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Workforce Safety & Insurance (WSI) insures approximately 23,800 employers who collectively cover 370,000 workers in North Dakota. About 62 percent of its accounts are small businesses with limited employee education and training resources. A 2012 UL EHS Sustainability Customer Achievement Award winner, WSI’s vision is “a safe, secure and healthy workforce.”
WSI wanted to improve its education and training outreach to all policyholders statewide.
In 2006, WSI received state funding to develop a learning management system and other health and safety initiatives.
WSI “puts safety to work” by offering education and training, loss control consultations, incentive programs and safety grants to employers. As part of these efforts, it entered into an agreement with UL in 2007 to provide training content for its learning management system. Today, covered employers have access to more than 300 online courses in UL EHS Sustainability’s library. They can easily upload users and assign relevant courses, while learners can access their assignments at any time.
“We are committed to helping employers and employees recognize and correct safety hazards so workplace injuries can be prevented,” said Jane Wick, loss control and special programs supervisor. “It also is a goal of WSI to partner with employers and employees to help prevent the hardships associated with workplace injuries on workers and their families.”
WSI offers policyholders multiple options:
In 2012, more than 58,000 courses were successfully completed, saving employers approximately $4.1 million in training costs. The most frequently accessed courses feature public health- and safety-related topics such as fire prevention, bloodborne pathogens training, extreme driving conditions, hazard communication, walking/working surfaces and general safety orientation.
As a result, work-related injury and illness rates have declined. Since implementing the system, WSI has realized a .723 improvement in its experience modification factor and reduced workers’ compensation premium charges by 72.3 percent for policyholders, who have a lot of good things to say about the benefits. Here are some examples: