By Valerie S. Nosek

“Workplace safety” is an all-encompassing term that includes many different factors, all of which impact the safety and health of employees. Addressing workplace safety includes how organizations manage environmental hazards inherent to the job, working conditions, work practices and processes, drug and alcohol issues, and potential for violence.

Employers should routinely be assessing safety records and revising safety goals – not only because of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards, but also because safety directly affects a company’s bottom line. How an organization approaches workplace safety ultimately impacts profits through employee morale and retention, productivity, worker’s compensation claims, insurance rates and legal costs.

To exemplify this point as related to substance abuse and workplace safety, consider the following:

• Over 14 million Americans use illegal drugs.
• 9.4 million illicit drug-users are employed full-time.
• Over 10.1 million heavy alcohol users are employed full-time.
• As workers, they are 3.6 times more likely to be involved in an accident at work.
• They are 5 times more likely to file for worker’s compensation benefits than non-users.
• 40 percent of the time a substance user causes an accident, a co-worker is injured.
• 47 percent of industrial injuries and 40 percent of industrial deaths are directly linked to alcohol consumption – a legal drug.

Sources: W. Atkinson “EAP’s: Investments, Not Costs,” Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Performance and Behavior Issues Associated with Substance Abuse
• Inconsistent work quality
• Poor concentration
• Lowered productivity
• Increased absenteeism
• Carelessness and mistakes
• Errors in judgment
• Needless risk-taking and disregard for safety
• Extended lunch periods/early departures
• Unexplained disappearances from the job
• Theft (The Ohio BWC estimates approximately 50-80 percent of all pilferage, theft and loss is due to substance-abusing employees.)

Any one of these issues will negatively affect job performance, overall company productivity and profits – more so if problems are widespread, prolonged or not addressed by management. In the worst-case scenario, situations such as the ones mentioned above can result in liability and legal issues for the employer.

Getting Your EAP Involved in Safety

Clearly, your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) should be an integral part of any workplace safety process.

Early interventions with employee performance issues generally result in an improved prognosis for the employee, but it also makes business sense for the organization. Intervention is extremely important in regards to minimizing safety and litigation concerns, while expediting a return to normal levels of productivity.

Your EAP can help with developing Drug Free Safety Program policy and implementation. An EAP also provides convenience and confidentiality for employees who voluntarily seek help for drug/alcohol abuse, along with providing mandated counseling for management referral cases.

Of course, your EAP should be able to assist with a myriad of other work-life issues, which may also be affecting safety in the workplace. For example, if an employee is distracted due to job, home, or financial stressors, this can result in increased safety risks while on the job. Your EAP can help this employee manage the stressors, so that he/she can return to normal attention patterns, therefore reducing the safety risks associated with a lack of focus while at work.

Don’t Wait for a Crisis

Unfortunately, too often managers relegate their EAP to only addressing difficult employee issues once they have become full blown problems. And while any good EAP should be able to address critical issues, waiting negates the powerful prevention aspect of the EAP.

Activities like making suggested EAP referrals, calling to schedule a management consultation with an EAP professional and scheduling various trainings for your staff are all good proactive examples of the prevention potential of your EAP.

Need help addressing issues that are affecting workplace safety? Contact Ease@Work  find out how we might be able to help!

Out with the DFWP, In with the DFSP

by Patrick Gaul

It has long been rumored that the Ohio BWC Drug Free Workplace Program (DFWP) was on the chopping block. The BWC sent an announcement on March 31, 2010, confirming those rumors.

“The BWC will phase out DFWP effective July 1, 2010,” according to an update to the Ohio BWC website which was posted on April 1, 2010. April Fools Day, interesting timing. The DFWP is being replaced with the Drug Free Safety Program (DFSP).

Since helping businesses to maintain a drug free work environment is a big part of what Ease@Work does, I spent some time reviewing the DFSP information on the BWC Website. If you would like to do the same, follow this link to the BWC DFSP information Webpage. Here are the highlights as I see them:

• The DFSP is not limited to five years, as was the case with the DFWP.
• Previous participants are eligible to join even if they timed out of the DFWP.
• Stacking of discounts is back, but don’t get too excited. If your organization is group rated, your DFSP discount is limited to 3 percent.
• The DFSP is supposedly simpler and easier to implement than the DFWP.
• The application process has been streamlined.
• The employee education requirement has been reduced from two hours initially and two hours of annual refresher to one hour initially and one hour annual refresher.
• The supervisor education requirement has been reduced from four hours initially and two hours of annual refresher to two hours initially and one hour of annual refresher. (Kudos to the BWC for this! As an employee of an EAP which is in the business of selling Drug Free training, even I think that 6 hours of supervisor training was too much.)
•  The DFSP emphasizes tailored approaches to loss prevention and risk management, which includes a mandatory safety review and the provision of accident-analysis training for supervisors.

Two levels instead of three.

The DFSP Basic Level provides a 4 percent discount, which is down significantly from the 10 percent for DFWP Level 1. Group rated organizations cannot receive a discount for participating in the DFSP at the Basic Level. Requirements at the Basic Level include a “safety review” which “walks them through a series of questions designed to demonstrate where the gaps are within the overall approach to workplace safety.”

As was the case with the DFWP, the Basic Level requires a written substance policy. The DFSP includes an outline of questions which, when answered thoroughly, will assist you with designing your own policy. They still suggest that you run your policy past legal counsel for review, but believe this process will be less expensive than paying an employment law attorney to design your policy from scratch.

As stated in the bullets above, the employee education and supervisor training has been reduced in quantity but still follows the same basic guidelines as the DFWP. As with the DFWP, the DFSP drug testing requirements include pre-employment, reasonable suspicion and post-accident testing, as appropriate, return-to-duty and follow-up testing for employees being allowed to retain employment after a positive test. The Basic Level does not require random testing.

The DFSP Advanced Level provides an additional 3 percent “incremental” discount for a total of 7 percent. Only companies which are not receiving a group rating will qualify for the 7 percent discount. Group rated organizations may qualify for the 3 percent incremental discount if they participate at this level. In other words, while discount stacking is technically allowed, a DFSP discount is only available for group rated businesses if they qualify at the Advanced Level and their discount is limited to 3 percent rather than the 7 percent available to businesses which are not group rated.

The Advanced Level requires everything that the Basic Level requires, plus Advanced Level organizations must create a safety action plan from the safety review required at the Basic Level. This plan “moves employers from identifying gaps in safety to taking the appropriate steps to address these issues and better protect the workforce.” BWC safety consultants are available to offer professional guidance in this area.

The Advanced Level also requires random drug testing of 15 percent of the average annual total workforce and it requires a pre-established “working relationship with an employee assistance professional to whom they can refer an employee” testing positive for banned substances and the employer must pay for the cost of the assessment.

This is the cliff notes version of the DFWP / DFSP transition. Again, for a far more detailed explanation, go to the BWC website.

To address the elephant in the room - Why bother?

While the BWC says the new program is “easier to implement” it sure seems like more work with the safety review and safety action plan requirements. On top of it, for your extra efforts you are being rewarded with significantly reduced discounts.

Is it worth the bother?

In my opinion, yes it is. Even under the DFWP when the discounts were 10-20 percent, the most significant cost savings were ancillary to the BWC discounts. The biggest savings came with improvements in workplace safety, improved employee productivity and even wellness. It is apparent to me that the BWC has put a great deal of effort into maximizing the ancillary benefits by improving the focus on workplace safety. I believe that any effort to improve workplace safety is a good investment.

Ease@Work provides a variety of support to employees and management working within a drug free environment. Contact Ease@Work for more information.