Protecting Your Most Valuable Asset: Employee Safety During COVID-19
October 7, 2020 | Webinar
Lorraine Martin, President and CEO of the National Safety Council (NSC), and Allen McCalister, Director of Workers Compensation for Travelers Risk Control, joined the Wednesdays with Woodward® series to discuss a topic on the minds of many employers – how to protect their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. McCalister and Martin emphasized the importance of strong corporate leadership; good communication; and the ability to formulate, reevaluate and adapt protocols for on-site work.
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Text, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark). A webinar series. Protecting Your Most Valuable Asset. Employee Safety During Covid-19. Logos for the S B E Council, National Safety Council, Travelers Institute, Travelers, Campbell Institute, and ACCION.
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Joan Woodward. OK. Good afternoon. And thank you all for joining us for today's program. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to draw your attention to the disclaimer on the screen.
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Disclaimer. This program or presentation is only a tool to assist you in managing your responsibility to maintain safe premises, practices, operations and equipment, and is not for the benefit of any other party. The program or presentation does cover all potentially hazardous conditions or unsafe acts that may exist, and does not constitute legal advice. For decisions regarding use of the practices suggested by this program or presentation, follow the advice of your own legal counsel. Travelers disclaims all forms of warranties whatsoever, without limitation, implementation of any practices suggested by this program or presentation is at your sole discretion, and Travelers or its affiliates shall not be liable to any party for any damages whatsoever arising out of or in connection with the information provided or its use. This material does not amend, or otherwise affect, the provisions or coverages of any insurance policy or bond issued by Travelers, nor it is a representation that coverage does or does not exist for any particular claim or loss under any such policy or bond. Coverage depends on the facts and circumstances involved in the claim or loss, all applicable policy or bond provisions, and any applicable law. Please note that this session is being recorded by Travelers. The recorded session may be used, copied, adapted, distributed, publicly displayed and/or performed as Travelers deems appropriate.
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We're thrilled to continue with our Wednesdays with Woodward webinar series, exploring issues impacting us in both our professional and personal lives.
We've hosted these programs since the beginning of the summer, interviewing experts from various industries. And if you've missed any of our programs, visit the TravelersInstitute.org to view past recordings and register for our future upcoming webinars.
Our speakers today will provide recommendations to keep employees safe in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of you have joined us for our prior programs, where we focused on what to do with reopening your businesses.
Now more than six months in, many businesses are adjusting to this life in the new normal and welcoming more and more employees back to the offices. Our speakers today will discuss the importance of evaluating, adapting, and communicating new protocols as you expand your on-site workforce.
To prevent the transmission of this disease, these are critically important issues, especially for your employees. And face it, we're all employees. I'm thrilled to be joined today by two expert speakers dedicating to protecting employee safety.
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Photos of the three speakers, Lorraine Martin, President and CEO of the National Safety Council. Allen McCalister, Director of Workers Compensation, Risk Control, Travelers. Joan Woodward, EVP, Public Policy and President, Travelers Institute, Moderator.
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First, we have Lorraine Martin who is President and CEO of the National Safety Council, a 100-year-old nonprofit dedicated to eliminating preventable diseases and injuries and deaths. She brings more than 35 years of experience in the Aerospace Industry, where she led global aircraft and complex system development and manufacturing, really focused on employee safety throughout her entire career. Lorraine, thank you for joining us today and thank you for your partnership with the National Safety Council and the Travelers Institute over these many years.
Next, we'll hear from Allen McCalister. He's Director of Workers Compensation on Travelers Risk Control Team. In this role, Allen works with our customers and clients to create safer work environments for employees, conducting safety management, seminars, and consulting on risk management practices. Allen is really a true expert on all of these topics.
So we're excited to have you here both today and look forward to your insights. Before I do hand it off to Allen, a quick note about submitting questions. We've had many hundreds of you register for this webinar and we want to get to all of your terrific questions after the end of their presentations. So we'll save time for that.
But don't wait till the end of your session to start submitting your questions. You can submit them as the presentations are being made. So use that the Q&A function at the bottom middle of your screen. If you kind of scroll down, you'll see Q&A. And just put your question there. If you don't want me to say your name, send it anonymously where there's an option for that.
So I appreciate your attendance today. Again, I'm Joan Woodward, hosting all of these sessions for us on Wednesdays. We have a terrific fall lineup. So please make sure to tune in and look in your email boxes for upcoming webinar registrations. So with that, I'm going to hand it right off to Allen McAllister for his presentation. Allen, take it away.
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Allen McCalister.
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Thanks. Appreciate the opportunity to be here today and to discuss this very important topic to all of us. COVID-19 is on the front of mind for each of us.
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Photos of newspapers with headlines, anxiety mounts, crisis.
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2020 has been a challenging year. COVID-19 has brought about an ever-evolving world, both for us personally and professionally.
Information and guidance is coming from all sides. And now that we find ourselves moving into whatever new normal this will be, the ongoing safety and health of your employees is paramount in ways never considered before.
From our experiences and risk control and based on suggestions in a recent Gallup study conducted at the onset of COVID, leadership is more important now than it has been ever before. Have four areas for leaders that we want to focus on that we feel are important.
Leaders must communicate a clear plan of action in response to the pandemic. The Gallup tracking at the time showed that only 39% of US employees strongly agree that their employers had communicated a clear plan of action in response to COVID-19.
The second area that's important is making certain that employers and leaders ensure their employees feel comfortable and safe, and more importantly being prepared to perform their jobs. Just over half employees in the Gallup study, 54% strongly agree that considering the recent impact of COVID-19 on their jobs, but they felt well-prepared and safe to do their job.
Another area is for leadership to hold their frontline management supervisory level staff responsible for keeping employees informed about COVID-19 now more than ever before. In the study, less than half of employees, about 48% strongly agreed that their immediate supervisor kept them informed about what is going on in their organization as it relates to the impact of COVID-19.
One of the things that leadership has to do is really demonstrate that the organization cares about its employees and their well-being. In the survey, less than half of employees, about 47% strongly agreed that their organizations cared about their overall well-being. Now, I want to switch and let's talk and discuss how the same type of leadership is important in safety.
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Safety culture. A worker applying hand sanitizer from a dispenser mounted on a pole.
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So our safety cultures are ever evolving. Information, as I said, is coming quickly and from multiple sources. People may be downright nervous and anxious about what's going on. These things, what we want at last is to have them feed into your safety environment and your job culture.
Unprecedented time, we find that in unprecedented times, employees really do look to and rely on leadership for guidance, information, and resources. So it's a historical moment not only for the employees, but for you as leaders. A couple of things that you're in a unique position as a leader, you're familiar with your work processes, and how they can be modified or can be changed to meet the current demands and changes in response to COVID-19.
You're most capable of recognizing the hazards in your environment that can arise as you try and put those things into place that we all know are necessary to protect our staff and workplace. You're capable also in a leadership role of making impromptu changes that may have short time frames for doing corrective action.
You engage with your employees on a regular basis, you deal with your customers, you deal with your communities, your service providers, and vendors. So you're in a unique position to have direct influence on your employees, and especially your line management.
So what important safety leadership technique in helping to create a positive safety culture, and then developing trust and a shared sense of purpose is building safety engagement. So let's start with defining safety engagement.
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Text, What is engagement? Feel that we're in this together.
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While there's no one definition of safety engagement, we know that engage workforce share common themes. And I'm going to go through what some of those are. And you really want to think about this from your employees’ perspective.
An engaged workforce has a sense of commonality that they're all in it together. Everyone is looking for support from each other. And not only each other, but from the company. They're also interested in taking care of their loved ones in some very extreme environments.
So feeling apart believing that their part is huge for making certain that we're engaging that frontline staff.
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Believe that what they are doing makes a difference.
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Employees also need to know that their actions and their decisions are making a difference in their workplace.
They need to know that by following the CDC guidelines, by working with local and state official guidance, following safe distancing protocols, wearing facial protection when needed, maintaining social distance in the work environment. Not only is it impacting them, but it's also impacting their family members, their loved ones, and most importantly, their coworkers as well.
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Have good relationships with immediate supervisor and coworkers.
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Employees who are engaged, we find, have a good working relationship with their front-line supervisors and their front line management team. You should, in the leadership role, make it comfortable for employees to bring issues and concerns that they may have, challenges that they may be experienced, not only in the workplace, but also in their personal lives, because they're directly impacted and what they do in your work environment, it impacts their families as well.
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Trust their employer.
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Employees who are engaged must have a sense of trust for their employer, that the employee, employers have their back, that you're willing to work with them in their challenging times as they're having complications or difficulty just in their day-to-day obligations, meeting those, that you're going to be flexible, and that you're going to be there to support them, and that you're going to be on their side through these difficult times.
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Volunteer slash take initiative.
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Employees who are engaged, we find, are more like to take initiatives and follow protocols. Also, they are more likely to hold coworkers and each other responsible for their safety responsibilities. They're willing to go above and beyond, and they're more than willing to follow the guidelines that you've set out, even when you're not there watching them.
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Why is Engagement Important? Better productivity, Reduction in quality defects, Fewer safety incidents. Gallup Inc. The relationship between engagement at work and organizational outcomes 2016 Q 12 meta-analysis, 9th edition. April 2016.
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So as Gallup looked a little deeper into the results, one of the things that we found about companies that see an engaged workforce is that they have better outcomes, better productivity. Also, one of the things that we see is in the same Gallup survey, they are 40% less likely to have defects in quality of their work. So you can see how important that is.
Most important and probably the biggest surprise in the survey was that in an engaged workforce compared to one that is not, there's 70% fewer safety incidents. That's critical, especially in the environment that we're in. So finding ways to engage employees, as we can see here, is absolutely critical.
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A person holds a heart shape in their hands. An illustration of two people made of gears facing each other with gears flowing between their heads. Text, How Do Leaders. Build Safety Engagement?
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So how do we do that? It's a simple formula really. You capture their hearts and you capture their minds. You capture their hearts by demonstrating that you care about them, their well-being. You capture their minds by getting them actively involved in your safety initiatives and your safety efforts.
So let's look at a few of these and how we go about doing this.
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How Can You Demonstrate That You Care? Express concern, Show up and participate in safety meetings and trainings, Make health and safety the first talking point of all meetings, Limit group sizes, Listen carefully, Be proactive, Establish, communicate and role model Covid-19 practices. Keep your promises, Have their backs. Image of workers in hard hats and vests in a warehouse.
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So how do you demonstrate that you care? It's now more important for building engagement than ever before, letting employees know that you care about them, not only in your words, but also in your actions.
Ask about their family. Ask about how they're doing. Make certain that employees have access to resources that they may need to get information, like the EPA, like the CDC, so that they're getting the best information they can to make the best decisions they can about only keeping your work environment safe, but keeping themselves safe.
Show up in meetings and participate. You want to be actively involved in that participation. Instead of just sitting there, encourage feedback. Encourage information from employees about what they can do, suggestions that they can offer, again, to help create that more in safe environment. So active participation by leadership is important not only for senior leadership, but for that front-line leadership as well. So one [AUDIO OUT] certain that when you do show up, that you do, that you're modeling safety behaviors, that you're wearing facial protective, that you're maintaining actively social distancing.
And if you're having meetings, make certain that the environment allows for the proper social distancing necessary. That may mean you having meetings in open spaces and not in office areas where that's difficult to do. But it's not a decision you have to make in a vacuum.
We find that employees are more than willing to share their opinions about how they can be safe and how you as an organization to be safe. Listen, employees are in that environment throughout the day. They spend more time there than they sometimes do with their families. So they are an excellent source of information about how to keep themselves and how to keep your work environment safe.
One of the things you want to do as a leadership in all your meetings and all your discussions-- make COVID top of mind, top of discussion. Help recognize behaviors and actions that people are taking. One of the things that we recommend is that you encourage employees to stagger breaks and lunches to make certain that we're not congregating in areas that historically they may have. One idea that we've seen from an employer is providing water bottles, a bottle of water for employees, instead of having them congregate around water fountains or water areas, also in common areas.
One of the things you want to do is listen carefully. So let me describe listening carefully. Listening carefully is active listening. I can't tell you how many times I've been on the floor with employers and supervisors who are supervisors or multi-tasking and what that looks like.
They're on a radio having a communication about some of the issue in the facility or in the plant, so active listening. Look the people in their eyes, give them the time that they deserve, that you're out there with them. Make certain that they know that they're important to you by showing up and being engaged. Don't multi-task.
Proactive--we've heard that word a lot. But what does proactive mean in a safety environment? Don't wait to respond to issues that may come up, but actively look and seek. What are their areas of opportunities for improvement that are out on the floor? And when you're out on the floor, one of the things I say to leadership and to management-- be visible, make people aware that you're out there, that you're on the floor. It's the best opportunity that oftentimes they have to engage with someone in a leadership role.
You want to provide clear expectations and clear understanding and guidelines for employees to follow, like the proper PPE, like disinfecting, and also daily screenings if your employer operation has that. Keeping your promise is another area, is absolutely critical for leadership. If you say it, do it. Now is the time to walk the walk. And talk the talk is leadership. Employees, we find, don't necessarily listen to what they say. They watch what we do.
So as leaders, let's make certain that we model the behavior that we want them, having their backs in terms of engagement. Employees--and I said this earlier--they're looking for that support. So as they encounter challenges, difficulties out on the floor, get them involved. Make certain they know that you're going to support them in providing resources and time to address those things that we know are mutually important to them. And as you develop solutions, involve them as being part of that solution generation.
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What Can You Do To Encourage Health and Safety Involvement? Involve employees, Create project teams for cleaning or disinfecting, Assign employees to check hand washing stations or hand sanitizer stations periodically, Provide positive reinforcement to those following your Covid-19 policies. Encourage employees to make health and safety suggestions and hold peers accountable, Communicate Covid-19 health and safety policies, Recognize employees or crews for following guidelines.
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So what can we do to encourage health and safety involvement? Involving employees in basic task, risk assessments in projects to determine strategies for social distances. Give them responsibility, have them own that, and have them take a leadership role in establishing that.
You want to assign employees to project teams. A good way to do this is assign them for disinfecting and cleaning equipment and workstation. Let them be the go-to people for the rest of that department or that area if there are issues around cleanliness or if they need to do disinfecting. Assign employees to hand-washing stations and to sanitation station or sanitizing stations. Let them periodically check in, and create logs, and also be those same go-to people for the staff if they find deficiencies in supplies.
Providing positive reinforcement is a good way to engage employees. And one of the things that we see from a safety perspective--when you provide reinforcing feedback, it encourages much the same from the employees. Even, again, when you're not around when they know it's your care and you're reinforcing safety, it's important to them.
Encourage them, also, to make safety suggestions in the workplace. I recommend that you put together committees totally focused on making certain that suggestions are obtained from the work staff. What's critical in leadership, though, if you get suggestions, follow up.
One of the areas that frequently we see in leadership is we get suggestions, but there's no follow-up or follow-through. You want to close the information and communication loop around any suggestions that may come in, critical to them building confidence and trust in you as a leader.
At meetings, you want to communicate COVID-19 policies and procedures around health. You should have placards placed throughout your workspace identifying what your policies and procedures are. Again, the goal is to keep safety and COVID-19 precautions front of mind to everybody. You should have posted in their work areas what your expectations are and what they can do actively to meet your policies and procedures.
One of the things that we find that employees really appreciate more than anything is recognition. I can't tell you how important it is when I work with supervisors and leaders, for them to recognize people when they catch them doing the right thing and to give them that feedback. It, again, too, just encourages them to continue to do the right thing and, as I said, even when you're not around.
So don't lose opportunities to be reinforcing, but also to recognize people for their work and for the efforts of trying to be safe on the job. With our years of experience in risk control, one of the things that we found in dealing with employees is that most employees really, truly want to do the right thing when it comes to safety.
And this is why leadership is so critical and so important. Because it's up to you as leaders to provide them with the information they need, with the resources that they need, with the training that they need, and with the support that they need to be successful in being safe.
Before I close the day, one of the comments that I'd like to share with leadership that I think is really important--I think leaders must provide a clear and inspirational vision to their organizations and to their people to be successful in managing through the pandemic that we find ourselves in. I'm, at this point, going to turn it over to Lorraine Martin. Lorraine is the President and CEO of the National Safety Council. Lorraine, it's all yours. Thank you very much.
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Lorraine Martin.
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Well, Allen, thank you so much. And thank you for those really important challenges for leadership in every day and certainly, as we all navigate these current days. Really, really appreciate your thoughts there. And, Joan, thank you for having us. The National Safety Council has been partnered with Travelers for a long time. And we're really just proud to be able to be part of this dialogue on a Wednesday with your constituents here.
We've learned a lot over the last months about what's really important about protecting our employees and how that can protect our businesses at the same time. And so I'm really just glad to be here today to share some of that with you. Before I get into that, though, I'm not sure everyone here on the call will absolutely know who the National Safety Council is.
So in my first chart here, I'd like to just give you a little bit of that update, not a lot.
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Text, National Safety Council. Save lives from the workplace to anyplace. America's leading nonprofit salary advocate. Over a century of safety leadership. 15,500 member companies, 7 million employees, Impact through workplace roadway and impairment.
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We are a little bit over 100 years old. And we are the nation's leading advocacy, non-profit organization for safety. So our job is to figure out, what are the preventable deaths and injuries in our nation? Where are they coming from? And what can we do about them?
And we try to focus, of course, on where the data points us. We are a very data-driven organization. And it points us to three key areas right now-- the workplace itself, the roadway, and this overall general issue of impairment, which we consider things such as fatigue, and substance use, and issues having to do with mental health, and being distracted on the job.
They really do have at the core what is usually in the way when we're either in the roadway or in the workplace of us coming home safely. So our job is to save lives from the workplace to any place. And clearly, today, in the world of COVID and navigating that not only on the roads, but in our workplaces, it's become even more challenging.
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Responding to the Covid-19 Crisis. Keep each other safe, Follow the data, Identify best practices, Prepare for the next safety challenge.
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If you go to the next one, from the beginning of coronavirus, we have really been focused on the data. Because that's just who we are--it's in our DNA--and looking for best practices, and then using this time to really look at what companies and individuals and leaders have done so that we can really prepare for that next safety challenge, that next challenge of what work is really going to look like and how we can do that safely.
It's also a time--and Allen talked about that--about looking out for one another. Safety is now the issue around our country. It is the issue in every one of our businesses, keeping people safe as they do what they need to do for their livelihoods, for their activities in the community and to be able to go home at night and know that they haven't increased the risk of their family members.
Our nation and the recovery of our industries and of our economies is going to depend now on safe operations. So it just really is important that we go beyond the issues of just proper protocols. And Allen mentioned quite a few of those, but also, to focus on our people, which is what the byline of this Wednesdays with Woodward is all about, is focusing on our people. I'm going to talk a little bit about that.
That does cause us to understand how our people are interconnected with our national response to COVID-19, and to businesses, and to help in our lives. We are really facing, right now, one of the biggest health risks and uncertainties that we've faced in a long time.
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The Good News. Most Workers Trust Employers and Safety Leaders.
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We do a lot of surveying of our member companies. As you saw, we have quite a few members as part of the National Safety Council. And we reach some 7 million workers through those members. And we've been able to ask them questions during this time to help inform us.
And one of them had to do with people feeling comfortable about coming back to traditional work environments. There are many workers who never left their traditional work environment. Because we needed them to do the things that keep our economy running, our grocery stores filled, our tables ready to feed our families.
But a lot of folks do feel uncomfortable about coming back to work. Two out of three Americans have some trepidation. And we heard from Alan for some of all of those reasons. And it's really important as leaders that we know what those concerns and issues are. And we do our best where folks need to work in a traditional work environment to keep them safe.
The good news, though, is that even though there's that high anxiety, 69% of Americans--and our surveys are a little bit more recent than the ones Allen talked about. So we may have some learning that has happened. But 69% of Americans do trust their employer to make good decisions regarding when to reopen and what safeguards are needed.
That's really important for us to know, because we cannot let that trust be atrophy. We cannot put that at risk. Because it's really important, as I said before, not only to keep your employees safe, to keep your businesses running, but to get our nation up, back and running, and to recover our overall economy, so just really important that we understand that trust and we keep it first and foremost in our mind.
This means that workers depend on us. And that's not unusual. Safety has often been something that industry and business leaders took on and got out ahead of legislation and regulation, even when they weren't forced to, but they did so anyway. And this is another time where it's really important as businesses that we lead.
To do that, we brought together a bunch of different organizations under the term that we coined as SAFER--Safe Actions for Employee Returns.
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SAFER: Safe Actions for Employee Return. Objectives: Gather expertise, Develop data-driven guidance, Release tools and solutions, Share best practices, Enable business continuance.
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And as I just said, many employees don't have to return. Because we've asked them to work through this entire time. So it was just a good, catchy name for us--SAFER. It is what we're trying to do, is to make sure everybody is safer as they operate today.
But in order to scratch at this and to really understand back in about the March, April time frame of what the best practices would be, and what things we needed to even think about, and knowing that it would evolve over time as we learned more, we got together over a hundred organizations--Fortune 500, small businesses leading safety organizations, some of the public health, government organizations and experts--to help us guide through really putting together for employers what are some of these best safety recommendations about how you can bring your people into your work environment or keep them there if they've been continuing to perform.
It became very clear that we needed to segment some of these things. We also needed to understand what kind of roadmap we could build for folks as they were going through all of this, not only to where to make their investments, but what kinds of safeguards were going to be most important for their work environment.
So we built some guides for employees and employers to help them really work through all of that. And we also created what we've called playbooks. And the really exciting part about all of this is the companies that came together here, literally just said, if we've already resolved something, whether it was signage, as Allen talked about, or PPE protocols, or how to handle lunchrooms--if we've already got those policies, you can have them.
Strip our name off of them, use them, put them up so that they could be on the website under the SAFER program, and make sure we can get them to as many companies as possible, so they don't, one, have to reinvent. They don't have to reinvest if their resources have already been created. And, two, we could get the best practices out there as quickly as possible.
And that's really what SAFER became is everyone coming together to make that happen. We often hear the safety community say to us that safety is not proprietary. And this has been an amazing time to see industry and companies really come together and say, this isn't proprietary. This is about keeping our employees safe, first and foremost, and then making our businesses be able to operate and our economy recover. It's just been a really amazing, rejuvenating activity for us to be part of.
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Safer Framework. 6 Key Components for a SAFER Return. A chart showing the 6 key component areas, cross topic actions guided by level of exposure or phase, for the operational types public, open industrial, closed industrial, and office environments. The component areas are physical, medical, stress, emotional and mental, employment legal and HR, communication, and external factors. N C S dot O R G slash safer.
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If we go to the next part, I'll just show you the framework, just a little bit here. We isolated six key component areas and four operational types. And the operational types are down the vertical side. And horizontally, you see all of our topic areas. And Allen actually touched on several of these.
We broke it down to the physical, the medical issues you needed to understand, the emotional and mental health, which you don't typically see playbooks in a safety presentation about mental health, but so important, given what we're facing right now. Communications, transportation, and then other environmental activities. And Allen certainly did a great job talking about why communication is so important here.
But we went through all of these playbooks from across the industry and picked out over 200 specific recommendations across these six areas and then said, for your work environment, if you're in an open space, if you're in closed manufacturing, if you're in an office space, and if you're facing the customer, meaning hotels, retail, restaurants, those kinds of things, which of these recommendations are most important for you?
And we really just played all that out. So you'd have a playbook and a guidebook so that you would know what the best practices are and enable you to put those in place. There are on the SAFER website-- nsc.org/safer, available for free to anyone. Again, this was really industry coming together to support and share.
I hope, if you are still looking at whether or not you've got the right practices in place or if you need to evolve them, that you can go look at those playbooks. The thing that I'm going to end this on is we learn things every day. And so there is new updated information that comes from our task force, whether it's on testing or tracing.
And eventually, we'll be needing to deal with how workplaces deal with vaccine and all of the complications that will come with that. So note that the data is continually updated. And we'll keep it fresh for you from the best learning, both from the government agencies and from industry.
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What Covid-19 Risk does your business. Organizational vulnerability assessment. Free online tool provides 4 step organizational risk score. Risk factor driven recommendations for businesses. Guidance for implementing additional safeguards.
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Along with all that, though, we created a tool. And that's here on my next chart. It's an organizational vulnerability assessment tool. It's a standard hierarchy of risks tool that can enable you to go in and put in what practices you have in place today, what kind of environment you have for your workplace, and then tell you where you have some, perhaps, gaps, or holes, or things that you need to put in place, to have the highest level of safety mechanisms in place having to do with the COVID dynamic in all of our work environments.
Again, free. We have had hundreds of organizations fill it out and get their recommendation of where their biggest risks might still lie. Again, if it could be of use to you, please make sure you go to our website at nsc.org/safer to make sure you've got the best practices in place.
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SAFER Resources. Playbooks, Quick it, Protocols. Example sheets for Confirmed case notification protocol, Return to work guidance for office operations, Risk exposure index, Stress, emotional and mental health considerations.
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We've got other things, too. As you see on this next chart, other kinds of resources--kits, playbooks, signage, things that you can use for your business, especially if you might not be one of the larger organizations. And resources are strapped right now. I'll talk about a study we're doing around, where people have been putting their resources and what kind of affectivity they've had.
But there's lots of resources here to help you, especially if you're a small or mid-sized company that doesn't have hundreds of safety professionals and doesn't have doctors on your payroll or epidemiologists. You can come to SAFER, and you can get some of their best practices available to you as well.
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Traditional safety issues. Slips trips and falls. Ergonomics. Transportation.
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But I would tell you, it's always important. And Allen touched on this. If you go to my next chart here, we know that safety is important every single day and keeping people safe going home at night, at least as good as they came into your operation in the morning. In some cases, you can even make their lives better when they go home, is so important.
And the traditional risks that we face in any work environment, especially if you have safety-sensitive jobs, we need to make sure that we're doubling down on and paying attention to. Everybody right now is extra distracted. We've got our thoughts on a thousand other things--daycare, mom at home, whatever it might be, whether my job is even secure.
People's heads are not all in the game. And when that's the case, these traditional safety issues can become even more dangerous for us. So remember that people might be rusty. They might need their safety training. You might be asking them to do a job that they don't typically do or a shift that they don't typically staff. So please make sure that we're paying attention to those traditional safety issues, just as well as all of these other issues--really, really important.
And I would say two things. One, driving has always been the number one fatality for workplaces. And you might think, what is that? People come into the building and they don't leave until they go home. There's a lot of industries where people do drive and commute in order to provide their service, whether it's roadside service, getting to and from a customer site.
And it's really important for all of us to understand that that typical, unfortunate fatality for many of our workplaces has now gotten significantly worse, believe it or not, during COVID. Road safety. The first six months of this year, while we have had 17% less cars or miles driven, the death rates have gone up during that time 20% So every mile driven is 20% more dangerous.
And we've actually just recently started to have even more deaths on the road-- total numbers-- for that first six-month figure if you compare '19 to '20. Something wrong. Whether it's we're distracted, we're not remembering what it means to drive safe, it's another thing you can do for your employees to make sure they understand that road safety is something that we have to remember, to be even more diligent about these days.
(DESCRIPTION)
Return to Work Challenges. Testing, Contact Tracing, PPE/Supply, Physical Environment and Design, Mental Health Challenges.
(SPEECH)
If I go to the next chart, the systemic challenges that we have right now are going to stay with us for a while. We all thought this might be a sprint. Clearly, it's a marathon. When it'll end is anybody's guess. And I certainly am not an expert to help with any of that crystal ball.
But we do know these things such as testing, and contact tracing, and having the right PPE. Many of the things that Allen talked about are going to be with us. And the one I would highlight for you there, truly at the end here is the issue of mental health and the issue of making sure that your workers feel safe so that they can really be safe.
And that connects to them feeling their mental health is intact, that they are not having any issues with substance use, and that they are fit to do the job when they stand in. And then they're the human in your operation doing something that could put them at risk.
So it's really important that we continue to understand these. They will evolve. As I said before, we don't know everything. And we need to make sure we have some humility. Because we've seen that we learn things about this disease. We learn things about how to have safe operations in each of our workplaces. And it's going to be really important that we continue to stay connected.
(DESCRIPTION)
Other Considerations and Silver Lining. Work in post-vaccine world. Positive changes to safety culture. New modes of leadership. Acceleration of technology. Sustainability and resiliency.
(SPEECH)
As we go forward, there's some other considerations for us, too. And then I mentioned the first one having to be on my next chart here, having to do with the vaccine. And that will eventually address--it will come to our workplaces. And we're going to have to navigate through that, other things having to do with how we lead. And Allen gave us a lot of good recommendations of what good leadership looks like.
And there are going to be silver linings as part of how we've led through this, and how we've showed up for each other, and how businesses have collaborated. That is going to be really important for us to continue to bring forward. Those lines between work safety, and home safety, and community--they just got blurred more than we could ever imagined. My guess is that will continue to be part of our reality.
And it's really important as we look at what the future of work is for us here in the next six months, year, two years, that we consider what those silver linings are and for each of our operations find ways to improve who we are, what we do, and how the technology that we've been forced to look at here, perhaps can help us create even more safe work environments post-COVID. We all hope to eventually get to post-COVID. We don't know when that'll be. But we need to take all of these great learnings with us when we go.
(DESCRIPTION)
National Employer Survey. A bar graph titled Covid-19 Safety Practices Spend showing 62% of employers spent upwards of $100,000 for safety measures. 26% spent between $100 K and $1 million, 9% between $1 million and $10 million, 2% over $10 million dollars. Source, N S C national employer survey, August 2020.
(SPEECH)
To that end, the National Safety Council has just recently surveyed several hundred companies if you go to that chart. Yeah. And we wanted to really understand where people were spending their money. Was it on PPE? Was it on plastic barriers? Was it on having reduced work shifts and all of that meant?
Some companies spent all the way from $1000 to $100,000 on COVID and more. And we have now done some research around, where do they spend their money? How did it have impact? Did it relate to them having the right safe testing--a safe test environment, safe operational environments? And we're going to be putting that report out here very shortly.
So if you go to the next chart, we have three reports that we think are really fundamental to looking at the future.
(DESCRIPTION)
The State of Response. A color-coded map of the United States showing 12 states on track, 29 states lagging and 10 states off track.
(SPEECH)
The second one that I'll talk to you about here is called the State of Response. And that is where we went and actually looked at every state in our nation and across a multitude of dynamics asked, how did they do during this time?
And there was no playbook for COVID. So this is not about saying somebody failed or got an A. This was about, how did they respond? And what kind of resources were they able to put in place across their state for their citizens? And we looked at things like testing and contact tracing. We looked at mental health. And how did they handle mental health and resources for folks during this time?
We know that 40 states have seen an increase in opioid overdoses during this time frame. Forty of our states are going in the wrong direction on that. And some of that had to do with the ability to get to some of the treatment centers that were available. So we asked, what did each state do there? We looked at, what did they do in transportation? And what did they do to help their employers in their workplace?
And you can see here, we've actually scored them along three dimensions. That report is now available, also on our website. And you can look for each of those criteria. How did each state do? More importantly than any of that, what were the best practices and lessons learned? And how we hope that the states will learn from each other and be able to bring those best practices to their states.
We've gotten good response. We were a little curious to see whether some folks would take this on the chin, but it was quite the opposite. They definitely are looking at this as something that can help guide us to go forward. And the third report that we have will be about the future of work. Where are we going? And we look forward to putting that one out here shortly.
I'll end my last with a quote that I love to quote here, around our COVID learning. And that is from Maya Angelou. And it has to do with this humility that we don't know everything, and we'll continue to learn. And her quote is that we need to "Do the best you can until you know better."
(DESCRIPTION)
A photo of Angelou in a cap and gown.
(SPEECH)
And every day, we do know better. And then when we do know better, to do better. So that's what I know we have been doing. And I hope the folks on this call here, today, with you, Joan, will take some of both Allen's and my thoughts and help their organizations do better. So with that, I'll pass it back to you, ma'am.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
All right. Lorraine, Allen, that was just really terrific, very easy to follow. And we've got a number of questions coming in. So I have a couple questions of my own first that I want to ask you. But to the audience out there, use that Q&A function at the bottom middle of your screen. And you just type in there your question. You can put anonymous if you don't want me to say your name, but just a wealth of information that Lorraine and Allen have given us here.
I guess one of the things that is really on a number of people's minds that I've talked to recently is about going back into the office, or into the plant, or the facility. And a lot of people are really scared. As you mentioned, a number of statistics, something like 70% of people are really worried about contracting COVID by going back into the office setting.
So this is to both of you. And I think maybe, Lorraine, I'll ask you first. What advice could you get employers who may have employees who don't feel comfortable at this moment returning back to the office, but the employer wants them to come back? So, Lorraine, to you first. What do you say to that employer to help them get through this?
Yeah, I have a pretty strong message on this, both from my own staff, and how we've navigated it, and for the advice that I've been providing as the CEO of the National Safety Council. My first and foremost recommendation is to be as flexible as possible that you can. If you have workers who need to be in your work location--and we've talked about that--the essential workers--give them everything they need to be safe.
If you have office environments where your folks have been working from home, which I am--I think Joan might be, maybe Allen as well who are working from home right now. And all reports are that much of that has gone very well. I know it has for our team.
So my first recommendation to you is if you are doing work well from home--and we know that in most of the states around our nation, we don't have this health crisis under control. And in fact, it may get worse in the coming months if we listen to our health experts. And caution is advised.
Ask yourself why you're asking for them to come back to your work locations first and make sure that there's a rationale that can be offset by the added risk that we know that putting multiple people in a location has inherently. And if you can leave folks at home wherever possible, I would encourage you to do so. I know we all love to be together. Humans love interaction. And eventually, we'll need to be able to afford that.
But if you can do work safely from home and do it productively, ask yourself why, first, and then answer the question when, and only do it when you know you can be as safe as possible. So be as flexible as you can. All of my staff know if they need to work from home, they're going to be able to work from home.
(DESCRIPTION)
McCalister.
(SPEECH)
Joan?
Thank you, Lorraine.
The thing I'd like--
Allen?
--to add to that is you have to understand and recognize the uniqueness of each individual--older population that may have co-morbidities. Multiple of those are going to be a lot less--a lot more concerned than probably the younger population that may not be confronted with co-morbidity. So it's unique to the individual as much as it is to the organization as well, so keep that in mind.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
OK, terrific. So now, back to Lorraine on the NSC's emphasis on employee feedback. So to maintain this positive safety culture and prevent some injuries, talk to us about the process of soliciting feedback from employees. And why is that really important for employers to know that?
(DESCRIPTION)
Martin.
(SPEECH)
Yeah. And the safety community has known this lesson, Joan, for a long time, that getting closest to the work, showing--being where it's being done, and asking those folks, are you safe? What could you do and need to be safer? What's in your way? That's the gold. That's the gold mine. Allen said show up, go walk the line. I used that when I was in the aerospace industry all the time. You learn so much. And you are blind if you don't go to where the work is. And the people doing it know it, so you got to hear from them.
So safety community has always had surveys and ways of collecting information. It's now more important than ever that you collect that information regarding this new dynamic. We have safety surveys, perception surveys that we've given to literally millions of employees over, I think, it is 30 or 40 years that can help you understand where you are in your safety culture in general.
We also have, through the SAFER Framework, developed some surveys just for COVID concerns. I've used it twice now within my organization to understand, where are people right now on their comfort level of returning to work? Do they have the right equipment at home? Are they ergonomically safe if they're now working from their dining room table?
You just need to ask the questions. And sometimes ask the questions that you're not sure you want the answers to. But you know you need the answer so that you can provide the resources and the safety for your employees. Asking the question, as Allen said, is first and foremost, getting the right information. And then you've got to do something about it.
And then when you do something about it, the third piece is always to say, I heard you, and here's the action I took, so that you can really close that whole dynamic. It's so powerful and so needed right now. And that's why we invested so much in the communications piece of the six frameworks.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
That's terrific. And, Lorraine, what I liked about what you said when you looked at the best practices about the Fortune 100 companies saying, strip my name off, take my name off, my company name off of this playbook, this handbook and put it on your website for other small, medium-sized businesses to replicate.
I mean, that is true sharing of knowledge and sharing in terms of reinvesting what has already been invested. So small and medium-sized businesses out there can go to your website for that. So, Allen, back on that communication, the critical importance of communicating.
What strategies are leaders--what are they using for these new protocols? So say you're putting up a new handbook or taking one of these handbooks, that some Fortune 100 company's name has been stripped off and implementing that in your business? And how do you communicate those new protocols to your employee base?
(DESCRIPTION)
McCalister.
(SPEECH)
Yeah. I think it's extremely important that not only we communicate, but we have some mechanism that tells us it's been comprehended by the workforce. We find organizations that do have handbooks that put the information in there. But especially in these times, it's more important that they understand the specifics surrounding this specific subject matter.
It's not a problem. Put it in the handbook. But oftentimes, handbooks are at orientation or when they're on-boarding. But this needs to be ongoing communication because they're evolving issues. And we have to be sensitive to just the written piece of information, but that it's updated.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
OK. So, Lorraine, I'm going to move on to mental health. Because our physical health is clearly critically important in times of COVID, but our mental health and emotional well-being, especially in the workplace. And sometimes we're uncomfortable asking employees how they're doing. How's their family? You don't want them to think about things that are maybe potentially going on at home that might be negative for them. But we want to support them.
And as you said, the opioid use is up, which is dramatically up. And it's very scary, I think, for a lot of us. Alcoholism is going up. So what are some things the employers can do to support employees on the mental health front? I mean, one of our chief medical officers--we had him on a webinar the other day-- Dr. Marcos Iglesias. He said something as simple as asking an employee, how are you? Just those three words. But what do you suggest to help employees?
Yeah. And, Joan, thank you for putting that on the discussion here today. I think it is really important and sometimes one that it feels more difficult to talk about and not one that leaders--we traditionally have brought into the workplace to talk about mental health and in some case, substance-related issues, but so important right now.
We know that everybody is under added stress. If you're not, then you're an island for us right now. Because just everything has changed--the world, and how people chose to live their life, and everybody gets that choice--that got taken away from. The world got moved from under their feet. And that's difficult for any human being.
But we also know that to be safe, you have to actually feel safe. And that has to do with your physical safety, which we've talked about, but also your mental safety, and the psychological safety of knowing that you are accepted at work, that you aren't going to be bullied at work, and that maybe you’re feeling about how this risk affects you is not going to be judgmental--judgmented by others.
So this whole convergence of safety, health crisis, and economic crisis, our understanding in our communities, that diversity, equity, and inclusion and racial disparities--they are real for us. They are real for our communities. And they're coming into your workplace, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. And it's best to acknowledge it.
NIOSH, which is the occupational safety piece of the CDC, calls this their Total Worker Health, knowing that safety--physical is not enough. It really has to be all of the other pieces to keep someone safe. But, Joan, to your question, what can we do, there's a lot of stigma around this issue and a lot of concern about whether or not, especially in some of these high construction, and traditionally very sturdy, and, "I'm fine" kind of environments are actually talking about it.
And so it is important to ask those simple questions of, how are you today, to watch out. We have tools of looking for concerns with mental health guidelines to train supervisors who are actually going to build a new tool, just around this issue of impairment that I talked about. Is it human the way they should be? However, they come into the world, are they that this day as they come in to do their work? And can supervisors notice if there's a shift and if there's something of concern?
So training yourself with the materials that are available today. Reaching out for more as we get those refined, I think, is going to be really important, and encouraging people to use EAP, encouraging them to use whatever programs you have, and really doubling down on how to get rid of the stigma there.
One of the best ways to get rid of the stigma of using EAPs is for senior leaders to use EAP and note it. And that's hard to do. And I bet some leaders would say never me. But, man, can that change the dynamic. So there's just one challenge to you, Joan.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
That's great. Absolutely great advice. Were you going to say something, Allen?
No.
OK, OK. So a question back to you now, Allen. So we keep hearing about an engaged employee is more productive and better for the company, better for the person to be engaged. How do we continue to foster that sense of community and engagement when employees are sitting at home on their couch, working or social distancing on site for those essential employees who are actually on site, not gathering around the lunch room or the water cooler? So how do we get that sense of community pervasive in our systems now?
(DESCRIPTION)
McCalister.
(SPEECH)
Yeah, we see this a lot in remote staffs. We at the Travelers do outreach to our remote people. We have net meetings like this on a regular basis. It's more importantly that when you do have safety meetings, increase the frequency of those meetings. Because everybody is looking for information. And everybody is looking for guidance. So communication has always been critical. It's even more critical now, Joan, especially with people being in remote environments and in areas where we don't congregate like we used to. So very important--that communication.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
OK, thank you. So, Lorraine, let me get back to your State of the State Report. And thank you for doing that. I know it's hard sometimes to put out a negative or a positive grade for a community or a state, but I think it's really useful. Because the way you've done it is to show that 39 states, in your view, did not go far enough to protect their residents from COVID and sharing best practices. So what should states be doing now to receive an on track grade from the NSC? And what role do employers have to play in that, meeting those standards?
Yeah. And so just if you look at the things that we judged on--testing, contact tracing, employer practices, and recommendations for employee safety, say transportation and then mental health, employers play a role, truthfully, in all those. Some of the actual implementations need to be done in your communities or community wide. So it's not all on the employer's shoulders by any stretch of the imagination.
But we do know that testing and contact tracing can be extremely powerful tools. And partnering with your local jurisdiction on having the right capacity, either for your employees or in the community, can make a huge difference. So it's one place that I would say, go look at your state. And probably many of the folks on this call today are in more than one state. So look at how they're doing in your major locations and see if there's ways that you can partner on the testing and contact tracing side of this house.
The other piece is on the mental health. A lot of folks get their mental health resources through their employer. But it also has to have community support, whether it's medical-assisted treatments for substance use disorders, whether it's making sure that people when we weren't able to drive can get to where they need to go safely, really maybe leaning into that as employers and knowing that you do have employees that are struggling with those related issues.
75% of all folks that have substance use issues are in the workplace. They have a job. So as employers, this is a responsibility we have and a place that we can lean in and partner with our community. So it'd be good to look at the reports. Again, see how your states are doing and then partner with your health and local resources to see how you can play a role. But we really think the testing and contact tracing in employment environments is extremely important.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
OK, thank you.
(DESCRIPTION)
Questions?
(SPEECH)
Now, we're going to open it up to audience Q&A. And we've had a number of--and you submit when you registered. Some questions as well as some live questions--we're going to get to. So, Allen, I'm going to go to you on this one. What written COVID-19 policies and procedures are most important for small and medium-sized businesses in managing their exposure? And should those policies and procedures be made part of an employee handbook going forward?
(DESCRIPTION)
McCalister.
(SPEECH)
Yeah. We don't differentiate between small and large. The local and state guidelines are the same for all. So you want to make certain that you're following the CDC, the EPA, as well as state and local guidelines. And then even some counties have even more restrictive requirements.
Handbooks. And I'm a proponent of handbooks. But as I said earlier, oftentimes handbooks are something that are often used as part of orientation or on-boarding. So you want to keep the information in front of people. I would do special communication and special documentation specific to COVID safety and on-the-job safety as compared to putting it into just the handbook. That's a reference.
The other thing, too, that I'm not a big proponent of around communication is sticking information in checks that are sent out. You want to have someone in a leadership role communicating those policies and procedures as well, both small and large organizations.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
OK, another question for you, Allen, here. If an employee was exposed to the virus and we know he's exposed, should we have him quarantined? Should he get tested, even though he has no symptoms? He or she?
(DESCRIPTION)
McCalister.
(SPEECH)
Yeah. Definitely you want to follow the CDC guidelines. And the CDC guidelines says that anyone has tested positive, you want that person to quarantine and to follow the guides of not only your corporation, but also the local state standards. And different states are addressing that differently. But once someone is tested positive, you don't want to allow that person to be able to infect other people in the workplace.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
All right. Back to you, Allen, on this one. Do you personally see any downside of all of us remaining at home for a period of time? I mean, look, even if the vaccine is available, say in the next few months, it's going to take a while for all of us to be vaccinated.
And according to some polling, 35% of us say we do not intend to get this vaccine. So they'll be 2/3 of the population walking around with a vaccine, one third not. How long is it OK for us to say, hey, I want to stay at home? I want to work from home.
(DESCRIPTION)
McCalister.
(SPEECH)
Yeah, that's going to be held at individual organization's decision. I would say, as Lorraine mentioned, if you have the capability, and you have the technology for people to work at home, and it doesn't impact their productivity, definitely I would say make arrangements for that.
The other thing, too, is, as I said earlier, different people have different health issues themselves and co-morbidities. You may find the older population is a lot more nervous about re-entering a work environment where people are congregating than younger populations who may not have those co-morbidities or those exposures. So it's very specific to the company and the organization.
One of the things that Lorraine said--we have to do more to understand what the needs are of our people. And so I'm going to say that's going to be a company's decision, but to the extent, as Lorraine mentioned, that you can accommodate those people. And they, again, can continue to be productive. I would make-- to be as flexible as I can, versus having a drop-dead date and time that you want to have everybody back in a building or a physical space.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
OK, that's terrific. And so this one is for you, Lorraine. When a worker is infected at work, then goes home, and infects his family, how is the family covered?
(DESCRIPTION)
Martin.
(SPEECH)
That's a great question. And it's definitely something that we're exploring with one of our task forces right now. I just was in a meeting yesterday with both health professionals and legal experts. This is something we're all going to have to navigate. It's an emerging issue. There are other case law regarding some of this if we think about asbestos and some of the other things that our industries have dealt with that we'll need to help guide us.
We don't have a policy statement on this yet. But we are looking to develop some recommendations around this. If you're infected at work and you know that you got infected, you need to take all the precautions that Allen just talked about and keep yourself away from other human beings, both at work and, if you can, at home. And we know even recommending that for some families is not as feasible as others. So more to come on that. More to come. Stay tuned.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
All right. Good. Good. Another question here for you, Lorraine. Is the NSC looking at technology, such as wearable devices or applications in employee safety for COVID tracing? So the wearable devices for COVID tracing is a new thing, obviously.
Have you looked at that?
(DESCRIPTION)
Martin.
(SPEECH)
We sure have. And in fact, on the SAFER website, we have a solutions area where folks that have had products, not that we've vetted them or endorsed them. But this was so important that we just made sure that you could get access to them. So there's all kinds of mechanisms, whether they're cell phone related, RFID tags, other ways to know where a person has been if you have a device on you and then who else you've been in contact with.
There's some large companies who have been doing that inside their plant. There's privacy-related issues, of course, with all of that, just like there is with anything, when we try to get data on individuals. And it's going to be really important for us to navigate that. But, yeah, if you're interested in some of those technologies, we do have them listed on our solution space.
(DESCRIPTION)
Woodward.
(SPEECH)
OK, terrific. Well, we've run out of time, folks. And sorry if we didn't get to some of your questions. But please join me in thanking Allen, and Lorraine, and the National Safety Council partnership for your time today and all the terrific work you're doing. As you heard, please go to the websites and look for all this free, available information for your businesses.
So again, thank you to both of you.
Great. Thank you.
We have some terrific webinars coming up, folks, over the coming weeks, including October 14-- Insurance Regulation. So what's going on in the states, what's going on in the federal government. You'll hear the outlook for regulation and legislation, so what you need to know there. That's a really, really important one next week. And then we have Cybersecurity During a Pandemic coming up on the 21st. And it is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October.
So we're doing a lot around there. Go to the travelersInstitute.org. Register for these programs. And as a reminder, also, for all of our past eight programs that we've had, there are replays available. And just go right to the Traveler's Institute website-- Wednesdays with Woodward. And again, thank you for joining us. Please wear your mask. Please be safe out there, my friends. And we'll see you next week. Thanks again to Allen and Lorraine.
(DESCRIPTION)
Watch replays of past webinars at Travelers institute dot O R G. Life after shelter in place, a conversation with Stanford University of Medicine Dean Lloyd Minor M D. Liability issues for business in the time of Covid 19. Emotional and social reintegration in the age of Covid 19. PATH to reopening your business. Return to work with cybersecurity. An inside look at Iintellidrive, registered trademark Travelers’ telematics program to encourage safer driving behaviors. Crafting your Comeback: an interview with Ginny Brzezinski.
Summary
According to McCalister, leadership is more important now than ever before. He explained that leaders should:
- Communicate a clear plan of action in response to the pandemic.
- Help ensure that employees feel well prepared and safe while doing their jobs.
- Hold front-line management responsible for keeping employees informed.
- Demonstrate that the organization cares about its employees’ well-being.
- Promote a culture of safety; position their workplace as a safe space and their company as a trusted resource.
Building Safety Engagement
McCalister described the importance of building safety engagement, citing a Gallup survey[1] showing that companies with high employee engagement enjoy better productivity and fewer safety incidents. He shared two strategies that employers can use to help cultivate a workplace culture of safety, respect and belonging.
- Demonstrate that they care: Express concern; participate in safety meetings and trainings; make health and safety the first talking points of all meetings; listen carefully; be proactive; establish and model COVID-19 practices; and keep promises.
- Encourage health and safety involvement: Involve employees; create project teams for cleaning or disinfecting; assign employees to check hand-washing/hand sanitizer stations; provide positive reinforcement; encourage employees to make health and safety suggestions and hold peers accountable; communicate COVID-19 health and safety policies; and recognize employees/crews for following the guidelines.
The National Safety Council’s SAFER Initiative: A Road Map Back to Business as Usual
According to a National Safety Council survey, 2 out of 3 Americans feel somewhat uncomfortable about returning to the workplace. But the good news, Martin explained, is that the same survey found that 69% of Americans trust their employers to make good decisions regarding when to reopen and what safeguards are needed. Martin emphasized the importance of employer involvement during this time.
To help guide employers through the process of bringing their workers back into the workplace or keeping them there safely, the NSC launched SAFER: Safe Actions for Employee Returns. SAFER is a road map for employers, based on learnings from over 100 organizations including government agencies, nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies, coming together under the guiding principle that “safety is not proprietary.” The SAFER initiative provides over 200 recommendations and both general and sector-specific reopening playbooks, which align worker safety with business objectives.
The SAFER framework uses six components (below) and four operation types: office, closed industrial, open industrial and public.
- physical
- medical
- mental and emotional
- employment, legal and HR
- communication
- external factors
The initiative’s free Organizational Vulnerability Assessment online tool assigns a business a four-step organizational risk score, and then provides recommendations and strategies for implementing additional safeguards for reopening, based on that score.
Ongoing Communication with Employees
During these uncertain times, both Martin and McCalister noted the importance of communication with employees. Some employees may not be comfortable returning to the workplace and may need flexibility. Martin encouraged employers to use employee surveys to gather feedback, noting that employers need to ask questions, take actions based on that feedback and share those actions with employees. She referred employers to the SAFER initiative for sample surveys tailored to the current pandemic. Martin further stated that employers should consider the mental health of their employees. “There’s a lot of stigma around this issue and a lot of concern about actually talking about it,” Martin explained. “And so it is important to ask those simple questions, such as ‘How are you today?’”
[1] Gallup ®, Inc. “The Relationship Between Engagement at Work and Organizational Outcomes 2016 Q12 ® Meta-Analysis: Ninth Edition.” Apr. 2016: 2.
Presented by the Travelers Institute, the National Safety Council, the Campbell Institute, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council and Accion.
Speakers
Lorraine Martin
President and CEO, National Safety Council
Allen McCalister
Director, Workers Compensation Cost Containment, Risk Control, Travelers
Host
Joan Woodward
President, Travelers Institute; Executive Vice President, Public Policy, Travelers
Join Joan Woodward, President of the Travelers Institute, as she speaks with thought leaders across industries in a weekly webinar.
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