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Please take a look at our Newsletters which offer an array of information for all your needs.
Life & Health
These articles provide practical, helpful info about Life and Health Insurance concerns.
Personal Protection
Dont miss out on tips and important facts for home owners, car owners and more!
Business Protection
Good advice for small to medium-size businesses. Hands-on, easy to read.
Employee Matters
Your Employee Matters. A guide to Workplace Culture and Compliance.
Workers Comp
For any business with employees! Special updates, and advice on holding down Workers Comp claims.
Scurich Insurances can provide commercial packages, farm bureau discounts, farm packages, workers compensation, professional liability, umbrella, group benefits group life & health personal auto , home, life, health and much more. We can also help you plan wisely and guide you in the evaluation of risk management, We serve Watsonville, California and surrounding areas. We represent over 50 Insurance carriers to better protect your business.
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Safety programs based on changing employee behavior can help companies reduce the rate of accidents in the workplace – while slashing the frequency and severity of Workers Compensation Claims.
That’s the word from behavioral psychologist Daniel J. Moran, Senior Vice President of Quality Safety Edge (Joliet, IL), at a recent joint meeting of the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. and the American Society of Safety Engineers.
Moran noted that data from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration and Mercer L.L.C. show that businesses can save $3 to $6 in Workers Comp claim costs for every $1 they spend on behavior-based safety programs. He cited claims data from a major refinery, an energy firm, and a logging company that enjoyed significant reductions in lost-time Comp claims after they implemented behavior-based safety processes.
According to Moran, employees tend to engage in unsafe behaviors because improper shortcuts often have benefits, while accidents are rare. “If you’re not wearing your hard hat, you’re a lot more comfortable,” he said. “If you cut a few corners to make deadline, you… make that money.”
Moran advised companies to encourage safer behavior by rewarding workers who follow proper procedures. This includes pinpointing work procedures that help make them safer, measuring the use of safe workplace behaviors, giving positive feedback to workers who follow procedures, reinforcing good behaviors with individual and group rewards and social recognition, and conducting regular evaluations to see how safety can be improved.
Sounds like sound advice.
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America is a tired country. About 20% of us average less than six hours of sleep a night, and the percentage of those who sleep eight hours or more keeps declining. The problem is worse for the ever-increasing number of employees who work nontraditional schedules. According to one nationwide study, 44% of shift workers are sleep deprived (compared with 29% of day workers).
Sleep deprivation in the workplace leads to poor concentration, absenteeism, accidents, errors, injuries – and fatalities.
In 2012 an American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine task force developed these guidelines to help businesses manage the risks of workplace fatigue:
- Staffing. Set shifts that minimize the need for employees to work additional hours.
- Shiftwork. Reduce fatigue for night shift workers by setting schedules so that they can recover from sleep deprivation by sleeping at night and/or napping during the day.
- Employee training and sleep disorder management. Teach workers about the impact, and health risks of sleep disorders. Screen them for symptoms through a questionnaire or physical. Employees should learn how to how to wake up at the same time every day, and avoid alcohol or caffeine before bedtime. Treatments for sleep disorders t include behavior modification, continuous positive airway pressure (C-PAP) equipment, and medication.
- Workplace conditions. To increase employee alertness change such factors in the environment as light, temperature, humidity, noise, and ergonomic design. Provide breaks for food, exercise, conversation and – if possible – naps.
- Individual risk assessment. Give managers authority to encourage rest breaks, shift dangerous activities to others, or use a buddy approach to improve alertness. Make sure that workers can identify such signs of excessive fatigue as yawning, a drooping head or eyelids, or lapses in attention.
To learn more about how you can help your workers fight fatigue in the workplace, just let us know at any time. At Scurich Insurance Services, we’re here to serve you.
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Hello!
Scurich Insurance Services is proud to announce the launch of our latest and greatest promotion! We will be giving you a chance to win a brand spanking new iPad. All you have to do is fill out our simple survey and you will instantly be entered into our promotion drawing.
If that link does not work, please cut and paste this URL into your browser: http://aom.imms.com/promotions/startpage.aspx?id=120
Keep in mind that there is no obligation to enter our promotion and you must live in California to enter. You will not receive any spam marketing from us.
Enter today and win.
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You’re probably doing everything you can (from detailed job descriptions through physical exams to comprehensive workplace safety programs) to minimize job-related injuries.
However, accidents happen, despite your best efforts. The sooner employees injured on the job return to work, the less it costs your Workers Compensation insurance company to treat them, the lower your “experience mod” – and your premiums.
The first step in the process is to make sure that workers report any injuries to their supervisor as soon as possible – definitely before the end of their shift.
Once an injury is reported, it’s essential to get the proper treatment. To find a list of board-certified occupational physicians in your area, go to www.acoem.org. If no specialist is available, choose a doctor who is familiar with the physical demands on workers in your business and knows what type of jobs you can provide to transition injured employees back to their full-time positions. If the doctor knows you will offer transitional duty to these workers, he or she will be far more likely to let them go back to work, rather than send them home to sit on the couch and watch infomercials for attorneys at 1-800-SUE-THEM.
Once these employees return to transitional jobs, they’ll be far more likely to work hard so they can get back to their full-time position – which means they’ll be more productive. The bottom line: a “rapid return” program can turn transform injured workers from liabilities into assets. What’s not to like?
Our agency’s Workers Compensation specialists stand ready to offer their advice on developing such a program tailored to your needs. Just give us a call at Scurich Insurance Services!
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Retail businesses are in the cross hairs of hackers, according to a recent report from Trustwave, a provider of data security and payment card compliance solutionto businesses.
Retail businesses – specifically the cardholder data they possess – were the primary target of cyber criminals in 2012, says Trustwave. About 45% of the company’s investigations were in the retail sector, followed by food and beverage (24%), and hospitality (9%).
“Cyber could very well be the largest part of the exposure picture for these retail businesses,” says John O’Connor, Vice President of Strategic Product & Platform Development for Travelers Insurance.
What makes the retail industry so appealing to cyber thieves? The sheer volume of payment cards used in these businesses make them obvious targets. Also, stores are relatively easy targets because they tend to focus primarily on customer service, rather than data security.
Widespread reporting of costly and embarrassing data breaches have made retailers increasingly aware of the exposures they face when storing customers’ data and swiping their credit cards.
Although hackers are targeting retailers of all sizes, smaller firms are particularly vulnerable because they often find it more difficult than their larger counterparts to keep their systems secure and to afford the heavy costs of notifying their customers about data breaches.
One insurance agent said, “A lot of these businesses aren’t the types that can absorb these costs. A data breach is one of those things they might not think about – but it can shutter their doors if it happens.”
The good news: our agency can help you protect you against these risks by offer a variety of comprehensive, competitively priced Cyber Liability policies. Just give us a call.
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