Every worker counts.
Accidents endanger the safety of our employees, and we don’t like that, which is why we became obsessed with eliminating accidents and creating return to work strategies. Using our True Constructible methodology, we devised a robust safety program that saw workplace accidents reduce significantly over the past few years.
Accident: “An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.”
But accidents, by their very definition, will still happen, as will non-workplace related illnesses and injuries, which is why we also became obsessed with perfecting our Return-to-Work (RTW) strategies: to make every worker feel important, cared for and supported during potential financial or psychosocial impacts.
Return to Work: “A process designed to help employees disabled due to illness or injury get back to work in a safe and timely manner.”
True Mechanical’s Return to Work strategies
Injury prevention is the main focus of any health and safety program, but where we’ve found a lot of success is investing in our RTW strategies. These apply to workers off work for any reason, including workplace and non-work-related incidents.
Our safety team coordinates closely with WorkSafeBC claim managers (for workplace incidents), Sunlife and ICBC representatives (for non-work-related injuries) and, most importantly, the injured worker to help ensure they feel engaged and part of the team during their recovery.
Upper management and field leaders also help facilitate the process if a worker is not 100%. Communication with all workplace parties quickly after an incident is key to minimizing lost time and keeping workers engaged at work which has proven to speed up recovery times.
“It’s in all our best interests to do the best we can to provide meaningful work to injured employees. Whether that’s modifying duties/roles, changing sites, and regular check-ins with the worker, we have many options to help a worker’s recovery in a positive manner.”
Benefits of a strong RTW strategy
This initiative’s main benefit and driving force is our workers’ health and recovery. Our workers have faster and better-quality recovery outcomes when integrated at work as soon as possible. Being at work and completing tasks, being surrounded by your team/coworkers, and having an active recovery are all factors that speed up the healing process.
By minimizing lost time, we can limit the downtime of an injured worker. True Mechanical is extremely busy, and labour is at a premium. Being a person down makes tight schedules and timelines even harder and puts more stress on other team members. By accommodating workers with modified duties, we can minimize the production loss of someone being completely away from work.
This can also minimize claim costs, leading to a better WorkSafeBC experience rating. A good safety record is a factor in procuring more work and part of why we are so busy. Some clients only want contractors like True Mechanical, who are Certificate of Recognition (CoR) certified (a voluntary employer certification program). Clients also don’t want to engage contractors with a high WorkSafeBC experience rating and poor safety statistics.
Keeping our workers connected with RTW
Accidents, illness and injuries are issues that require comprehensive solutions. Rather than outsource our claim and injury management to third parties (like some large companies do), we keep it in-house. One of True Mechanical’s core values is “Being Connected,” and we know that having a closer connection with our workers and regular check-ins makes them feel like they are still part of the team. We don’t want anyone to feel like a number or statistic if an injury happens. It’s in our best interests to ensure the injured worker, their team, and the company are cared for.
To learn more about our Health and Safety Program, please contact Michael Ramos.
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