Adecco’s Risk Management team is transforming workplace safety and earning industry recognition.

What can a belt tell you about workplace safety? Smart belts, a small piece of tech that attaches and tracks a worker’s full range of movement, notes every bend, twist, and turn. For the Risk Management team at Adecco, it’s a tool to better understand a worksite and each employee’s role.

For lifting and repetitive motions, the most common causes of workplace injuries, these smart belts are used to address a problem before an injury happens – usually with just a simple fix. At one customer site, a belt tracked a worker with a light work responsibility as constantly bending more than 60 degrees, a physical stressor that can lead to an injury. After a closer look, the Adecco team realized that as part of her duty of attaching labels to packages, the worker needed to reach over a large table to get to the printer. The repeated bending throughout the day was fixed by just moving the printer closer to her.

“With the smart technology, we could see there was an issue with body mechanics before she had an injury – and made the change,” said Susan Shemanski, VP of Risk Management.

At Adecco, rethinking workplace safety means using cutting-edge tech and tools along with a deep knowledge of safety. Adecco was one of three winners of the 2021 Works’ Comp Risk Management Award for Excellence. Named by NU Property & Casualty magazine, the annual award honors innovators in the risk management and workers’ comp insurance industries.

Adecco was spotlighted for its partnership with hundreds of clients, providing guidance and a high-quality program to promote safety and implement training at sites across the country.

“We take safety as seriously as our clients do,” Shemanski explained. “We feel that’s part of our responsibility to make sure that associates are doing jobs correctly and safely.”

The team’s award signifies their dedication to keeping costs and injuries to a minimum as well as their commitment to the smart approach to workplace safety. For customers, this can help keep injuries off their OSHA logs and avoid compliance audits from the OSHA agency, which Shemanski notes have become much stricter under Biden.

“Compliance auditors come out to make sure everything is perfect, but they’re always looking to find something wrong,” Shemanski said. “Companies want to keep their workers safe and their workplace running efficiently – and protect their reputation.”

Prioritizing behavior-based safety

Using mobile apps, the Risk Management team is able to conduct 6,000 safety visits a year to shine a light on potential workplace issues.

Our experts guide both the employer and workers through how their job can be best performed and how they can avoid any dangerous behavior. The team also conducts job safety analysis, looking at the jobs responsible for most onsite injuries and examining every step of those employees’ work process. Recommendations can be as basic as replacing old standing mats, others are a little more surprising. Shemanski recalls one instance where they realized that employee workstations were built to accommodate men’s heights and ergonomic needs. However, this specific customer happened to employ a workforce with a high percentage of much shorter women. An adjustment needed to be made in the packaging area to accommodate their workers’ actual average height.

In addition to onsite training and videos, the Adecco Risk Management team conducts ergonomic site visits (something which can run $10,000 for customers on their own). The ergonomic evaluations provide key recommendations for safety improvements at a site.

“Now is at a really good time to have a partner like Adecco who is willing to invest in safety – the shortage of workers has made temporary workers a great option for staffing a workplace. It is important to have a partner that can help you improve your safety through a focus on proper ergonomics and behavior-based safety.”

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Workplace safety regulations are getting stricter. Effective January 1, 2022, California Senate Bill 606 will dramatically expand OSHA’s enforcement powers, meaning stringent fines for employers who fall foul of their OSHA compliance responsibilities. And although the new law is state-level, California tends to set the bar when it comes to workplace safety. So, employers coast to coast had better take note.

Below, learn what changes are ahead, why the new Occupational Safety and Health Administration laws are coming, and how to turn workplace safety into a profitability driver at your company.

What types of violations will be subject to the new OSHA fines?

There are two new categories of violations – “Enterprise-wide” and “Egregious.” Senate Bill 606 creates a presumption that an “enterprise-wide” violation has been committed if an employer has a written policy or procedure that violates current OSHA workers’ rights, or, if there’s a pattern or practice of the same on-site health and safety violation involving more than one location. (Things like known hazards that employers haven’t taken action to fix, persistently high worker injury or illness rates, or a record of consistently working people over 60 hours a week.)

Why is this change a big deal for companies operating in California?

Because the fines are massively more expensive! Traditionally, when Cal/OSHA found an on-site health and safety violation, it would fine an employer for that instance only. But now, it can slap fines on multiple sites based on one violation – and for every time an employee is exposed – without investigating other sites or observing other violations. And considering that each violation can incur fines up to $124,709, that’s a huge multiplier effect.

Why should employers outside of California pay attention?

California is known as a leader in worker rights. As such, labor laws often start in California and move on out to the East Coast. Senate Bill 606 is one of a whole host of new Californian labor laws that come into play next month. Employers across America should take note and make adjustments to comply with California safety standards.

What’s the reasoning behind this new law?

Today’s labor crunch means unprecedented safety challenges for American employers. And an alarming uptick in workplace-related injuries, accidents, and illnesses. In the scramble to fill millions of jobs, we’re seeing multiple staffing companies operating on the same shop floors. This makes it difficult for employers to ensure that all workers are pre-screened, skill-tested, and drug and background checked. Unfortunately, this has meant that workplace accidents and illnesses are on the rise. And that’s why we’re seeing more stringent on-site health and safety measures to uphold OSHA workers’ rights.

What can employers do to get ahead of the changes?

Employers with strong on-site health and safety cultures will already be one step ahead in complying with the California safety standards. Ensuring staffing solutions are streamlined and well-managed is paramount. Adecco is the ideal partner for employers navigating this minefield because we’re just as invested in worker safety as they are. We keep abreast of every piece of Cal/OSHA news and send our safety team out and offer on-site training to ensure ongoing OSHA compliance.

“At Adecco, we’re experts in helping employers with large contingent workforces and multiple staffing vendors in complying with California safety standards and OSHA workers’ rights,” says Susan Shemanski, Vice President of Risk Management at Adecco USA. “We have a great safety team who can help identify areas of concern, and train on-site teams and managers.”

Visit Adecco USA for more advice on all aspects of building a safe, healthy, and inclusive workplace. From helping you get your workers safely back to a physical workplace, to promoting mental health at work, to sourcing temperature takers, we can help you build the resilient, flexible, and engaged workforce you need.

Visit our employer resources pages for articles, white papers, case studies and more. And talk to us about making your workforce the best it can be.

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The post Big violations, big fines: What to know about California’s new OSHA laws appeared first on Paragon Strategic Staffing.