Managing your EMR rating isn't just about keeping your employees safe— best hiring strategies
it's a critical factor that can make or break your business. Did you know that a single workplace accident can cost your company hundreds of thousands of dollars in increased insurance premiums and lost business opportunities? In competitive industries like construction, healthcare, logistics, and manufacturing, your EMR is a numerical representation of your safety record compared to industry peers.
An EMR above 1.0 indicates a higher risk, leading to increased premiums, while an EMR below 1.0 signifies a safer workplace and results in lower premiums. The good news? Implementing smart hiring strategies can drastically improve your EMR rating.
Lowering EMR: Essential for Business Success
Every company must lower its EMR and manage workplace risk. Rocio Luna, a Workers' Compensation Claim Specialist, explained in a webinar with Discovered that work accidents can significantly impact a business.
The calculation formula can be tricky, involving multiple factors, but generally speaking, your score will be higher if you've had more incidents and higher cost claims in the past.
With that said, who will choose to work with a company that is more likely to have employees who get hurt?
An article from Engineering News-Record shows that Dutra Group, a marine contractor, lost a bid for an $8.9 million pier substructure repair project in part due to its EMR rating. In another case, Michigan-based general contractor George W. Auch Co. used to automatically reject bidders with EMR scores over 1.
Let’s talk about some striking statistics. According to the 2024 Travelers Injury Impact Report the industries most affected by first-year workers getting injured are restaurants with 52% of claims, construction with 44% and transportation with 39%. Given all this, the question arises: Is there a correlation between poor hiring practices and workers' compensation claims? The answer is yes! The Travelers report mentioned above shows that 34% of workplace injuries occurred during an employee’s first year on the job, resulting in almost seven million missed workdays. Fletcher Wimbush, CEO of IntegrityFirst and Discovered, emphasizes that effective hiring strategies can reduce these percentages by focusing on hiring the right talent. With the help of integrity tests assessments, advanced assessment tools, and technology, you can create a safer work environment, decrease claims, and ultimately save your company money.
Hiring Strategies to Improve EMR Rating
Hiring can be a headache because applicants are not always honest about their backgrounds or risky behaviors. A scientific study about Reducing Injuries, Malingering, and Workers’ Compensation Costs by Implementing Overt Integrity Testing, demonstrates that screening job applicants with an Integrity test reduced workers’ compensation claim rates and related costs, achieving a return on investment of 734%. Let's explore how strategic hiring can transform your workforce.
Discovered and IntegrityFirst are your allies to make better hiring decisions and prevent workplace injuries and claims. IntegrityFirst is a pre-hire overt behavioral integrity test to prevent hiring problematic people who steal, abuse drugs & alcohol on the job and people who are generally dishonest. Integrity Testing has a larger ROI than traditional risk management screening tools such as drug screening, reference checking, structured interviews focused on safety mindsets and pre-hire physicals.
When combining one or all of the mentioned best practices organizations can see a complete elimination of workplace injuries, huge reductions in turnover and major improvements to productivity all resulting in improved business profitability.
Rocio Luna, an expert in worker compensation, agrees that employers with strong structured hiring processes, which include the use of pre-employment assessment tests, are essential for eliminating these risk-related issues because those 'bad apples' don't make it through the process.
Additionally, it is still vital to have a robust and ongoing safety training program for your new hires so they can learn the organization's unique procedures and avoid accidents. By implementing these pre and post-hire strategies, your company can effectively lower its EMR, enhance workplace safety, and improve financial performance.
Achieving Business Success Through Smart Hiring and EMR Management
If you are the CEO of a construction, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics or food and beverage company and are struggling with workers' compensation, we are here to help. IntegrityFirst helps you to identify the highest quality applicant as a part of your hiring process. It was designed to integrate well with applicant tracking systems like Discovered. Its methodology focuses on a 10-minute test in 27 languages that delivers instant results relating to reduced turnover, lower worker’s compensation claims, decreased fraud and employee theft. This is the only assessment recommended by EEOC guidelines to prevent workplace risks and lower turnover with unprecedented scientific validation.
By partnering with an industry and risk management expert such as Rocio Luna to navigate all the intricacies of implementing effective risk management programs, organizations can dramatically decrease their Work comp insurance costs.
A client of ours, Silverado, a nursing home for elderly care with multiple locations across the country, implemented IntegrityFirst into their hiring process. Silverado screened 12,240 job applicants and the IntegrityFirst assessment had a major impact on the quality of employees hired. By reducing both the number of workers’ compensation claims and the costs per claim. IntegrityFirst disqualified 26.5% of candidates based on indications of risky behavior. Silverado achieved significant cost savings resulting in an astounding 22:1 ROI.
Smart Hiring Can Transform Your Business
Effectively managing your EMR rating is crucial for reducing insurance costs and maintaining business success. IntegrityFirst offers a simple and highly effective solution ensuring that only the best talent joins your workforce.
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