The Client and its Challenge
This chemical manufacturer, with four facilities and approximately 1,200 employees, faced tough competition, low margins, and rising workers’ compensation costs. If the workers’ compensation incident rate could be lowered, the resulting savings could be applied directly to the bottom line. The tough competitive environment negatively affected morale, and the union environment had not fostered trust between managers and employees.

The Risk Consulting Solution
Marsh specialists conducted a behavioral assessment to identify cultural barriers and morale issues. Focus groups, with randomly picked associates from different levels of the organization, answered questions about management methods. In addition, Marsh conducted individual interviews with the entire management team concerning the future direction of the company, competition, morale, and trust issues. Based on the results, the Marsh team determined that the behavioral risk improvement (BRI) process could bridge the gap between employees and managers when both teams focused on safety — an issue that everyone could rally around.

The client established two key teams: a core team made up of one to two employees from each work area and the steering team with managers as well as select core team members. The Marsh consultants conducted a BRI training session for managers and supervisors, as well as core and steering team members. The core team was trained on how to pinpoint at-risk behaviors, measure the team adoption of safe behaviors, and provide positive feedback and reinforcement during the adoption phase. The steering team identified opportunities for continuous improvement and benchmarked results across the entire organization.

As the BRI process rolled out across the company, each work area focused on adopting three to four safe behaviors at a time. As each new safe behavior reached the habit strength, the core team began targeting new at-risk behaviors, creating a cycle of continuous improvement.

In addition, the Marsh consultants provided behavioral coaching resources for key managers with a focus on interpersonal skill development.

Results
After completing the behavioral assessment and launching the BRI program, the client reduced the company’s recordable rate from 13.7 to 4.5 and noted the following improvements:

• Trust factor improved between associates and managers.
• Managers were visibly obtaining input from associates for continuous improvement.
• BRI data and graphs were shared best practices.
• Behavioral coaching of managers reduced associate complaints and manager write-ups for associate insubordination.