Practical Application

1. Kwantlen Polytechnic University
School of Business
Project #3
«Practical Application»
Occupational Health and Safety
HRMT 5150 (P60)
Prepared by
Your Name: Vandana Narwal
Your Student ID: 100422913
Submitted on:
11/20/2022
© 2022

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Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................3
Analysis......................................................................................................................................4
Key issue #1 ...........................................................................................................................4
Key issue #2 ...........................................................................................................................5
Key issue #3 ...........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................6
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................7
Recommendation #1..............................................................................................................7
Recommendation #2............................................................................................................10
Recommendation #3............................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Our company is facing issues regarding workplace health and safety. While the number of
injuries is going up, we are unable to pinpoint the exact pain points and most injuries seem to be
first aid injuries. On the surface, this is a workplace health and safety issue but if not taken in
control, it can spiral into a retention and organizational culture issue that would have far too
much negative impact overall. The possible recommendations discussed later are first analyzing
and researching what might be the exact issue for the injuries. If we are not able to pinpoint the
issue, we should at least find a trend. We should also set realistic goals and measurement criteria,
which would be used to measure our performance and create new projections. Second
recommendation deals with having a revised health safety plan. It is also the second with
retraining our employees as research shows that training in first aid prevents employee injuries
by a considerable number. They become trained to help other people if there is an injury but, in
that process, they become aware themselves of how to prevent a first aid injury.
The third recommendation deals with the return-to-work program of the company. It is about
setting clear guidelines and the possibility of hiring on a contract or a part-time basis. The funds
to foot the cost will come from a newly established fund by the union. This fund will also be
used to compensate the efforts of workers covering shifts for their coworkers while they are
suffering from an injury, more of which is discussed later.

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Analysis
Key issue #1
The first key issue facing the company is the injuries going up. There has been an 8-fold rise in
the number of injuries reported within the last 12 months. According to Gerganoff (2022), the
safety managers have a key role in litigation and prevention of the workplace related injury.
However, despite having an HR department, the injuries have shot up which is a cause of
concern for both the head office and WorkSafeBC. While the company has a HR department, the
plant manager is not trained to manage the HR issues. While the operational functionality of the
company is being looked at, the HR issues are only managed by the HR department. If there is a
litigation, the plant manager would need to play a role too and this can cause liability for the
plant manager and the company itself.
This also ties into a similar issue the company is facing which is the rising premiums paid to
WorkSafeBC. With more workplace related accidents, the premiums need to be paid to
WorkSafeBC have gone up which is contributing to a financial crunch on the company. In times
like these, when every company is facing a cut-throat competition, the extra premiums paid to
WorkSafeBC BC can really come in handy in boosting the bottom line of the company.

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Key issue #2
No defined pattern of the injury does not help in diagnosing where the issue lies. According to
(Ivascu et al., 2021), a major cause of the accidents is work procedures (over 50% of the
accidents) and other major chunk is the numerous deficiencies in the working environment.
Since there is no specific cause of the accidents, in the company’s case, most accidents can be
attributed to work procedures. As deficiencies in the working environment like faulty electrical
wires, slippery floors, unsafe ladders can be pinpointed easily and are consistent in nature. The
faulty work procedures are wide as it could be as simple as picking a heavy load putting pressure
on the back instead of generating force from the legs and the hips. These causes are harder to pin
down and can be both specific task-oriented and general demeanor related.
One thing to note, Ivascu et al. (2021) also mentions that deficiencies in the working
environment are a major contributing factor to fatal accidents. Since fortunately most of the
accidents in the company have been non-fatal, the work procedures can mostly be blamed for the
accidents in the company.
Key issue #3
The safety supervisor is spending a good chunk of their time in managing the company’s return
to work program. Since we have 225 employees and given a ballpark number of about 5% being
injured at any given time, it comes down to around 12 employees being injured any time. The

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supervisor alone has to file the report to WorkSafeBC, coordinate with the doctors and insurance
companies, and finally keep a track when the employees will be back from the program.
According to Skivington et al. (2016), the return-to-work program should have clear set
guidelines. The company should have a standard policy to call the employees and check in on
them and asking when they would be back to work. This must be done in a way that one it does
not infringe with their privacy, second it does not feel pushy, third it is done in a timely way so
as to get the employees back to work as soon as possible.
Another overlooked component is the pressure on the other workers. This spirals into an
organizational culture issue as when a person is injured, the workload has to be shared among
other employees. This results in an unfair workload while there is no difference in the
compensation for the people picking the slack. This can cause friction in the team and team
members may choose to stay at home for more time than required as the unionized pay cannot be
changed, and it limits what the company can do to reward people who were overworked.
Conclusion
To sum up the three key issues, we have injuries going up without being able to pinpoint what
kind of injuries are our employees facing. The last part of this issue is the supervisor spending
way too much time on the return-to-work program without a set guideline that would guide the
behaviour company wide. This has caused an increase in premiums paid to WorkSafe BC and
has increased their visits our facility on a monthly basis. It has also caused our accident

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frequency rate to go up to almost 8 times in the last 12 months alone. This will reduce employee
productivity and will over burden our employees’ covering shifts for people suffering from an
injury. This will reduce employee loyalty and satisfaction and we might have to deal with
employees leaving the company. If that starts happening, it is a snowball effect, and the company
will have to deal with a huge recruitment and retention issue in an already tightly stretched
labour market.
Besides the possible HR issues in the future, we might be already encountering a change in the
organizational culture where the employees might be staying at home over the required number
of days, and which demotivates other employees. This can further cause financial distress for the
company if employees go into what is called “silent quitting” (Daugherty, 2022). It is a condition
where unmotivated or unsatisfied employees, put in the bare minimum enough to keep their job
but do not look to put in extra effort or try to innovate. We will be left with a workforce that is
unmotivated and does the bare minimum to keep a job. Since the workers are unionized,
“unmotivated employees” will not be enough grounds to replace the employees with new
employees.
Recommendation
Recommendation #1
This recommendation is to counter the decrease the number of injuries. An analysis needs to be
pinpoint where the pain points are. Without knowing what the cause of the injuries is, the

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company would be just shooting in the dark and hope something happens that miraculously
reduces the number of injuries.
As a general measure, the company must hold a mandatory training program for all the
employees to cover the most common causes of injuries. Additional sources can be provided and
could be shared with the employees if they are looking for further training other topics not
covered in the mandatory training. A few hours of mandatory first aid training can also
significantly reduce the accident frequency rate (McKenna & Hale, 2002).
To counter the increase in premiums, the easiest way suggested by WorkSafe BC (2021) is to
reduce the insurance claims. This does not imply that the incidents are just not reported to
WorkSafe BC as that would be in violation of the Worker’s Compensation Act (Government of
BC, 2022). If we are able to reduce the claims compared to our competitors, we can actually
reduce the premiums paid to WorkSafe BC by over 50% (WorkSafe BC, 2021).
Along with this, a forecast must be prepared for the next 24 months. It can be on the lines of the
following suggestion:
 Forecast number of injuries for the next 12 months first
 Make manual adjustments for busier or slow months
 Compare with the actual injuries at the end of every month and make another 12-month
project 6 months from now reflecting updated information.
This is important as it helps set the management and the leadership clear expectations as to what
to expect. The injuries will not go down to near to zero in the next month as this is a slow and

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gradual process. Whatever changes are implemented are not instant and take their time to blend
in and sufficient time should be given for those changes to reflect and show in the data. Below is
a sample projection created to help you visualize how the number of injury graph might look like
over the next 12 months:
While we implement the changes, it will take some time to reflect it in the accident frequency
rate. It is projected to stay stable in months of September and October as we ramp up production
to meet the holiday season demand and employees are putting in more hours.
This is just for an illustrative purpose and requires more input based on the history of the
accident frequency rate in the last 2-3 years.
0
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5
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Accident frequency rate

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Recommendation #2
Since we are not able to currently diagnose the exact issue for the accidents, following are a few
things we should be implementing (Page, 2018):
 Revising our safety and wellness plan:
We should consider revising our plan to include the current issues we have faced and
explicitly address them, so the employees are aware with what to do in case an incident
like this happens again.
 Revising safety equipment
We need to conduct research to ensure the protective equipment is up to date and is able
to protect our employees from any injuries.
Recommendation #3
This recommendation deals with the return-to-work program. According to Skivington et al.
(2016), Managers are hired to deal with an efficient return to work program. While this does add
on to the financial burden for the company, it frees up the time from the safety supervisor to
ensure that the workplace is safe.
To counter the financial burden:
 They should be hired as a full-time employee but more like a project or case by case
basis.
 The funds required should come from a dedicated funds established by the union
whereby, every employee is required to pay a small percentage of their gross pay.

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The same fund will be used to compensate the group of employees based on the number of days
not missed at work due to a workplace injury. This will create an incentive for people to come
back after they have been medically cleared by the medical professionals but also give incentive
to the people taking on the extra load when a person is injured.
Since all employees would be paying into the fund, it will ensure that there is a transfer of wages
from the employees missing work for more days beyond the required days set by their medical
professional to the employees who are picking their slack and have to work more to cover their
shifts.
Besides this, there should be sample RTW policy document to be distributed to the all the
employees. It would have certain information like responsibilities of the employees,
responsibilities of the employer, time periods, policy to come back to work, accessibility
services, information about the compensation from this newly created fund, option to switch or
modify the job responsibilities. This document will lay out and give certainty to employees and
lays a pathway for the security supervisor or RTWC to follow so personal judgment is eliminated
and the personnel is following standard rules throughout the company.
Another component in the RTW program should be the completion of a workplace education
component. These would be standard courses made by the HR team and would be divided based
on different tasks and responsibilities that most employees need to follow. For instance, if an
employee trip from a ladder, after they return from the work, the employee would have to take a
mandated HR course to ensure they understand the best practices on as to how to manage the
ladder. This would also include an attestation from the employees that would ensure they

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understand the content of the package. This will help the company have employee attestation in
case a similar incident occurs, and the employee decides to file a lawsuit suing the company for
deficient workplace practices.

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References
Daugherty, G. (2022, November 2). What is quiet quitting-and is it a real trend? Investopedia.
Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/what-is-quiet-quitting-
6743910
Gerganoff, G. (2022). The Hidden Role of Safety Managers in WORKPLACE INJURY
LITIGATION. Professional Safety, 67(11), 20–23.
Government of BC. (2022, September 21). Managing occupational health and safety. Province
of British Columbia. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/careers-myhr/managers-supervisors/occupational-
health-safety
Ivascu, L., Sarfraz, M., Mohsin, M., Naseem, S., & Ozturk, I. (2021). The causes of
occupational accidents and injuries in Romanian firms: An application of the Johansen
cointegration and Granger Causality Test. International Journal of Environmental
Research and Public Health, 18(14), 7634. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147634
McKenna, S. P., & Hale, A. R. (2002, August 28). Changing behaviour towards danger: The
effect of first aid training. Journal of Occupational Accidents. Retrieved November 20,
2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0376634982900554

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Page, L. (2018, January 29). 10 tips to prevent workplace injuries. Concentra. Retrieved
November 20, 2022, from https://www.concentra.com/resource-center/articles/10-tips-to-
prevent-workplace-injuries/
Skivington, K., Lifshen, M., & Mustard, C. (2016, November 22). Implementing a collaborative
return-to-work program: Lessons from a qualitative study in a large Canadian Healthcare
organization. Work (Reading, Mass.). Retrieved November 20, 2022, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5147494/
WorkSafeBC. (2021, April 22). How to reduce your premiums. WorkSafeBC. Retrieved
November 20, 2022, from https://www.worksafebc.com/en/insurance/know-coverage-
costs/reduce-premiums