REC will complete a thorough review of the processes that you currently have in place to determine our starting point.

First, we’ll read through all existing OH&S Program documentation built within the previous 12 months, WorkSafeBC orders, incident, injury, near miss or hazard reports and your history of First Aid and WCB Reports.

Second, we’ll conduct a tour of your worksite, looking for signs and evidence of your current Health and Safety Program and its communication process.

Third, we’ll conduct focus groups with your on-site teams. These focus groups will be conducted to determine their perception of the current OH&S Program, including the:

o Controls in place to protect them, regarding specific hazards in their workplace.

o Communication processes in place to communicate proactive and reactive control measures.

o Level of support provided by their management team committed to their safety.

When the evidence is gathered, REC will provide a full scope report identifying successes, challenges, opportunities and barriers and will collaborate directly with the JHS Committee and Executive Leadership on Action Planning.

The employer’s Policies and Procedures guide and direct the OH&S Program at your workplace and set the standards you expect of them. Everyone at your workplace has an equal level of responsibility to be proactive in preventing injuries, incidents and near misses, as we ALL have a responsibility to each other to prevent human suffering.

Policies and procedures are just ink on a paper until those responsibilities and expectations have been clearly communicated to your team. REC will work with your existing documentation and review them for accuracy, legislation updates, gaps and opportunities to reduce the potential for human error. When an employer has tight policies and procedures and they have been clearly communicated to your team, they become much more enforceable when broken. While performance management as a motivator will crucify your morale if used as a weapon, it is effective when it is used to reinforce and re-educate those who repeatedly make errors that directly impact the health and safety of anyone at the worksite.

Detailed Risk Assessments clearly identify the risks associated with hazards, breaking them down into steps to identify potential corrective actions. Risk Assessments are required for any activities, tasks or equipment that put the workers at risk of injury and must be completed in collaboration with the workers that perform the work. This can be a time-consuming process, but provides valuable information related to injury prevention overall. As the Risk Assessment process requires collaboration and input from all Workers, Supervisors and Management, focus groups will provide you with insight into the frequency, severity and probability allowing for assignment of risk levels and the most effective suggestions to mitigate these risks.

REC follows the Hierarchy of Controls in determining the effectiveness of control measures, looking for opportunities to:

o Eliminate the hazard and risk from the work environment.

o Substitute the hazardous task or equipment with something safer

o Engineer the equipment or procedure to reduce the potential for human error (such as guards on blenders and chainsaws)

o Develop Administrative Controls in the form of policies, procedures, training, performance management.

o Provide Personal Protective Equipment to workers for hazardous tasks.

Solid and thorough risk assessments develop into Safe Work Procedures which guide the work surrounding hazardous tasks and equipment.

An employer is required to develop Safe Work Procedures that outline the steps to take to perform each task safely for themselves and their colleagues. As with any policy written to direct work and workers, a SWP is enforceable and can be used to performance manage any workers who make the decision to disregard the procedures in place.

Safe Work Procedures are written for hazardous equipment (IE, chainsaw, kitchen steamer, asbestos abatement, Violence Prevention) or for hazardous tasks performed within the workplace (IE, manual material handling (including persons in care), bending, stooping, kneeling, twisting) where the hazards can not be eliminated, substituted or engineered out of the workplace. SWP are an administrative control measure, as they provide direction and guidance, but do not reduce the risk of the hazard. Administrative control measures are the most challenging to implement and reinforce, as they rely on a human being to follow instructions without deviation. Administrative controls also require the employer to directly manage and observe the workers to ensure that the SWP are understood and followed.

REC will build your Safe Work Procedures based upon your completed risk assessments and will collaborate with all workers, supervisors and managers who perform or oversee the task/equipment while also researching best practices, manufacturers instructions and the current processes to ensure that not only are all risks mitigated, but they are also effective in maintaining productive work time.

A Job Demands Analysis (PDA) includes both a physical demands description as well as a cognitive (mental) demands analysis. A job demands analysis breaks down a worker’s position and duties into specific categories and it’s goal is to systematically quantify and evaluate the physical, cognitive (mental), and environmental demands of a task or job.

o A Physical Demands Description (PDD), sometimes referred to as a Physical Demands Analysis (PDA), is a detailed, objective description of the physical demands required to complete the essential and non-essential tasks of a job.

o Similarly, a Cognitive Demands Analysis (CDA) is a detailed, objective evaluation of the specific cognitive, emotional, and psychological skills required to perform essential and non-essential tasks of a job.

The job demands analysis must include details about the job position, requirements related to safety, training needed, hours of work, skills needed, equipment used, and the work environment with considerations for accessibility.

To ensure the accuracy of each Job Demand Analysis, REC will spend time working with each department, conducting observations and informal interviews to determine how their job impacts them physically and mentally on a daily basis. Our consultant will quantify each task by weight, duration and mental strain, through the use of scales, rating scales, measuring tools and interpersonal connections. Knowing where the highest risks are within each position allows for targeting education, training and procedures to reduce the identified risks.

The inspection program in place within your organization plays an enormous role in the prevention of workplace incidents, injuries, near misses and infrastructure failures. While WorkSafeBC addresses the requirement for the Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee to conduct regular inspections, this limitation doesn’t address other inspections required by your workplace and equipment.

Under WorkSafeBC, all employers are required to implement an inspection program that provides room for documented inspections of equipment, tools and vehicles used by workers, based upon manufacturer's instructions, frequency of use and consequences of equipment failure. Dependent upon the industry you work in, inspections may be daily, pre-use, post-use or even annually. REC will conduct a full review of all equipment and infrastructure as well as your procedures to ensure that your current program meets WorkSafeBC compliance requirements, and work with you to develop an Inspection Program that quantifiably reduces the hazards and risks within your workplace.

Accidents and Injuries happen. It’s unfortunate that an employer can’t guarantee a 100% safe environment, but it is our responsibility to do everything in our power to lower the potential for negative foreseeable events. As duly diligent employers, we develop and provide education and training, policies, procedures, inspections, etc etc etc and injuries can STILL happen. No workplace is infallible as equipment can fail and it only takes one distracted second to cause an injury.

With more than a decade of direct experience managing WCB claims, REC knows and understands the ins and outs of the WCB Claim, Review and WCAT process and how to work with both union and WCB Case Managers to return injured workers in a safe and supportive environment. A truly injured worker wants to recover and heal as their injury does not only impact them for their scheduled 37.5 hours weekly, but this injury also impacts every aspect of their lives. An injured person is limited in the activities they can do for their families and children, limited in their recreational activities and it can legitimately lead to mental health challenges such as depression and anxiety.

REC will work with you to build a program where your injured workers recover AT WORK, in a safe and supportive environment, conducting light duties. WorkSafeBC has always been a strong supporter of recovery at work and has maintained this mandate since it’s inception.

In January 2024, the BC government made amendments to the Workers Compensation Act that affect return to work, and these amendments are related to the Duty to Cooperate and Duty to Maintain Employment.

Effective January 1, 2024, employers and workers have a legal duty to cooperate with each other and with WorkSafeBC in timely and safe return to work following a worker’s injury, and certain employers have an obligation to return injured workers to work in specific circumstances. What this means for you as the employer, is that the workers will be expected to return to work on modified duties if they are appropriate and match their abilities and limitations. This amendment will effectively reduce lost time, but will, in contrast result in higher payroll for the employer. How? If your worker is paid $100 a day, and becomes injured, their options are:

o Staying at home to recover, paid $90 a day, paid directly by WorkSafeBC, non-taxable. You’ll also be paying their replacement $100 for the same day.

Total cost: $190 for one worker to work the scheduled shift.

PLUS increased experienced rating leading to higher premiums.

o Recovering at work means paying your injured worker $100 a day for them to work light duties in a custom designed Gradual Return to Work Program and paying $100 for their replacement for the duration of the plan.

Total cost: $200 split between the replacement worker conducting the regularly scheduled work, and the injured worker who will spend productive time performing tasks for you that need to be done that are within their limitations.

For more information on Bill 41, see:

https://www.worksafebc.com/en/law-policy/workers-compensation-law/amendments/bill-41-amendments-to-the-workers-compensation-act/workers-duty-to-cooperate-duty-to-maintain-employment

https://www.worksafebc.com/en/law-policy/workers-compensation-law/amendments/bill-41-amendments-to-the-workers-compensation-act/employers-duty-to-cooperate-duty-to-maintain-employment

REC will partner with you, WorkSafeBC and your union(s) to develop a Recover At Work Program that is not only effective in reducing lost time and associated costs, but also one that is supported by your workers. We’ll work with you and your workers to pre-identify light duty options that can be offered by the First Aid Attendant at the time of the injury. With the staff’s cooperation in building the light duty options, it makes it more challenging for them to deny the offers should they become injured. Their cooperation allows the workers to identify their limitations and abilities and to participate in the design of their program…. Making it harder for them to say to the offer and bolsters the employers request to deny compensation for lost time.

The program REC develops for you will be entirely customized to your team, your departments, positions, demographics and various levels of disability, making it an easy and sustainable program for you to maintain moving forward.