Tag: Safety Program

How can I Lower my Workers Compensation Insurance Premium?

Workers compensation insurance premium is often a large portion of overall property and casualty insurance costs. Many business owners look at the workers compensation premium and wonder how they can reduce the overall cost of the insurance policy. The following ideas can help reduce your costs and hopefully help make your business more profitable.

Make sure you are classified properly

Business will have a classification code determined by National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) or some cases the State will have a slightly different number that is used by insurance carriers to rate workers compensation insurance premium. For Example one way to reduce your cost is to take advantage of standard exceptions to the code classification. Employees who perform clerical duties and are physically separate from manufacturing operations may be classified as clerical employees with a much lower rate. Make sure the classification for your employees is appropriate.

Monitor your loss control and safety programs

Loss Control and Safety is critical for preventing losses in the workplace. Set the expectation in your safety manual. Follow up by reminding employees of safe practices including lifting, distracted driving, and the hazard of wet floors. Scheduled safety meetings and incentive programs should be used to promote workplace safety. Decreasing losses will reduce your overall insurance costs.

Develop an effective return-to-work program 

Develop a return to work program. Having injured employees staying at home collecting workers compensation will raise your costs on premiums and also on additional labor you will need to hire while that person is out. A way to get your injured employee to return to work as soon as possible is to create a temporary position for that person. You can give them duties that are not taxing on the body so that they will still be able to recover while they are working.

Speak with your agent about adding a deductible

Evaluate the benefit of adding a deductible to your Workers’ Compensation program. A deductible provides an immediate credit to the workers compensation insurance premium calculation. Additionally, losses under the deductible will not be reported to NCCI and will cause a reduction in your experience modification. Be sure to analyze the cost of funding your deductible.

Notice if there is a pattern to workers compensation claims. Determine if certain areas of your business have fewer claims than others, and determine why the risk is lesser or greater in different areas. Reduce risk by duplicating safe behaviors and programs and eliminating risky behaviors.. Eliminate workplace hazards that have caused an employee to get sick or injured so it doesn’t happen again. Some carriers will even provide help in this area. 

Report claims ASAP

Report Claims as soon as possible! Provide medical attention quickly if an employee is injured, as prompt medical attention may reduce complications that may arise from delayed care. Complications can make workers’ compensation claims more expensive, which may increase insurance premiums.Statistics prove that losses reported 24 hours or more after the loss are more expensive than those reported promptly. Managing your Workers’ Compensation program carefully can save money and improve your bottom line.

These are just a few ideas that can help you in either keeping your premiums low or driving them down. Every business wants to be more profitable and it can be as simple as investing in work place safety that could get you started in the right direction.

 

6 things an underwriter loves to see when quoting commercial insurance.

For most small business owners, purchasing insurance is not one of their favorite things to do. Most business owners would rather be involved in the day to day operations of what their business does to make a profit. Taking a little extra time before you pick up the phone to get a quote can make all the difference in the world when you are offered a quote.  Here are 6 things to keep in mind when speaking with your agent about a business insurance quote.

Small Business Insurance

Have your info.

Everyone wants a quote and they want it quick, but insurance is not a business in which a company can quote a price on the drop of a hat. Proper tax id number, your experience modification rating and accurate payroll figures make the process much quicker for an agent to get a quote from the underwriter. If you don’t have this information a carrier cannot and will not offer you a quote. to save yourself and the carrier some time, have this information ready before you start looking around for coverage.

Safety programs are in place

Safety programs can be expensive and time consuming, but they absolutely benefit your company in many ways. First and foremost, they lower the amount and severity of injuries that occur to your employees. Second they limit the amount of time it takes injured employees to return-to-work. Third it can impact what you pay in premium for commercial insurance. If and when you have an injured employee, your insurance agent can negotiate on your behalf with your insurance carrier to not raise your rate on premium because of the claim. If a detailed safety plan is in place the carrier might see this one incident as more of an outlier and not a sign of how the business operates. If there is not a safety plan in place your business is much more likely to have your rates go up or be dropped by your carrier altogether.

A thorough and accurate website

The accuracy of your website is extremely important. Your agent is going to have a conversation with you about your operations. During this conversation it is important to tell him not only what your business does, but more importantly what your business does not do. Your website needs to match up with this description.  If you run a landscaping business that does not work on trees, but your website offers tree services than an underwriter is going to wonder what else you are not telling them. This is a great way to get a higher premium or more likely be denied coverage altogether.

A detailed payroll history

I know you may not like giving away too much information about your business, but the more accurate this number is that you give to your agent the more accurate your quote will be.  This will all get straightened out during an end of term audit, but it is best to prevent over or underpaying on premium by giving accurate numbers to your carrier up front.

Don’t be a rate jumper

A business who seems to change carriers every year at the slightest drop in premium. Carriers want to establish a long term relationship with a customer. If you have several carriers over the last few years it may be a red flag that those carriers dropped your business or that the carrier may only have your business for one term. Unless your payroll is extremely high it may not be financial sound for them to quote you.

 

Don’t forget, in the end they work for you

If you forget a few pieces of information that are necessary for a quote than it might be expected for the agent or underwriter to be a bit frustrated. But never forget that these people work for you. If they make you feel too uncomfortable do not hesitate to walk out and speak with another agency or carrier. Do what you feel is best for your business.

6 Questions to consider when purchasing Commercial Insurance.

What is the difference between Workers’ Compensation and Employers Liability Insurance when it comes to a commercial insurance policy?

First and foremost, Workers Comp is the one commercial insurance policy that is  required by law in most states. Workers comp covers injuries that happen to your employees that occur as a part of the normal business operations. It pays for medical costs and some lost wages. Typically, 60 percent of the wages are paid depending on the particular plan. Employers liability is a part within a work comp plan that that deals with most types of liability that are not associated with lost wages or medical costs. Most commonly this is the cost of a lawsuit. If you have an employee who is hurt on the job and they sue on top of their workers’ comp coverage for damage caused by you or your business these costs can be covered by an employer’s liability portion of a workers’ compensation insurance policy.

What is one type of insurance that many business owners turn down that they frequently regret when claims occur?

Business loss of income coverage is one that many fail to see the value of unfortunately until it is too late. The most basic example of the need for this coverage is when a fire occurs. The general liability or commercial property policy will cover the cost to rebuild your premise, but they will not pay for lost revenue and employee wages while your business is closed to rebuild. If a business cannot withstand several weeks or a few months without revenue this frequently is when they are forced to close altogether. Fortunately, this coverage is usually a part of a business owners package. When businesses by the package they usually are fully insured for these types of losses.

How does a well-documented safety program effect what I pay for a commercial insurance policy?

The main way safety programs can help is when you are asking for credits or discounts and when you are challenging your experience modifier after a claim. If you have had a claim and you have a well-documented safety program in place your agent can use this as evidence that the occurrence was an outlier and not a sign of more incidents to come.

How does my businesses claims history effect what I pay for Workers’ Compensation Insurance?

Your claims history is part of the formula insurance carriers use to come up with your experience modification rating. This rating determines how much of a risk your business is to insure and it is the main factor carriers take in to account when they are deciding to insure your business or not, as well as how much to charge your business in premium. This and the businesses workers comp codes are the main controllable factors insurance carriers use to determine premium rates.

When should I consider going with Pay as You Go Workers’ Compensation?

Seasonal or cash flow strapped companies benefit best from a Pay as You Go Program. This program allows you to pay a small portion of the premium up front and then the rest is due in monthly installments based on your monthly payroll. It helps to free up cash on the front end of the policy period and it prevents excessive audits on the back end of the policy period.

Where can I go to get help when a claim occurs on my businesses commercial insurance policy?

Actually your carrier is the best person to contact with a claim, but it is always a good idea to keep your agent in the loop as well. Your carrier is set up to handle and process the claim. Ask them for help with a return to work program if you do not already have one in place. Studies show the sooner the worker gets back to work in any capacity the more likely they are to return to work and the claim does not get out of control. Keeping your agent in the loop is great as well because they can go to bat for you in the event the carrier is not satisfying you or your employees needs during the claims process.

6 Ways to Keep Your Small Business Safe

Safety can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. In the business world, the perception of safety can mean a lot of things to a lot of different business owners. What it takes to properly protect your business should be something that is taken very serious by all of the decision makers within your business. Safety can mean securing the property at night when you are away from the building or it can mean properly training your employees to use the equipment they will be using as part of their job. It can even be having the proper policies in place to prevent your business from a data breach. There is a laundry list of things that can be included in your businesses strategy to properly keep your business safe. Here are 6 strategies to keep in mind when protecting your small business.

Hire the right people

It may seem obvious, but the people you hire are your most precious asset. Making sure they are the right people can go a long way towards the safety of your business. There are many ways you can go about checking up on your applicants. Criminal background checks, motor vehicle driving records, investigating their references and checking their college transcripts are all great places to start. Sometimes you will have to rely on your gut reaction to them from an interview, but taking extra time to make sure the people you hire are the right people will start your business off on the right foot when attempting to keep your business safe.

recruiting-new-employeeshire

Train people effectively in the first place

Once you have hired the correct people for your organization it is not enough to just set them loose. You must properly train them in the art of protecting your business the way that is best for your organization within your industry. and think everything in your business will remain secure. They need to know what is important to your organization and how you expect them to conduct business. This may seem obvious, but far too many business owners forget this part of their organization. An employee in HR or Marketing might be coming to you from another industry. They may not see the potential risk that exists for your business in your industry. Take the financial services industry for example. This industry deals with every bit of a customers’ sensitive information, most importantly their financial accounts. If they are coming from another industry where the business does not have access to these types of materials’ they may not fully understand the need to safeguard everything they do. Another industry, like commercial cleaning, has risks where they are allowing employees in to a business after hours when they are the only people in the facility. This opens up the possibility for theft or access to internal computer networks. Training new employees properly will prevent risks from getting out of hand later.

Have well-documented, well thought out Safety Programs

Safety programs entail a lot depending on your business. Don’t be afraid to make them more or less extensive based on the needs of your business. It should start during the initial training/onboarding process for all employees. If you make it clear to them from the beginning that safety is important to your business than they will implement this in to their daily work routine. Like many things in life it is always easier to start tight and loosen up than to start loose and try to tighten up later. That works for a safety program as well.

Defensive Driving Class

Defensive Driving Program

Having a Defensive Driving Program in place can make drastic difference in the frequency and severity of accidents that occur among your employees. If you have employees that operate a vehicle as part of their job they need to have their driving record pulled at least once a year. As part of the hiring process, many businesses require employees to pay for the driving record themselves. This can help weed out applicants with the worst driving records. It saves you time and money on the front end from going through the hiring process with someone who will not be getting the job because of their driving record.

Buying the proper insurance.

Having proper insurance is essential to any good business plan. How much and what types of insurance a business needs, is completely dependent upon the business owner. It depends on how much risk they are comfortable taking and what types of risk they actually face. This is something a good independent insurance agent can help you determine. Many business owners face risks they do not realize and that is where having a long honest conversation with your agent can help you get properly insured. In most states and in most industries it is legally required to carry Workers Compensation and General Liability Coverage. But there are several other coverages that may be necessary depending upon the industry you operate in. Most carriers have programs set up for each specific classification code and they are called Business Owners’ Policies. In most cases this is the best way to go about purchasing commercial insurance.

Take cyber security seriously

Cyber security is a real threat to nearly all businesses. Regardless of how technologically advanced your business is there is a threat in the cyber world. Two of the largest data breaches in history were first started by small businesses first being hacked and allowing access to a larger network of customers through a vendor partnership. Many business owners think data breaches occur through highly technological criminals hacking in to a computer. That is the source of many data breaches, but many start with something as simple as someone leaving out a post-it note with their username and password or an employee taking a laptop home for remote work and the laptop getting stolen out of their car. Those are real risks that any business can have and they can cause a huge cost to your business when they do happen.

Get the best answers to Cyber Security questions for small business owners here at my insurance question.com

Simple Ideas that can Create a Safe Work Environment

There are several safety procedures a business owner can implement into their business without setting up an official safety program. Official safety programs frequently cost a large amount of additional money. As a workers’ compensation professional one common reason for increasing workers comp premiums is bad management or lack of safety procedures causing unnecessary claims. In a society where it’s becoming increasingly difficult to prove a claim to be fraudulent, it’s more important than ever to prevent unnecessary claims from occurring in the first place. When a business has suffered a claim or several claims in the past (frequency or severity), those claims will follow a businesses workers comp experience rating for several years to follow. This factor is referred to as a businesses work comp experience modification rating.

Find out how to provide a Safe Work Environment at your small business via MyInsuranceQuestion.com

Frequent safety meetings are needed to keep this experience modification rating down.  Monday morning meetings are typically the easiest for a business owner and they get the employees on the right track for the upcoming week. Actually a large portion of fraudulent claims occur on Monday? Here are a few things many successful businesses require of their employees.

  • Talk with your employees about proper lifting procedures
  • Ensure all employees have proper safety gear
  • Purchase and require employees to wear basic safety gear
  • Talk with employees about how to handle tools within the trade properly

As far as the weekly meetings go, if you have trouble coming up with topics to discuss simply ask your employees. They may be able to contribute topics based on their day to day job duties.  They can help you analyze what areas they think will cause claims and how the organization can minimize the exposure. These meetings can be short, but they do need to be documented. Your employees need to start the work week off on the correct foot. This can also show you care as a business owner about the safety of your employees.

Business owners being active in the day to day operations are important to the success of any safety program. Being present on the job-site and communicating with the employees help the owners to understand what the employees actually do on a day to day.  Being active int he day-to-day operations helps to quickly identify when an employee is doing something that increases their chances of being injured. Being an active owner typically results in the employees paying closer attention to doing the job the right way instead of cutting corners.

Identifying reasons for prior claims and correcting those problems going forward can also help your business control the experience modification rating. If your a business that suffered claims in the past, use the insurance carriers loss report to identify all claims (believe it or not some business owners are not aware a claim even occurred.) Think about and discuss with your staff ways that particular injury could be prevented from happening in the future.

Appoint someone on your crew or within each department as the leader or foreman. Have those key employees assist in the monitoring of the safety program within the workplace. Have those key employees assist with safety meetings, but hold them accountable for their responsibilities. Reward them when they make a difference.

Another good tactic to promote safety is to put up a sign within the workplace in a highly visible area. Remind employees daily that the job place is X days injury free. Give the employees an incentive to reach a certain number of days with no job place injuries. These little things make the employees think about being safe and make a difference.

6 ways to save when shopping for Workers’ Comp Insurance

Workers’ Compensation is one type of insurance that is required by law in nearly every state in the country. Because of this it is imperative that all business owners take advantage of every way they can to save on this required coverage. There are a few things business owners can change about their daily operations that can have a noticeable effect on what they pay for worker’s compensation insurance.

Keep a well-documented safety program.

Keeping a well-documented safety program includes a return to work program for injured workers and a detailed driver safety program if you have workers who will be driving as part of their normal work related duties. Safety programs do not have to take a lot of time away from your normal business routine to help you save your business money. It can be as little as a 15-minute huddle once a week. The meetings do need to be regular, but they can be weekly, bimonthly, monthly, whatever you determine is best for your business.  Attendance should be recorded as well as the subjects covered at each meeting. A well-documented safety program can really benefit your company when you do have an injury. If you have a well-documented safety program in place than your agent can speak with your insurance carrier and defend your business as one that is taking the needed steps to limit claims. If you have these programs in place the agent can more easily show the injury as more of an outlier and not a sign of trouble ahead.

 

Make sure you are in the proper classification code

Being placed in the wrong classification code happens more frequently than one might imagine. This can change what you pay in premium both positive and negative. There is an audit at the end of every term so this can cause unexpected costs at the end of the year for many businesses. Landscaping is a good example of an industry that has two classification codes that are much different in price. The two main classification codes for landscaping are 9102 & 0042. 9102 is for businesses that maintain already existing lawns and garden beds. 0042 is for businesses that design and install lawns and beds. This is a more dangerous undertaking and costs more in premium. If you are not crystal clear with your agent what your business does on a daily basis, they may assume you are in a riskier classification code. This can cause your business to pay more in premium than it has to. This can be a problem even if you pay too little because an audit is run at the end of every term and if you are than classified correctly, any premium that is owed will then be due. 

 

Actively ask your agent for approved credits and discounts.

Credits and discounts are available for many industries. They are offered by the state and the individual carriers to help business owners save on premium. Your agent has to ask for them in order to get the full amount of discount possibly available. If you bring this to their attention as a priority early in your interaction with them they will know to actively seek the best price. Insurance Agents have to deal with many business owners on a daily basis and the priorities of each business owner may be very different. Many business owners value their time above anything else. These business owners may rather pay a little more in order to just have the process over. If price is an important determining factor in your choice to buy commercial insurance, then let your agent know this up front. That way they can actively seek out every credit or discount available. 

 

Price shop, but do it carefully. 

You should always shop your policy around to make sure you are getting a competitive rate.  This is the first thing to do when you want to save on commercial insurance.  Switching for a moderate discount is not advised. This becomes important when your business inevitably has a claim. Your business will have a claim at some point in time. If you are a customer that has been with the carrier for several years, they are less likely to raise your rate on decline coverage of you altogether. If you are a business that switches carriers every year for a modest decline in price than you are much more likely to be dropped from coverage when a claim does occur. If you are dropped from coverage and cannot find insurance from another carrier than you are forced in to what is called the state fund. Policies in the state fund are much more expensive and depending upon your state once you are in the state fund you must remain there for 2-4 years. 

 

Have an informative website.

A website is beneficial to your business in more ways than just marketing. When you are applying for commercial insurance your agent is going to ask several questions about your daily operations. They are going to investigate it and so is the underwriter of the insurance carrier you are getting a quote from. If you tell them, you only do one type of business and your website shows you are doing something else than you better be prepared to explain what you do or do not do on a daily basis. On the contrary if you have a website that confirms what you have told your agent it will strengthen your relationship with them. This will help when and if you have a claim and need them to help you explain what happened to your insurance carrier. 

Consider changing the limits to your policy

The limits of your policy are important to protect your business, but they are not set in stone. They are not the same for every business owner either. Some business owners want to protect their business fully. Even protect it beyond what could imaginably happen to their business. Other Business owners are quite comfortable taking on more risk. If you are one of those business owners than lowering your limits is one way to lower what you pay in premium. Now most carriers will have a minimum amount you have to take, but if you are above those limits it may be worth your while to speak with your insurance agent about the pros and cons of lowering those limits. As long as you are making an informed decision and you know the risks you are taking lowering the limits of your policy can be an effective way to save on premium.