Helping Make Their Communities Safer
In 2021, CIS changed the focus of our popular Safety Award program to fit better with our vision of working together to help Oregon’s cities and counties to be safer, stronger, and healthier. In the past, our Safety Awards were about claims — who had the fewest of them. Now it’s about who’s doing the right things, right now, to prevent future claims.
This year we unveiled three new categories:
Last fall, we had to postpone city Safety Awards because of the pandemic. The good news is that cities and counties will receive Safety Awards during CIS’ Annual Conference in August 2022. Only cities and counties that have property, liability or workers’ compensation coverage through the CIS Servicing Group at SAIF are eligible to participate in the program.
In November 2021, CIS recognized Oregon’s outstanding counties during the Association of Oregon Counties Conference in Eugene.
The Excellence in Safety Award was based on a reduction in claims, both by frequency and severity. Josephine County took home the award because of their outstanding risk management efforts. The County conducted on-site safety and wildfire inspections, analyzed claim data to promote workplace safety, and developed training programs to reduce employee injuries.
“A few years back, the County’s HR Director JJ Scofield had a new challenge of recruiting a halftime ADA coordinator,” according to CIS Executive Director Patrick Priest. “He combined that position with Risk Management and found Steve Dobbs to lead the effort.”
As a former Oregon-OSHA compliance officer, Steve stepped up as the Safety Officer/Risk Manager in the Emergency Operations Center during the unexpected pandemic — and in a very short time, turned the County’s good program into an excellent one.
Congratulations to Josephine County and County Commissioners: Chair Dan DeYoung, Vice-Chair Herman Baertschiger, Jr. (pictured), and Darin Fowler.
Klamath County accepted our next new award: Excellence in Best Practices. The County substantially increased their best practice score from their previous assessment and implemented several CIS risk-management recommendations. In addition, the County had a good number of employees completing training courses in the CIS Learning Center — and had fewer claims from the prior assessment. Klamath County had the highest best practice score for a county assessment this past year, scoring high marks for their proactive risk-management programs — such as on-site security assessments to increase employee safety.
“They attained something that is difficult to achieve,” said Patrick. “CIS’ top score for a county in 2021. That means they’re in the top tier for all CIS entities at an impressive 92%!”
Congratulations to Klamath County and County Commissioner Chair Kelley Minty Morris, as well as Commissioners Donnie Boyd and Vice-Chair Derrick DeGroot (pictured).
The CIS Innovation Award recognizes creativity in reducing claim frequency and severity — and a reduction of employee injuries. This year’s winner was Benton County for their pioneering safety program.
Its latest innovation features push-button safety lanyards for field employees that can be used when an employee gets injured or needs assistance. The lanyard is also designed for times when an employee feels threatened.
“This is such an important innovation,” said Patrick. “We recommend others emulate this critical safety program.”
Congratulations to Benton County and their Board of Commissioners: Chair Xan Augerot — as well as Commissioners: Pat Malone (pictured) and Nancy Wyse.
Congratulations to Josephine, Klamath, and Benton Counties for going above and beyond to keep their dedicated employees safe.
Safety Awards photos by Amanda Meg Photography
Three cities were given Shark-Tank grants in 2021. The top prize ($5,000) went to Corvallis for heavy-equipment-related back up cameras. Meanwhile, runner-up winners Madras used their $2,500 grant to create a redesigned employee-safety program and Yachats used their $2,500 to fund sit-stand desks. All three risk-management ideas will help minimize claims.
Corvallis wasted no time in buying and installing cameras for their heavy equipment. Prior to the grant, they employed various strategies such as backing into parking spaces and using a spotter when backing. Unfortunately, they still had accidents. The Shark-Tank grant has made a difference with no backup accidents reported, so far.
Madras’ grant was used to revitalize the City’s employee-safety program by redistributing their safety budget — as well as providing individual awards. By getting 60% of staff to participate, the reward increased from $100 to $150 for each participant. Employees have been much better about submitting their Safety Award slips for issues like identifying safety hazards.
According to Madras HR Director Charo Miller, “Workers’ Comp claims dipped more than half this year — and the type of claims have been much less severe. We’ve had less than $250,000 in SAIF payouts this year.”
Yachats tied for second place and used their $2,500 towards the purchase of sit-stand desks to help prevent obesity and other health issues. Yachats had already purchased their new desks prior to the Shark-Tank presentation, so they used the grant money to reimburse the City.
It’s not too early to contact CIS’ sharks, which are your risk management consultants, to ask about your Shark-Tank project ideas for 2022. Each project will be reviewed and evaluated by CIS’ sharks in advance of the 2022 CIS Annual Conference, Aug. 24-26. The three finalists will present their projects during the Shark-Tank session at the conference. Finalists will have 2-3 minutes to pitch, emphasizing how their ideas will reduce claims for the CIS pool. Conference attendees will judge projects on efficacy, transferability, innovation, and creativity. The grand prize will be $5,000. First runner-up is $2,500, and second runner-up is $1,000. Those not selected to present still win by receiving one free conference registration per entity.
