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Douglas Enns, Chair of WorkSafeBC's Board of Directors, and David Anderson, President and CEO, discuss WorkSafeBC's performance in 2007 and the vision for the workers' compensation system in 2008 and beyond.
Financially, results were excellent: the administration ratio dropped, as did employer premium rates, and our funding status is on track. We met or exceeded most of our performance targets, and our public confidence results were very positive. We also accomplished a great deal organizationally—being recognized as a leader in workplace mental health; receiving a National Earth Award for the sustainability of our head office; and being named one of the top 40 employers in B.C. by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which recognizes companies that lead the way when it comes to attracting and retaining employees.
It was a challenge to meet our customer service targets in 2007. Our resources were stretched thin by the increase in claims and the development of our large-scale Claims Management Solutions (CMS) initiative, which uses technology to better process, track, and adjudicate claims. Our greatest challenge, however, was coping with the effects of our booming economy. While the injury rate decreased slightly, the absolute number of injuries, and therefore claims, rose — as did the number of people working, particularly in high-risk industries.
Our Accident Fund is invested broadly in order to achieve a certain level of return to meet the increase in the cost of living over the years. Our balanced investment approach has allowed us to weather increased market volatility, as well as 2007 investment returns that were not as strong as in recent years. The Board of Directors has recognized this and, to further help us weather future market fluctuations, passed a resolution in July 2007 to set a Capital Adequacy Reserve target based on the minimum capital risk requirements of private life and casualty insurers in Canada. It’s an objective measure that gives us the tools to ensure that our reserves will weather turbulent economic times. WorkSafeBC is the first workers’ compensation organization in Canada to adopt this minimum capital risk requirement.
What gets measured gets managed, so at WorkSafeBC we set performance targets for reaching our goals — from reducing the injury rate and average claim duration, to improving timeliness of payments and return-to-work outcomes and maintaining financial sustainability. And we evaluate those targets continually.
Organizational effectiveness and building a sustainable compensation system for future generations remain our top priorities. But workers and workplaces safe and secure from injury, illness, and disease remains our vision.
Our responsibility is to provide fair compensation to workers injured in the course of their employment, rehabilitate them, and help them with timely return to work. We must continue to be service oriented and provide compassionate and supportive service. As well, we prudently invest the Accident Fund in order to ensure the monies are there for workers as needed.
We know enforcement is critical to preventing workplace injury, disease, and death. WorkSafeBC has more prevention and investigation officers in the field now than at any other time in our history. In 2007, we conducted 29,893 inspections — the highest number since 2000 — and imposed $4.3 million in penalties for serious non-compliance with health and safety laws and regulations. In 2008, our compliance strategy will include a continued focus on high-risk industries.
We raised the profile of workplace health and safety in several ways. We introduced regulations to strengthen new and young worker orientation and training; we launched an interactive web site that allows young workers to post their health and safety stories; and youth ambassadors raised awareness about workplace safety at events throughout B.C. We also partnered with employers and labour groups to raise public awareness through our Day of Mourning ceremony and a signage campaign to promote driver caution around traffic control workers in construction zones. WorkSafeBC also participated in community events including eight parades in 2007, and in doing so we got our safety message out to an estimated 1 million people.
In 2008, we’ll continue to concentrate on helping employers reduce injuries and fatalities and identifying high-risk sectors and groups of vulnerable workers in B.C. We recognize, however, that even as WorkSafeBC works to eliminate known occupational health and safety risks, new risks are emerging. We’re looking beyond 2008, and through our Research Secretariat we’re challenging researchers to ask questions about what those risks might be. Then we can begin to build prevention strategies — before those risks threaten the health and safety of B.C. workers.