Keep Employees Safe, Keep Them on the Job

According to a study of 118,000 American workers by health services company Cigna, a combination of predictive analytics and a nurse/health advocate-led intervention can produce a measurable reduction in future disabling illness or injury incidents among employees at high risk for short-term disability.

The study found that employee absence prevention health interventions are associated with a relative reduction in short-term disability of 15 percent among workers at high risk of experiencing a disability in the next 12 months.

The interventions resulted in a short-term disability incidence rate of 16.8 percent versus 19.8 percent for those not in the intervention group—overall, a 15 percent relative reduction in incidence of disability.

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Whatever safety meeting you need, chances are you’ll find it prewritten and ready to use in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library on CD. Try it at no cost or risk. Here’s how.

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Absence ‘Measurably Reduced’

“By identifying customers at high risk of future short-term disability and providing individualized intervention that includes coaching, incentives, and other outreach, our study shows that the onset of disability absence can be measurably reduced, benefiting both employers and employees alike,” says Dr. Robert N. Anfield, chief medical officer for Cigna’s disability business. “Future studies should address how intervention impacts short-term disability duration, return-to-work rates, and total medical costs.”

The study defined “high risk” as greater than or equal to a 10 percent probability of short-term disability during the next 12 months. Employees eligible for the study were full-time, actively at work, and covered by Cigna-administered medical and disability plans.

Called the Absence Prediction and Prevention program, it established a nurse/health advocate-led intervention that included:

• Early identification of employees at high risk for future short-term disability
• Proactive outreach to these employees
• Clinical assessment
• A range of disability absence prevention strategies

Mark Marsters, senior vice president of operations for Cigna’s disability insurance business, says that by proactively identifying individuals who may be struggling, before their condition worsens and they need to leave work, employers can help people stay healthy and potentially prevent or lessen the impact of an injury or illness.

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Start Your Own Absence Prevention Program

Why not start your own absence prevention program? If you put the emphasis on safety training, you can make a big impact. Employees who work safely have fewer injuries and fewer days away from work.

BLR’s Safety Meetings Library provides the perfect materials for conducting frequent and engaging training on a broad range of safety and health issues. This cost-effective resource provides the safety meeting content, as well as supporting handouts, quizzes, posters, and safety slogans.

All told, the CD provides you with more than 400 ready-to-train meetings on more than 100 key safety topics—a shrewd investment in this time of tight safety budgets. In addition to the meetings’ supplemental quizzes and handouts, you also get relevant regulations (OSHA’s CFR 29), a listing of the most common safety violations cited by OSHA, and case studies of actual OSHA cases and their outcomes.

Safety Meetings Library lets you choose from a variety of training approaches, including:

• Mandatory—Sessions that are OSHA-required
• Comprehensive—Sessions with broadest coverage of a topic
• 7-Minute—Short, simple, targeted sessions to fit tight schedules
• Initial—A session used as introductory training on a topic
• Refresher—Sessions that follow up on or reinforce previous training
• Tool Box Talk—More informal reinforcement of a topic
• PowerPoint®—Graphic presentations for comprehensive initial or refresher training
• Hands-on—A session in which there are training activities
• Spanish—Including Spanish language handouts and quizzes coordinated with English sessions

You can get a preview of the program by using the links below. But for the best look, we suggest a no-cost, no-obligation trial. Just let us know and we’ll arrange it for you.