Fluent Essays

*********Question 1--Share with the class any experiences you have with process improvement methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, total quality management, or others. Did you find it an effective process? How could it be improved? If you have no experience with process improvement, discuss how lean concepts could be incorporated where you work or used to work. Process improvement and knowing your customers are keys to the Six Sigma process. Six Sigma measures are never “static.” They are dynamic. Please check out the youtube video “Six Sigma In Plain English” Lean is about creating more value for the organization by eliminating activities that are considered waste. Please check out the the youtube “Introduction to Lean Six Sigma Methodology “ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXRvMAHm8MY *******Question2--- In keeping with the scenario in the lectures throughout the course, consider the following: After serving Higher Education, Inc. for 40 years as their environmental health and safety manager, you have decided to retire. You have 80 work hours to bring your replacement up to date on all of the emergency safety and health (EH&S) programs and processes you have been guiding the past four decades. Based on what you have learned in the course so far, give a brief explanation of the top three watch-outs when it comes to workers compensation. What do you think are the top three items this new manager needs to be watchful? They can be positive or negative, but focus on the three major items that should be of primary importance for the next EH&S manager in your opinion. study_guide.docx Unformatted Attachment Preview Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VII Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to: 4. Examine different types of coverage available to employees. 6. Explain state workers’ compensation record-keeping systems and reporting requirements. Reading Assignment Chapter 15: Combinability of Insureds Chapter 16: Audit Rules and Guidelines Additional Reading Assignment(s): In order to access the following resources, click the links below: In the article found below, examples have been developed to help clarify the manner in which the EMR values are impacted by different variables. Results show graphically how injury frequency has a larger impact on the EMR computation than does injury severity. The EMR is noticeably reduced when the hourly wages paid are increased. It is also reduced when the total wages paid per year are increased. Findings suggest that some degree of caution should be exercised if two firms are to be compared on the basis of their assigned EMR values. Hinze, J., Bren, D. C., & Piepho, N. (1995). Experience modification rating as measure of safety performance. Journal of Construction Engineering & Management, 121(4), 455-458. Retrieved from https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.asp x?direc t=true&db=a9h&AN=6959831&site=ehost-live&scope=site This article found below give recommendations on how schools and school districts can reduce workers’ compensation premiums and claims by emphasizing safety in the workplace of the school district. Pierce, M. (2015). The business of workers’ comp. District Administration, 51(6), 63-64. Retrieved from https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.asp x?direc t=true&db=a9h&AN=103259884&site=ehost-live&scope=site Unit Lesson In this unit, we will explore an area that is very common; however, it happens behind the scenes and does not get any real media coverage or any type of strategic thinking when it comes to one business purchasing another business. The concept and term is known as “commonality.” It is important to the safety and health professional and the discussion of this concept will allow us to understand the relationship between the experience modification rate (EMR) and the effort behind safety and risk reduction, as well as how it affects the EMR. We need to define all of these new terms, but first let us explore a scenario that may help put the overall concept within context. Consider the following scenario: Chad is an aspiring businessman trying to make it in the residential construction world. Feeling that he knows the different trades and basically how to build a house that is safe and within building code developed by the state, he decides to begin working for himself and opens his own business. He calls his company Homespun Carpentry and files for a business license with the state making his company official. It is difficult to build a house yourself, so he hires a crew of workers who have a background in the residential construction industry. UNIT VII STUDY GUIDE Determining Workers’ Compensation Coverage Scope and Aligning Industry Specific Audit Schemes OSH 3306, Workers’ Compensation 2 Additionally, Chad has gone to the bank so that he can initially afford to outfit the new company with equipment and uniforms, consumable raw materials (e.g., lumber), and even enough capital to make payroll until the clients on the different projects begin to pay on routine project milestones. Everything appears to be going well, and Chad’s small residential construction company is making a fairly large profit margin along the way, so all is good with the new business. Fast forward approximately 12-14 months, and Chad is no longer on the job site nailing together lumber and roof shingles. He now spends nearly 90\% of his work week behind a desk. He has to contend with different legal requirements for running his business, thoughts that never crossed his mind when he first dreamed of building his company. Last week, three of Chad’s workers got injured on the job site, very seriously, so seriously that the local Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance inspector visited the job site. Not only has Chad’s company been fined by OSHA for violating safety rules, it was also discovered when his workers went to the hospital that Chad never signed up for workers’ compensation coverage from his insurance carrier. This “perfect storm” of legal issues has caused Chad a setback. He is now facing a $250,000 fine by OSHA and the first review of the injured workers’ care shows them to have approximately $800,000 in medical bills. Seeing that his company’s financial future is in jeopardy, Chad decides to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which is granted, thus wiping out all of Chad’s personal and business debts, and he closes the door on the company. OSHA has no means to obtain their money, and the workers’ medical bills will be paid partially by the bank who liquidated Chad’s assets, while the remaining medical bills will be written off by the hospital, meaning that the public now has to foot the bill for these expenses. One of the injured workers’ families decides to sue Chad and his former company, which does not really lead to any financial recovery, but it does turn up something rather interesting. Upon further legal review, it has been discovered that this is the third time Chad opened up a business and closed the business under fear of legal proceedings! How can this have happened, you ask? Honestly, do not worry about how this happened, because an entire book could be devoted to that subject. More importantly, have a crystal clear understanding that this has, does, and will, happen again in cities and towns across the country. Therefore, safety and health professionals should at least understand the big picture. It will not be up to them to perform the due diligence in this case, but they may need to explain the “why” behind several different questions. Back to the primary scenario we have been using throughout the course. Let us say that A to Z General Contractors, the ones who built the new building on the campus for Higher Education, Inc. (HEI) decides that the work Chad’s company did was so well done, they decide to not only hire him, but actually buy his entire company and all of his assets. For the record, pretend that Chad’s fourth attempt at building his own company is successful and legally legitimate, except that Chad’s company has a high accident rate because he believes that workplace safety is just common sense and that people get hurt because people do “dumb things” to get themselves hurt. After all of the legal actions and a few months of working together, A to Z General Contractors find that their EMR has risen and that their workers’ compensation insurance premiums have jumped by about 20\%. This phenomenon is better known in the insurance world as combinability. Let us get familiar with a few new terms before moving forward: Combinability: One of the general rules of thumb or sayings about combinability is that when a business is bought, the workers’ compensation experience is also bought (Sieberg, 2012). In this scenario, A to Z General Contractors will get their EMR and combine it with Chad’s company’s EMR for the previous 36-month time period, and this will result in a new EMR for A to Z General Contractors. Now remember, this combinability may result in an additive effect (1+1=2), a synergistic effect (1+1=5) or an antagonistic effect (1+1=0), and you will really not know what the new EMR will be until you actually calculate it based on the previous three years’ worth of data. EMR: The Experience Modification Rating is a calculation that may seem a little overwhelming in the textbook but think of it in the most simplistic form: Each company begins with an EMR of 1.00. At this rate, a firm must pay 100 percent of the average workers’ compensation premium. If the rate is below 1.00, such as 0.90, the premium is reduced to 90 percent of the average workers’ compensation premium. If EMR exceeds 1.00, such as 1.25, the insured must pay 125 percent of the average premium (Rouse, 1997). Therefore, in our scenario, pretend that A to Z General Contractors went from a 0.87 EMR to a 1.32 EMR; this is basically a 51.7\% increase in their workers’ compensation premiums! OSH 3306, Workers’ Compensation 3 Boggs (2011) discusses several different variables such as the combinability guidelines and distinction between natural, legal, and majority interest ownership in Chapter 15 of the textbook. However, none of these variables really make sense until you understand the concepts behind combinability and EMR for these companies in our scenario. Furthermore, you will get a better understanding of combined entities as we transition into the second major concept of this unit, which is the generation of audits for workers’ compensation programs. Audit? Yes, workers’ compensation programs need to be audited, and they will be audited very routinely. There are variables that are involved—everything from differences between states to preferences of the insurance company. The audit may be done by a representative of the insurance company, or someone may be hired as a third party contractor to perform the audit. If you work for the employer, in this case let us say it is HEI, then the audit process may be intrusive, confusing, and a bit scary just on the basis of the large financial numbers that are attached to the audit process. The textbook identifies several different reasons why workers’ compensation programs need to be audited, and many states require the action as well, but remember a key point at the end of the day is that the insurance company is trying to make a profit, just like every other company out there in America. If you are the insurance company, you obviously want to have an accurate count of not only the current headcount, but also what the business plan is for Dec. 31 of the following year. Let us say HEI plans on hiring 500 course developers next year. Based on the HEI business plan, they probably will not even start interviewing personnel until May 1 and probably will not have all the hired employees in the building until late December of that year. If you are the insurance company, you are accounting for those employees on Jan. 1 of that year. That is right; these jobs have not even been posted, not a single I-9 processed, or a single nickel paid within the payroll system, and HEI is already paying the premiums for this headcount addition. How is the above example even remotely fair to HEI? Why would HEI do business with such a company that has its system set up this way? First, we have to look at the industry that is affected. Sure, for HEI 99\% of the employees will be administrative in nature of their responsibilities. We do not expect the university registrar to maintain the registration and matriculation requirements for HEI on Monday, and on Tuesday to be cutting pipe with an oxyacetylene torch for the new boiler installation in the boiler room. This generally is not going to happen. However, what if you are a chemical plant that is starting a new line of production in the first quarter of next year? Or what if your metal fabrication company just struck a deal to provide steel girders to the construction of the new National Football League stadium down the street? Then, what happens if HEI accelerates its hiring plan? All of a sudden, HEI hears that 75\% of the course developers in America will be retiring in the next 24-months. They need to accelerate the hiring immediately and will need to have everyone on board and in the building before May 31 of next year. Because of the accelerated hiring plan, the workers’ compensation insurance provider now has the additional risk of covering an additional 500 workers without having their premium payments received for the year. That means that for more than threefourths of the year the insurance company is losing money. Consider another reason for the audit—safety compliance and risk reduction. In other words, the insurance company routinely provides loss control experts who perform visits of the workplace to review the exposures and the controls that are set in place to prevent incidents from occurring in the first place. It is actually natural to feel as if your company or organization is being violated, so to speak; a third party comes into your plant and starts pointing out all of the controls that have been put in place that are not being effective or the controls that could lead themselves to human error and fail to prevent an exposure. To bring this unit to a close and emphasize the last point, the workers’ compensation coordinator or safety and health team members must maintain their professionalism and welcome in another set of eyes. It is only one of the best methods to ensure that hazards are totally and completely eliminated and that method is having all of the eyes from inside the company and outside the company reviewing the workplace. References Boggs, C. J. (2011). The insurance professional’s practical guide to workers’ compensation: From history through audit (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Wells Media Group. OSH 3306, Workers’ Compensation 4 Rouse, W. L. (1997). Factors of the experience modification rating and what they mean. Professional Safety, 42(9), 27. Sieberg, R. (2012). Change of ownership, combined entities—effects on workers’ compensation experience rating. Retrieved from http://www.workcompconsultant.com/blog ... Purchase answer to see full attachment