Why Safety Pays?

The secret to the most effective safety incentive program is NOT the rewards a Company's employees receive as the way they are motivated to do to earn those rewards.

There are important reasons for utilization of a fully-integrated safety incentive program rather than just using simple prize "scratch-off" cards or a generic safety bingo game.

In principle, workers' compensation is a good and necessary requirement. An employee working in the private sector is entitled the security this coverage affords should he suffer harm as the result of an accident.

Unfortunately, what is theoretically a good idea has become a disaster of immense proportion in its execution. What exists today is an institution which rivals only the welfare system in its inability to objectively provide benefits where the need truly exists.

Rather than enact needed reforms, state legislatures have instead broadened injury definitions to include such intangibles as "job stress" and/or "sexual dysfunction"! The inevitable result is a system overburdened by specious claims, and worse, massive abuse.

Meanwhile, private companies are expected to foot the bill via statutory rates increased regularly by state legislatures. Making matters worse, the workers' compensation system has become a favored vehicle for the commission of fraud and misrepresentation, due primarily to the legislative changes mentioned earlier.

Contributing to the problem have been hundreds of legal clinics created by unscrupulous lawyers "to protect worker's rights" when in fact it's nothing but a profit-center designed to take advantage of every loophole. These plaintiffs' attorneys more than aware that most claims (particularly those relating to back pain, stress and cumulative trauma) are extremely difficult to disprove. Quite simply, the way the system works is that if just one doctor verifies an alleged medical problem's existence, the employee is entitled to medical, disability and rehabilitation compensation. It's an atmosphere ripe for collusion and abuse. When a company disputes a claim, its carrier inevitably settles because of the enormous cost of fighting such an action.

In fact, over 99% of those claims denied by companies are settled. Even in those rare instances where a claim's denial is upheld, the law nevertheless requires that all of a claimant's medical costs as well as certain other expenses be reimbursed.

Overall, there has been little if anything the private sector has been able to do to stem the tide of rising claims. Any attempts to fight the problem have either been met with tighter legislative controls or created an atmosphere of hostility and distrust between management and its workforce.

This was the dilemma facing the developer of Safety Pays 20 years ago. He realized the only solution was to create a means by which a company's employees would somehow become as vested in reducing claims as management. The result was the creation and implementation of what was to become the Safety Pays program.

One year after its introduction into the company for which Safety Pays was originally designed, a premium savings of over $140,000 was documented. To date, millions dollars has been saved at this business since the program's implementation. With this success, it became abundantly clear that Safety Pays provided a long sought after solution which thousands of businesses nationwide could utilize.