In this series, we’ve explained that an EMR score is essentially a measure of how big likely your business is to file worker’s compensation claims — the higher the score, the bigger the risk to the insurer. We’ve explained how the EMR score is calculated via a complex formula that basically boils down to the number and size of worker’s compensation claims you’ve had. And we’ve detailed why the EMR score is important: the higher your score, the more you’ll pay in insurance and the less likely owners and general contractors will be to hire your firm.
Ideally, you want a score lower than one, but getting there will take time and preparation. The only effective way to reduce your score is to reduce your worker’s compensation claims, and the only way to do this is to reduce the number of injuries that occur on the job.
The bottom line: you’ve got to improve safety. And one of the key ways you can improve safety is through strong safety training. Study after study shows safety training with construction workers significantly reduces the number of on-the-job injuries. By how much, you may ask? About 12%, give or take, though one study found a 42% reduction in workers’ compensation claims among workers 16 to 24 years old. That a meaningful reduction and, over time, it’s certainly enough to lower your EMR score
But training only increases the level of safety on a job site if it’s strong and workers understand it. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case, because while construction companies frequently have strong safety training programs and a strong learning management system (LMS) for training their own employees, subcontractor safety onboarding is often much less rigorous.
Does this sound familiar? Subcontractors arrive at the site on the first day, and a supervisor or safety manager brings them all into a trailer where they provide onboarding safety training about the site. It’s important information that might literally make the difference between life and death, or serious injury at the very least. But there’s no guarantee that the information is consistent across trainings or even that it was presented in a language that the subcontractors can understand. In construction, subcontractors often speak a first language other than English, and their command of English may not be strong enough to fully comprehend the information being presented. Overcoming the language barrier is a serious issue. There’s rarely a dedicated translator – usually it’s a bilingual Spanish-English worker pulled off the job to do that task – so the quality of translation varies widely.
GoContractor can fill that gap with a web-based safety orientation tool that subcontractors can use to complete training from any device at any time, complete with assessments and in Spanish or English. Spanish-speaking subcontractors certainly appreciate it, as they’ve given GoContractor a net promoter score (NPS) of 96 to 100 among different general contractors, which is an astronomically high score. Qualtrics, a company that specializes in helping other organizations improve their customer experience, categorizes an NPS of above 80 as “world-class,” their highest ranking.
The materials remain consistent across training, so you know exactly what safety information each worker is getting. And, instead of these safety records getting shoved into a file cabinet somewhere in a trailer on the work site, GoContractor creates a digital record of all qualifications and training that’s accessible from anywhere.
Reducing your EMR score requires dedication and planning, but it can be done. And GoContractor can play a key role in helping you get there. Get in touch to schedule a free demo so you can learn more about how we can help close your subcontractor safety gap and get that EMR down below one.
