‘Rosi’ the Riveter has always been one of my favorite American icons. An ideal that has all but vanished in today’s over-regulated and burned-out labor market. ‘Rosi’ represents the illusive employee willing to get the job done without any drama. She doesn’t require much attention or oversight. Everything in the business runs smoother when she’s around.
But does ‘Rosi’ still exist in the workforce? And if she does, how do I find her? And if you have a ‘Rosi’, give her a raise!!!
It might be hard to find ‘Rosi’ the employee, but there is a way to get the benefits of ‘Rosi’ in any business through a well-run safety program. A good safety program works in the background, preventing problems, increasing efficiency, and does not need to take a lot of time and attention to administer. This type of safety program all starts with a simple metric that shows your Return On Safety Investment or ‘ROSI’, for short.
Here’s the “ROSI” calculation:
R=S/I Where (R) is the Return, (S) is the Savings on insurance and risk costs and (I) is the safety budget or Investment.
This number, just like ‘Rosi’ the employee, can be very hard to find. At Beehive Insurance, we can help you find it. It is tied to a number on workers compensation insurance policies known as the Experience Modification Factor (also known as the E-Mod, X-Mod, or EMR). This number compares the safety history of the policy holder to their industry. It either increases or decreases the premium based on that benchmark. With this number, we can calculate your safety savings and/or safety waste, depending on the success or failure of your safety program.
Example:
Company A invests $10,000 into a safety budget that is spent building out a safety program.
Two year’s later, when claims fall off their history and they have no more claims, their insurance premium drops by $50,000.
They have a two-year return of investment of $50,000 / $10,000 = 5 times Return on Safety Investment.
When a safety program is properly funded, intentionally built and consistently communicated, the investment returns are huge. If you run a business in a high-risk industry like construction, trucking, manufacturing, etc., there is no better return on any investment as there is on your safety investment.
‘Rosi’ the riveter as an employee may be lost to a bygone era, however, ROSI still lives in every business that is willing to invest in the safety of their employees. May ROSI bless your work with safety and productivity.
