Blount Canada, Guelph, ON, now employs almost 900 people manufacturing high quality chainsaw equipment for export worldwide.

 

Over the last 3 years, it has significantly reduced costs for STD, casual absence, and WSIB. External providers and its own managers together focused on overhauling its disability management policy and practices. Supervisors became the focal point for handling employee absence.

 

The company’s long history in quality improvement reinforced the need for measuring and active management of change. Blount credits a steady series of small improvements in its work environment and culture for this latest success.

 

First the good news…

 

At Blount Canada, periodic employee satisfaction surveys reveal high confidence in the company’s health and safety programs, and feedback that the company is a good place to work. Despite these indicators of a strong workplace culture, a review undertaken in 2000 showed rapid increases in absence and disability costs.

 

 

In 2001, a roundtable discussion including the insurer, outside medical services, the EAP provider, and managers began to address the issues. Blount decided to initiate a disability management project that included revised policy and procedures, expanded employee and supervisor responsibilities, a new Return-to-Work package, supervisor training, and communicating the new process to employees.

 

Initially, a small group of selected managers and employees role-played situations and developed various scenarios. The employee/supervisor relationship was identified as the cornerstone of the program. Establishing the supervisor as the first contact point was one of the biggest hurdles, says Eugene. "Absent employees would traditionally first contact the nurse. The new policy stipulated the supervisor had to sign all letters to the attending physician. Changing old habits was tough." Despite some initial resistance, Eugene believes all parties came out ahead. "Employees appreciated the company’s proactive management and team approach in helping them access services quickly and effectively, getting them back to the workplace as soon as possible. For the company, patience was a virtue, but costs soon began decreasing."

 

Other changes were made too. Eugene explains: "Our employee benefits advisor has been very helpful. They recommended a more open drug formulary to allow better access to medicines. That has helped people get well and back up to speed faster. Most recently, they helped us find a new service to measure and evaluate our overall organizational health issues. We now have a health project charter, and a cross-functional team lead by our General Manager."

 

A dramatic turnaround in short term disability costs began in 2002. Total STD claim costs per covered employee are down 28% since 2001, and days lost per 200,000 hours worked (a standardized rate that corrects for changes in employee count and average hours worked) are down by 20%. Casual absence is slightly reduced, and WSIB days lost were down to just 19 in 2003, a substantial and steady improvement from 1999 when they were 169. The total for all three cost types was down 22% overall, and these improvements have persisted during the first half of 2004. The company has avoided costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

There have also been positive non-cash outcomes. Supervisors are more aware of their employees’ needs and issues. If there is a non-medical reason for absence, the process helps supervisors provide consistent guidance and treat employees fairly, even allowing for special circumstances. The new training process, which must be undertaken by both new and experienced supervisors, also helps reinforce respect for Human Rights and Privacy legislation, prevent wrongful dismissal suits, and ensures every reasonable effort has been made to manage the situation and accommodate the employee.

 

 

Even with this success, Eugene knows they cannot rest on their laurels, "We know there will be very few home runs. Our approach relies on a series of solid ‘base hits’. We believe in Continuous [Quality] Improvement [CQI], which feeds our ‘Balanced Scorecard’ of keyorganizational metrics." The company’s new, comprehensive, long-term strategy for workplace health is expected to help manage competitiveness and improve employee performance, productivity, and cost effectiveness. Making regular presentations to their US parent also helps keep them on top of program progress and emerging issues.

 

As to what could work better, Eugene admits their daytime wellness programs have had low enrolment, perhaps due to the challenges presented by their current three-shift structure. Tying these programs more closely to organizational strategy should help create a better structure to measure and manage them.

 

 

Eugene gives credit to the new approach to disability management, but also knows this program is just one of a series of changes made to enhance operations, reinforce the company culture, and improve employee well-being. "I think all these initiatives are, in fact, interdependent" he says. "It started with CQI,and a requirement for measures and data to spot opportunities for improvement. We’ve reviewed our Workers’ Comp, continue to address safety, and, in the last two years, have moved to better manage the overall work environment. All these efforts send positive messages to our employees."