Safety Network Newsletter
Loss Prevention News Spring 2009
 
Gibson Logo  
 
 
In This Issue
 






Get Your Newsletter As A Podcast

Gibson Insurance Group now offers our newsletters as podcasts!

Enjoy listening to the same great information contained in each edition of our newsletter at your convenience!

Click here to subscribe to the Safety Network Newsletter podcast!
 





This issue of the
Safety Network
is sponsored by:
 

OSHA 300 Log Forms

Any employer who has 10 or more employees is required to post their OSHA 300 log summary by February 1st and keep it posted until April 30th.

During the months of December and January, many employers scramble to create the log and summary. Our recommendation is that you maintain your OSHA logs year-round, which will allow an easier transition of data from the log to the summary.

We also recommend that exempt employers maintain an OSHA log and summary because:

  • OSHA can request this information at any time.
  • OSHA randomly selects employers for their annual survey and the information contained in the log and summary would need to be provided.
  • Bureau of Labor Statistics randomly selects employers and the information contained in the log and summary would need to be provided.

You can obtain the OSHA 300 log and summary by clicking the following link OSHA 300 Log Forms.
What DOT Really Means

Our federal Department of Transportation (DOT) was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, to serve the United States by ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, accessible, and convenient transportation system that meets vital national interests.

Leadership of the DOT is provided by the Secretary of Transportation, who is the principal adviser to the President in all federal matters relating to transportation and oversees the formulation of national transportation policy.

Ray LaHood became the 16th Secretary of Transportation on January 23, 2009. His primary goals for transportation include safety across all modes, restoring economic health and creating jobs, sustainability, shaping the economy of the coming decades by building new transportation infrastructure, and assuring that transportation policies focus on the people and communities who use the transportation system.

The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 was designed to improve highway safety by ensuring that drivers of commercial vehicles are qualified to drive them, and to remove unsafe drivers from the highways. The Act made it illegal to have more than one driver's license: you can hold a regular or a commercial driver's license, but not both; and you can have one license from the state in which you reside, but not from any other state.

While federal regulations establish the framework, each respective state establishes it own regulations for the issuance and maintenance of Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL). Regulations may differ from state to state. If your business operates in more than one state, you may need to compare the regulatory details of each in order to ensure operational compliance in each state. Consider, for example, these differences between Indiana and Michigan:

  • In Michigan you must be at least 16 years old to obtain a CDL. In Indiana you must be at least 21 unless you're employed by a limousine or taxi company, in which case you need be at least 18.
  • To begin the process of obtaining a CDL in Indiana, you must first have a valid Indiana operator's license, but in Michigan you need only prove your Michigan residency.
  • In Michigan, you can be denied a CDL license if you were convicted of any six-point violation in the 24 months immediately preceding application, but not so in Indiana.

Among the special services of Gibson's Driver Administration Risk Reduction Tactics (DARRT) program is a comparison of state regulations applicable to your company's specific needs. Contact us today if we can help you meet the obligations on our nation's highways and byways.

Plant Closing Checklist

In these tough economic times, it's unfortunate, yet more common than ever, for businesses to close their doors. Below is a list of 10 suggested actions to take to help control claim frequency and severity in the final days of a plant operation and after the plant is closed.

  1. Collect Contact Information. Keep a current list of your managers' and employees' contact information - including mailing addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses. You may need their testimony to defend a claim.
  2. Communicate Contact Information. Provide your insurance agent with the names and contact information of the people responsible for personnel files, wage information, payroll, sales audits, and power of attorney.
  3. Keep Employee Injury and Accident Records Current.
  4. Conduct a Claim Review. Review prior claims to identify any issues with open claims. Discuss potential claimants and identify specific areas of the plant that have had claim issues.
  5. Collect Job Descriptions. Make sure complete job descriptions are available for all jobs. Include job standards, average production, and production incentives for each work station. Personnel records should reflect which machine(s) an employee operated.
  6. Perform a Loss Prevention Survey. Find out when the latest loss prevention survey was completed and update it if needed.
  7. Perform a Noise Survey. Find out when the latest noise survey was completed and update it if needed.
  8. Secure a Plant Floor Plan. Keep a current floor plan on file. Make sure it includes a diagram or blueprint of machines.
  9. Take Photos or Video. Take photos or videotape jobs before the shut down.
  10. Add a Question to Your Exit Interview. Ask employees in the exit interview if they have any work-related medical problems.



Layoffs - How To Avoid Adding Insult To Injury

Let's be clear-getting laid off is horrible. It fills the laid off person with uncertainty. It throws a family into turmoil. It makes people doubt their worth and capacity. It spreads mistrust and paralysis through an organization.

Leaders tend to consistently underestimate the costs of layoffs and the price they'll pay to rebuild capacity when things turn around. With that said, there are times an organization's survival demands it. It's better to lose 10 percent of the workforce now than lose 100 percent later.

Acknowledge that no matter how well you plan, there will still be pain. However, there's a big difference between being cut by a surgeon who cares about you and being cut by a mugger in an alley. Far too many organizations behave like muggers during layoffs.

Ever thought of what it would be like to have security guards show up unannounced to your office and stand by while you fill boxes of belongings accumulated over years in a position? It leaves you with a startling sense for the difference between organizational defense and personal dignity. There's no way to alleviate the pain of joblessness, but you can control the insult of the process.

So what turns leaders into surgeons rather than muggers? Nothing reveals a leader's soul more than the way he or she handles necessary dismissals. Unless you are willing to sacrifice time, money, and personal pain in the service of those you are dismissing, you deserve no loyalty from those who remain.

With that as a backdrop, here are some things that can help you avoid adding insult to the injury of layoffs:

  • Be immediately transparent about possibilities and certainties.
  • Feel pain when you deliver pain.
  • Respond to anger with compassion.
  • Be as generous as possible.
  • Replace general insincerity with specific commitments.

If you and your managers demonstrate vulnerability, empathy, and sacrifice in the coming days, you'll get through it without allowing awful necessity to turn into unnecessary alienation.