HOW WE DO IT: At Stay Green, 'Safety First' Means Hiring Right

When Stay Green, Valencia, Calif., went into business 35 years ago, we knew our staff had the skills to create beautiful landscapes. In the last few years, we realized that one thing we didn't pay enough attention to was making sure crews could complete those projects safely.

Any company dealing with Workers' Compensation should be familiar with Ex-MOD or "Experience Modification" ratings, sometimes just called MOD rates. By comparing a company's annual losses in insurance claims to its policy premiums, insurance companies use the Ex-MOD as an indicator of competence. A rate of 1.00 says claims are in line with industry averages, while a rate above 1.00 means the company has more Workers' Compensation claims than average and insurance premiums rise accordingly.

Early on at Stay Green, our Ex-MOD rate was well over 1.00 – at a rate of 1.25 the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) comes knocking on your door, and they had started visiting us. Also, our Workers' Compensation costs were very high. In April 2004, we finally stepped back to find the problem. Hiring a new safety officer, Erick Farruggia, helped us do this.

Erick began by looking at all of our accident records from the previous four years and made an important finding: 80 percent of Stay Green's accidents were caused by employees who had been with us for one year or less. To us, this meant we needed to refine our hiring procedures and safety training for new employees.

Prior to this investigation, our hiring procedures weren't very sophisticated – sometimes we took a few minutes just to hire "warm bodies" to fill a position. All we had to wait for were the results of the applicant's physical. Now, our updated hiring procedures are much more involved.

Once an applicant is considered for a position, we give them a safety test to determine if they're capable of performing the required duties. If so, they empoyee is then sent to a medical facility for a pre-placement physical and drug screening. These tests ensure there are no pre-existing conditionst hat would keep the employee from performing their job. When we receive the necessary results, the employee is officially hired and safety orientation begins.

After filling out the necessary hiring paperwork, Erick interviews all new employees and asks them directly if they or their families want them to have accidents at work. Obviously, the answer is always, "no," and we ensure the individual that Stay Green doesn't want them to have accidents either. From tehre, Erick administers a safety test covering a number of questions related to issues we deal with every day, such as wearing personal protective equipment, handling and reporting accidents, etc. New hires are trained on all of these topics and the test helps solidify the concepts in their minds. Additionally, Erick filmed and edited a 20-minute video featuring our own employees in actual on-the-job situations. Applicants watch the video with Erick, who stops it frequently to discuss the situations on the film and how Stay Green's safety practices were presented. The orientation takes about two hours.

As for the training video, because Erick filmed our crews during routine site visits, creating it took little time outside of his regular work hours. We were able to save the time and thousands of dollars we could have spent on a professional film crew by creating the video in house. Also, while many safety videos are available from OSHA and green industry assocaitions, featuring out employees lets new hires see how our own crews work with their protective gear and lets us address actual problems we've experienced as a company.

Our new "Safety First" mentality also applies to existing employees and not just new hires. All employees now wear fluorescent vests with "Safety First" printed on them and are required to wear safety glasses and gloves. The vests must stay on at all times during the workday, though the glasses can come off while employees are driving. Stay Green supplies all of the protective equipment, which costs about $180 per employee. If an employee is foudn without hte appropriate safety gear, they are given a formal reprimand.

All of our new safety practices were implemented simultaneously. While we experienced some turnover and a few employees were reluctant to change, everyone now realizes that wihtout these changes, accidents happen and employees at Stay Green all end up getting hurt. That's a lose-lose situation, but the steps we've taken have turned things around dramatically.

In just one year, our Ex-MOD rate dropped 16 percent and the number of accidents we reported dropped 75 percent. Because Ex-MOD rates are calculated using three years' worth of claim information, it will take about two to three years for us to meet or exceed a score of 1.00. However, we're already seeing significant changes. By making our company safer, in just one year we've saved $150,000 to $200,000 in Workers' Compensation costs – and those svings will continue to increase over the next few years.

At Stay Green, we're very proud of all our employees and their dedication to keeping the company safe. In February 2005, we celebrated our first no-accident month since 2001. By updating our hiring and safety procedures, we've been able to make dramatic changes for individuals at all levels of employment.