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November 5, 2008 DOL Home > About DOL > Annual Report 2003 > Outcome Goal HR |
DOL Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2003
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Reduce the rate of lost production days by two percent (i.e., number of days employees spend away from work due to work related injuries and illnesses).
Results
The goal was achieved. For FY 2003 the Department achieved a rate of 46.9 lost days per 100 employees, against a target of 52.6 lost days per 100 employees.
Program Description
DOL's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management (OASAM) strives to reduce work related injuries and illnesses by focusing on hazard recognition and control, emergency preparedness, electrical safety, ergonomics, and indoor air quality. DOL addresses workplace safety by equipping supervisors and employees with the knowledge they need to identify and eliminate unsafe work conditions and to actively promote effective safety management.
Analysis of Results
DOL's reduction in lost production days is attributable to implementing the strategies outlined below and to providing agencies with quarterly reports on their progress towards achieving this goal. With frequent data updates, agencies are able to target intervention efforts promptly and accurately.
Strategies
To reduce the number of lost production days, DOL organized an interagency workplace safety group. The interagency group developed and DOL implemented the following recommendations: to contract with a vendor to provide return-to-work assistance to the Agency workers' compensation coordinators; to increase the use of injured workers to fill limited or light duty vacant positions; and to provide training for agency workers' compensation coordinators on return-to-work strategies. The Department worked closely with the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) to identify injured employees who are the best candidates for return to productive employment. This effort, coupled with closer cooperation between the workers' compensation coordinators and frontline managers, permitted the Department to provide earlier accommodation to partially disabled workers. OASAM conducted a training conference for DOL's agency workers' compensation coordinators on how to effectively return employees to work. The Department also enhanced its existing guide on strategies to return injured employees to work to incorporate recommendations for working with a Department contractor who is an expert in return-to-work strategies. DOL has increased its staff resources dedicated to return-to-work efforts.
Management Issues
Management Challenges: DOL has limited resources to dedicate to hiring and training workers' compensation coordinators. DOL is actively encouraging agencies to use workplace accommodation flexibilities to return employees to work.
Internal Program Evaluations and Audits: DOL conducts annual safety and health work-site inspections, and annual safety and health reviews of Job Corps Centers. The key findings from these recent evaluations and audits are that the most frequent cause of injuries is “slips, trips, and falls,” and that the second most frequent injury cause is repetitive motion. It should be noted that the majority of Job Corps student injuries occur during recreation.
Goal Assessment and Future Plans
The Department has met or exceeded its safety and health goals for the second straight year. This achievement is a direct result of the emphasis management has placed on improving employee safety and giving due attention to the workers' compensation processes. Future plans include:
Reduce the overall occurrence of injuries and illnesses for DOL employees by three percent, and improve the timeliness of filing injury/illness claims by five percent.
Indicators
Decrease the total case rate of illnesses, accidents, and injuries by three percent.
Increase in timeliness of reporting new injuries by five percent.
Results
The goal was achieved. DOL achieved an injury/illness rate of 2.5. DOL's performance for the timeliness of filing workers' compensation claims in FY 2003 was 83.6 percent on time. This exceeds DOL's timeliness goal of 78 percent for FY 2003, and represents a 6.43 percentage point improvement over FY 2002.
Program Description
This goal is one of two that DOL uses to measure its successful implementation of the Federal Employees Safety and Injury Prevention Initiative led by DOL's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Reduction in the rate of injuries and illness to DOL employees is critical, as it will lead to increased productivity and decreases in costly workers' compensation claims. To reduce DOL employees' injuries and illnesses, the Department's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management (OASAM) monitors work-related injuries and illnesses, and initiates appropriate interventions and corrective action. These include creating, designing, equipping, and operating an ergonomic assessment room where employees are able to try various work station products designed to reduce the possibility of repetitive motion syndrome. Providing regional safety and health managers with an inspection protocol ensures consistent, standardized workplace inspections throughout the Department.
Analysis of Results
In FY 2003, DOL achieved both targets for this goal. DOL's improved performance represents significant improvement in providing a safer, more healthful work environment for employees and in securing medical and income replacement benefits in a timely manner. Because of the varied missions and occupational demands of the Department's work force, injury and illness rates differ between DOL agencies. OASAM continues to provide to DOL's agencies detailed and targeted analysis of their respective injury rates and types. In addition to providing agency-specific recommendations based on these analyses, the Department has selected repetitive stress injuries for special emphasis on a department-wide basis.
Strategies
In FY 2001, the Department deployed key reporting and information systems that provide faster claims filing and greater accessibility to injury data. For example, the Safety and Health Information Management System expansion provides the capability to file claims electronically with OWCP. This significantly improved the timeliness of filing claim forms. In addition, the expansion of this management information system provides a wealth of data that DOL agencies now use to promptly analyze the nature and causes of its employees' injuries and illnesses. OASAM trained DOL safety and health officers and workers' compensation coordinators to make effective use of these tools. In FY 2003, the Department continued its emphasis on timely case reporting and reduction of injury/ill-ness rates. DOL expanded supervisory safety training to include a safety module in the Leadership Competencies course and placed a revised Supervisory Safety Self Study Guide on the Department's Intranet. The Department also placed information on the identification of common hazards and repetitive stress assessments on the DOL Internet.
Management Issues
Data: OWCP provides data for the timeliness of injury claims in its time-lag report for Federal agencies. This data is also tracked “real-time” by OASAM's Safety and Health Information Management System. OSHA provides final injury and illness rates to Federal agencies by combining OWCP workers' compensation claims data with employment data from the Office of Personnel Management.
Management Challenges: Factors influencing DOL's success in reducing the rate of injury and illness of its employees include maintaining a continued focus of DOL agency managers on actions to reduce injury/illness rates, and training managers, supervisors, and employees on how to identify, avoid, and correct/minimize hazards in the workplace. Factors influencing DOL's success in exceeding its timeliness goal include instituting electronic workers' compensation claims filing and maintaining the focus of DOL's managers and supervisors on prompt claims reporting.
Internal Program Evaluations and Audits: DOL conducts annual safety and health work-site inspections, and annual safety and health reviews of Job Corps Centers. Key findings from these recent evaluations and audits include: the most frequent cause of injuries is “slips, trips, and falls.” The second most frequent injury cause is repetitive motion. These two causes relate to the majority of injuries being sprains/strains and repetitive motion trauma. The majority of Job Corps student injuries occur during recreation.
Goal Assessment and Future Plans
The goals for FY 2004 will be a three percent reduction in the injury/illness rate and achieving 85 percent timeliness in reporting workers' compensation cases to OWCP.
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