Baking & Snack - July 2016 - 90

RISK MANAGEMENT

Getting back to work ... quickly
Lost time is different than an injury. Lost time can occur when employees need to take time off because of
a doctor's orders. Sometimes they're unable to work at
their previous positions. Often it requires a bit of creative
thinking - even if it's working in the office instead of on
the plant floor.
"When employees go back to work, it may not be the
job they had before," observed Rick McGrath, partner
and senior-vice president, Lockton Cos. "Ultimately, the
company's goal is to identify jobs where their employees
can get back to work quickly. Now you're paying them
wages instead of a workers' comp claim. As a result, a
return-to-work program is significant, but a lot of companies struggle on what's the best way to get employees to
return to work."
Bakers should be careful in how they reintroduce an
injured person into the workforce, noted Will Giambalvo,
senior vice-president, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. To reduce
the risk of repetitive motion claims, for instance, many
companies incorporate job rotation to give employees a
rest period throughout the shift. "The issue here comes
when you add light duty and put the person who was
injured in the inspection position, which causes additional
stress on the other employees. I discourage doing this."
At Gonnella Baking, getting people back to work requires specific training to reinforce proper procedures and
behavior in the future, according to Liz Marcucci, corporate safety director. She also mentioned that the baking
company has a strong program that strives to get employees back to work as soon as possible.

"People may not recognize all of the indirect costs and
how they may affect their company's profit margins," Mr.
Russell said.
Other indirect costs involve the time spent attending to the injured employee, cleaning up after the accident, investigating the incident, filling out forms and
reworking schedules when the injured employee returns
to work, noted Will Giambalvo, senior vice-president,
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. In fact, he cited a study by the
American Engineering Council that for every $1 spent
on direct costs such as medical care and wage continuation, $4 is lost in productivity.
"So many employees think workers' compensation
does not cost much. We all know it does," Mr. Giambalvo
said. "When the employees know it's more than a few
hundred dollars, they treat it differently."
Maybe that's why putting an accident in terms of
"loaves produced" hits home so effectively for production employees or profit-and-loss for owners, general
managers and supervisors who may receive bonuses
based on a bakery's earnings, noted Rick McGrath, partner and senior vice-president, Lockton Cos.
"A culture of safety needs to be driven at the very
top," Mr. McGrath said. "It needs to be driven by the
CEO, supported with the proper tools for the safety
committee. Every bakery in the country is focused on
how to produce more these days. The successful bakeries announce to their companies that once you develop
a culture of safety, you are going to produce everything
more safely and, in the end, more profitably. When you
look at all of the numbers, you can't make as much profit
if you have workers' comp claims."
Gonnella relies on a multi-tiered safety program that
includes monthly classroom training, weekly safety
newsletters and brief safety reminders before each shift.
Moreover, assistant managers in operations, maintenance and quality assurance conduct regular safety
observations as they monitor production on the floor.
"Before they walk away from an employee, they have
to discuss safety and have the employee sign off that
they had a discussion on what they were doing, right or
wrong," Ms. Marcucci noted.
The most common lost-time incidents - around 80%
of them - come from slips, trips and falls; repetitive
motion claims; and back or other injuries due to lifting,
forklift accidents and more. "Certainly, you have injuries
where people stuck their hand in a piece of equipment
where they shouldn't have, but they're not the most common," Mr. Giambalvo said. "These less-common injuries tend to happen because of a lack of safety culture
Baking equipment relies on a variety of safety features to protect employees in
the workplace environment.

90 Baking & Snack July 2016 / www.bakingandsnack.com

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Baking & Snack - July 2016

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