A safety program can help protect your employees, lower your costs and increase your profitability. At Zenith, our goal is to make it easy for you to develop and launch a customized safety program that will improve workplace safety, boost employee morale and raise the efficient output of goods and services to your customers.

Workplace incidents may result in lost productivity, equipment damage, spoiled product and unproductive management time. They also drive up your workers’ compensation premium. That’s why it pays to implement a safety program.

An effective safety program is in writing and includes these elements:

1. A written statement of safety policy to demonstrate management commitment to the safety program.
2. Assignment of responsibilities for planning, directing, monitoring and implementation of the safety program.
3. A system for ensuring safety program recognition and enforcement.
4. A system for employees to communicate safety concerns to employers without fear of reprisal.
5. A system to identify workplace hazards and methods to ensure elimination of hazards once they are identified.
6. Procedures for investigating the cause of incidents, illnesses or injuries, and preventing their recurrence.
7. An ongoing safety and health training and retraining program specific to each job for new employees as well as whenever new substances, processes, procedures or equipment are introduced to the workplace.
8. Maintenance of appropriate records and steps taken to implement and maintain the safety program.

Zenith offers a detailed safety program template for our workers' compensation policyholders to customize for their businesses. The template includes thorough instructions and links to sample forms. To access the safety program template, log into your online account and click on “Order Free Resources.” The template is on the homepage of the Resource Library. If you don’t have an online account, sign up now!