Risk Management - Proper Safety Measure Allocation

Saturday, August 3, 2002 | 0

Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, the second largest workers' compensation insurance company in the nation according to the most recent A.M. Best statistics, published its 2002 safety index in April. The "2002 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index" not only provides important information for those engaged in public policy debate, but there is relevant data for those who design and implement work place safety programs as well.

The Liberty Mutual study ranks the 10 leading causes of work place injuries, in order, as: (1) overexertion, (2) fall on the same level, (3) bodily reaction, (4) fall to lower level, (5) struck by object, (6) repetitive motion, (7) highway accidents, (8) struck against object, (9) caught in or compressed by equipment, and (10) contact with temperature extremes.

One of the more interesting observations from this study is that repetitive motion, which for quite some time had been a focus of risk management concern, is much less problematic than many other injury causes. The number one cause (overexertion -- injuries from excessive lifting, pushing, pulling, etc., of objects) results in 25.5 percent of injuries - and the top 5 causes result in 64.1 percent of injuries. Compare this to repetitive motion, which causes 6.7 percent of injuries.

However, what is more interesting about the study is that part of the publication devoted to a survey of risk managers. Public opinion is that repetitive motion is the number one cause of worker injuries. This leads Liberty Mutual to conclude that perhaps the resources being devoted to ergonomics are misallocated, and the public policy debate is an overreaction.

Business people are also misinformed on many other facets of safety and work injury causes, ranking, for example, falls as the seventh leading cause of accidents rather than the second.

Risk management decisions made on perception and emotion rather than knowledge and analysis result in a misallocation of resources. Thus, rather than reducing risk, risks stay the same, or may even increase. With work comp premiums going through the ceilings, not enough can be said for an appropriate analysis of the safety management programs implemented in the work place.

Organizations have limited resources to devote to work place safety, yet appropriate safety measures are one of the most important facets to ensuring control over workers' compensation costs. Risk management's job is to ensure that what few resources are available are allocated where they will do the most good.