of those options there. We did one at the morning huddle, we just have kind of a stretch and mobility program for that. And then, we also created another one that kind of implements the truck to be used at job sites where the employees are actually using the truck itself to help stretch them and get ready for the day. Again, both of these options are great and the most important thing is both of these options are being done before the employees engage in any physical activity. So, really important there.

AB: Absolutely. And plus, our clients can use the SafetyOne™ mobile app to show that they've actually completed the morning stretch. So, whether they document that the individuals who participated in the stretch, you know, they document their names or they could literally just take a photo of the group doing the stretches and that helps to keep people accountable. But, what I've seen over the years is that employees may initially not want to participate in the morning stretches, but then over time, there's a shift. They start to feel better. They don't get hurt and they want to do the stretches. Even some of the long timers, you know, they might be a little bit resistant at first, but then after a while they're like, no, no, no, I need to do my stretches before I can work.

GG: Exactly. No, and that's a great point. That's what we've been talking to our clients about, too, is really getting key employees to kind of buy into this. And it's going to be a part of the culture and a part of the organizations, like this is what we do here. You know, we stretch before we go out and engage in these physical activities. And that's really, really important to not only create a safer environment, but potentially lead to less claim activity, which lowers the experience mod, and then also it reduces work comp premiums in the future. So, really good point by you, Alyssa.

AB: Yeah, absolutely. So, for business owners who have not implemented a stretch and mobility program, what do you recommend that they do to get started?

GG: Yeah, I would say, get it going right away. Get it going today, don't wait. Start to try to create this program, get online, look at different programs, engage with your current insurance professional, see if they have anything available. If they don't, you can always reach me at 619-438-6905, or just shoot me an email at ggarcia@ranchomesa.com and I'd be happy to help you out.

[Outro Music]

AB: Perfect. Well, Greg, thank you so much for joining me in StudioOne™.

GG: Yeah, Alyssa, thanks for having me. Great to be here in the Mission Valley, StudioOne™.

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.