Like other business owners in and around Manitowoc, WI, you certainly hope to do everything you can to keep employees healthy and productive. You work hard to maintain a safe business. You even buy workers compensation insurance to help pay bills in case something does happen. So, why are your Wisconsin worker’s compensation premiums still high? Here at Terp Family Insurance, we’d like to answer your questions and, hopefully, lower your rates.
Are Your Wisconsin Workers Comp Premiums High?
All insurers rely upon a basic formula to calculate premiums for each of their business customers. They first consider the business location, number of employees, and the classification of the business and various employees. After they come up with a base rate, they multiply it by a modifier.
This modifier refers to a figure that represents the insurer’s perception of your company’s risk:
- Modifiers greater than 1.0 represent higher risks and premiums.
- Modifiers lower than one signify lower risks and will reduce rates.
How can understanding how insurers set premiums help you save money? You probably won’t change the number of employees or your location to reduce workers’ compensation premiums. You can concentrate on reducing the modifier. An influential safety culture can do even more than lower the chance of accidents. It will also help boost worker morale, loyalty, and productivity. You can show your people that you care about them and save money at the same time.
NIICAP, a national contractor program for accrediting construction contractors, offered these three suggestions to create a culture of safety at your workplace:
- Set safety goals: Good business plans start with measurable goals. Perhaps you could set the lofty goal of eliminating or significantly reducing the number of injuries at your workplace. Make sure you communicate your goal to your entire workplace, make a plan to achieve it, and celebrate efforts and success.
- Empower all employees to make safe choices: Training programs can help educate people about the safest way to perform their jobs and also, which risks they should not ever take. Open up rapid lines of communications, so employees can report any safety hazards that they find. Also, make sure they know which steps to take in case of an illness or injury.
- Incentivize doing the right thing: While you may want to offer incentives for hitting safety milestones, make certain that you’re not discouraging employees from reporting work-related illnesses or injuries. Many of these health issues will not improve on their own, and you’re better off ensuring that employees get the treatment that they need quickly.
- Offer return-to-work programs: Sometimes, employees do suffer from job-related injuries and illnesses that keep them performing their regular duties. If your business can work with them by offering more flexible schedules, work they can do at home, or less rigorous tasks while they heal, you can also enjoy better productivity and often lower workers comp rates.
How Else Can You Lower Workers Comp Rates?
Workers’ compensation insurance protects your company and your people. It assures employees have access to healthcare and time to recover. It also helps secure your business against liability claims that injured or ill employees might make. Still, you don’t always need to pay the highest rates to get the best coverage. Even though insurers follow the same basic formula, they have their own specific underwriting guidelines and premiums.
Here at Terp Family Insurance, we can help you compare highly rated Wisconsin insures to find more competitive rates from another top company. We will also work with you to suggest ways to reduce the risks of problems and increase your modifier. Start telling us about your business by contacting us today.
