to bid on contracts or deal with contract
management firms. Your firm may not have
had any injuries for several years, but can
still have old costs from older claims show-ing
up against your firm without you realiz-ing.
The ignorance of not paying attention
to your costs may cost your firm big dollars
in the form of lost contracts and revenue.
If you have costs on your statement and
you don’t know where they are coming
from, phone the WCB and ask to speak with
a quantitative research analyst and find out
what those costs are from. They should be
able to tell you what kind of cost it is, i.e.,
medical or wage loss. If you still do not
G.W. CONSTRUCTION LTD.
President
GEORGE
WILSON, G.S.C
P.O. Box 9, 601 – 3rd Ave. E.
Buchanan, SK S0A 0J0
Bus: 306-592-2131
Fax: 306-592-2159
E-mail: gwconst@sasktel.net
Dean 306-621-1289
Sean 306-621-5114
Sandra 306-621-1335
understand, you may have to phone a case
manager who handles the specific claim
where the costs are incurring. You may see
a medical cost go through on an old claim,
which more often than not is an error. It
pays to stay on top of your information.
What is the point to all of this? In 2018, em-ployers
will need to be aware of their informa-tion
more than ever as costs against their firm
will make a bigger impact on their premiums.
Those firms that do not pay attention to their
costs may be in for a big surprise. Firms in
the advanced program can have a surcharge
up to 200 per cent on top on the base premi-ums
they pay, or a discount up to 30 per cent.
Firms in the standard program (usually small-er
firms) can have a surcharge up to 75 per
cent and a discount up to 25 per cent.
Stay safe
The best way for a firm to manage their
costs is to implement a safety management
system to prevent injuries. If you belong to
one of the many safety associations in the
province, they can help you with safety. If
you are not so lucky and do not have a safe-ty
association, there are a number of firms
that can assist with this.
The next essential thing an employer
needs is a return to work program to help re-turn
workers back to the workplace and cut
down on their WCB costs and greatly ben-efit
the health and recovery of their injured
employee. Return to work programs also
help manage other insurance costs the em-ployer
may have, i.e., sick leave or short- and
long-term disability. Your staff must be edu-cated
on what the expectations are for them
around returning to work. The most common
mistake employers make is not training their
staff on the company’s expectations. If you do
not know anything about return to work pro-grams,
there are firms that can assist.
Managing your firm’s costs are abso-lutely
essential if you want to do business
with any of the large contract management
firms in the province, such as ISNetworld.
The other downside to not managing your
costs is having your firm precluded from
the bidding process on a contract or losing
a large contract you currently have.
For more information on the changes to the
2018 Rate Model and to see if your rate code is
going up, go to www.wcbsask.com.
Tracy Slywka is the executive director of
Injury Solutions Canada Inc. For more
information on the advice and ideas in this
article, visit www.injurysolutionscanada.ca.
INJURY SOLUTIONS
Your firm may not have had any injuries for several years,
but can still have old costs from older claims showing up
against your firm without you realizing. The ignorance
of not paying attention to your costs may cost your firm
big dollars in the form of lost contracts and revenue.
56 Think BIG | Quarter 2 2017 | saskheavy.ca
/saskheavy.ca
/www.injurysolutionscanada.ca
/www.wcbsask.com
link