Workers' Compensation and Project Management

Workers' Compensation

• Refers to payments for medical expenses for injured or ill employees, survivor benefits, and costs related to accident investigations, including travel and legal fees.

Task Analysis

• A detailed breakdown of the elements needed for an undertaking, outlining resources and methods.

Common Metrics

• Used to assess project performance.
  • Budget: Project status (at, under, or over budget?)
  • Time: Project completion timing (on time? If not, days overdue?)
  • Quality: Conformity to standards (does the work meet or exceed standards? Has the project passed inspection?)
  • Conflict: Any project phase conflicts amongst team members.
  • Safety: Did the project phase occur without safety incidents?

Risk Analysis

• Uses qualitative and quantitative methods to assess risk frequency and severity.

Risk Determination

• Identifies risk type, location, probability, consequences, and estimates risk.
• Risk estimate is a product of probability and consequences.

Risk Acceptance

• Deciding acceptable risk frequency and severity for individuals, organizations, and society.

Risk Characterization

• Analyzes the impact of risk exposure on people.

Job Safety Analysis

• Formal method to assess job function hazards.

Mishap

• Unplanned event resulting in injury, death, damage to property, or environmental harm.

SMART Goal

• Goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

International Labor Organization (ILO) Guidelines

• Voluntary guidelines for safety and health management systems.

Leading Indicators

• Proactive activities that prevent risk including: worker participation in programs, number of safety suggestions, near misses and first aid cases, and frequency of management walkthroughs and safety inspections.

Evidence-Based Approach

• A rational method for reliable and reproducible audit conclusions, using verifiable audit evidence.

Fault Tree Analysis

• A deductive analysis that uses Boolean logic, finding combinations of failures that result in a top (undesired) event.

Contingency Theory

• A behavioral theory stating there is no one best way to organize, lead, or make decisions, best course of action depends on internal and external factors.

Systems Theory

• An interdisciplinary theory treating organizations as systems.

Management Styles

• Autocratic: Decisions made unilaterally.
• Permissive: Participation allowed in decision-making process.
• Directive Democrat: Participation allowed, but close supervision.
• Directive Autocrat: Unilateral decisions and supervision.
• Permissive Democrat: Participation allowed, significant latitude.
• Permissive Autocrat: Unilateral decisions, latitude in work.

Importance of Safety Management Systems

• Importance due to human factors, legal requirements, and cost considerations.

Accident and Hazard

• Accident: Unexpected event resulting in injury, loss, or damage.
• Hazard: Condition that can cause accident, injury, illness, or loss.

Costs of Accidents

• Direct Costs: Medical expenses, lost time payments.
• Indirect Costs: Costs not directly from harm (e.g., lost production, replacement worker time)

ANSI Z10 and Heinrich's Incident Theories

• Voluntary consensus standards on occupational safety management
• Heinrich's Incident Theories propose a ratio of direct to indirect costs of about 4:1

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle

• Plan: Establish objectives and processes needed to achieve them.
• Do: Implement the plan.
• Check: Monitor and evaluate the plan.
• Act: Take action to correct and improve the plan.

Confined Space and Entry Attendant

• Spaces potentially hazardous (atmosphere, entrapment, etc.)
• Entry Attendant monitors space, prevents unauthorized entry, and summons emergency services if required

Hazard Communication Standard (HCS)

• Requires evaluation of chemicals for physical and health hazards.
• Information must be shared with exposed employees.

Risk Analysis and Risk Determination

• Risk Analysis: Qual and Quant techniques to assess risk frequency and severity.
• Risk Determination: Evaluates risk type, location, probability, and consequences.

Job Safety Analysis and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

• Job Safety Analysis: Formal method to assess job function hazards.
• FMEA: Systematic process for identifying potential design and process failures.

Other Concepts

• Theory Y Management: Workers motivated by work and internal rewards - reduced need for external rewards.
• Herzberg Motivational Theory: Motivation divided into hygiene and motivational factors.
• SWOT Analysis: Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat analysis.
• Manual Rates and Premiums: Premiums calculated using state specific rate books.

Experience Rating

• Claims history affects insurance policies.
• Fixed rates set at the time of the policy.

Premium Discounts

• Lower administrative costs for larger insurance clients.

Government Agencies

• Oversight bodies for transportation, safety standards, etc.

Process Safety Management

• OSHA regulation focused on preventing chemical releases.
• Threshold Limit Value (TLV-TWA) is average concentration over an 8-hour work week.

Hazardous Chemicals

• Classification of hazardous materials (trade secrets, unstable/reactive chemicals, water-reactive chemicals)

Workplace Safety

• Areas, jobs, locations where hazardous chemicals are used, produced, or present.

Accident Prevention Strategies

• Frequency: Reducing frequent accidents.
• Severity: Minimizing the severity of accidents.
• Cost: Reducing the cost of accidents.

Accident Theories

• Multiple Factor Theory: Many factors contribute to accidents.
• Energy Theory: Accidents often involve energy transfer.
• Domino Theory: Accident sequences are like falling dominoes.

Financial Justification

• Process of justifying investment in safety improvements.
• Utilizing opportunities for improvement in organizations.

Accident Cost Estimation

• Cost breakdown of accidents (insured and uninsured costs).
• Showing the ratio between direct and indirect accident costs.

Accident Ratios

• Ratios of unsafe acts and conditions to the cause accidents.

Risk Management

• Managing risk to acceptable levels.
• Implementing risk reduction measures.

Acceptable Risk

• Accepted risk for an activity or hazard that has undergone risk reduction measures.

Risk Types

• Accepted Risk: Risk that's known and acceptable.
• Residual Risk: Remaining risk after safety mitigation.

Risk Mitigation

• Modifying hazards to reduce probability or severity of harm.
• Use of design, safety devices, training or procedures.

ALARP and Task Analysis

• ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable): Acceptable Level of mishap risk.
• Task Analysis: detailed method for defining tasks and resources.

Risk Analysis and Assessment

• Risk Analysis: Identify potential safety risks.
• Risk Assessment: Evaluate safety risks and determine probabilities.
• Assessment Techniques: Methods such as establishing parameters, identifying hazards, assessing consequences.

Risk Types

• Acceptable risk: Risk acknowledged and tolerated during process.
• Residual Risk: Remaining risk after mitigation.

Risk Mitigation

• Reducing the probability or the degree of severity of a hazard.

ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable) / Task Analysis

• The level of mishap risk acceptable to a system.
• Task analysis: Detailed understanding of tasks and needed resources.

Common Metrics

• Budget: Assessing if the project stays on budget.
• Time: Ensuring projects, or phases, are completed on time.
• Quality: Evaluating work quality standards.
• Conflict: Identifying and mitigating project conflicts.
• Safety: Confirming projects complete without safety incidents.

Risk Determination and Acceptance

• Type, location, risk probability, and consequences (risk determination)
• Deciding on acceptable risks for individuals, companies, and wider society (risk acceptance)
• Risk is determined by a product of risk probability and consequence (risk estimate)

Risk Characterization and Job Safety Analysis

• Risk Characterization: Analyzes effects of risk on people.
• Job Safety Analysis: Method to assess job hazards.

Safety Management Systems

• Using PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) to improve performance.

System Failure

• Single-Point Failure: When a component's failure halts the whole system.
• Domino Theory: One failure causes a chain reaction.
• Energy Theory: Energy transfer leads to incidents.

Project Management

• Processes involved in managing projects (defining, initiating, planning, etc.).
• Using Gantt Charts for planning and control.

Hazard Communication

• International standardized approach (GHS) to hazard communication.

Accident Costs

• Estimating the costs of accidents by identifying classes, accounting records, and uninsured costs.
• Ratios used to determine total cost (insured and uninsured) direct vs indirect.

Accident Causation

• Ratio of unsafe acts to unsafe conditions to determine cause of incidents.
• Incident/injury ratio used to analyze rates of minor and severe injuries.

Risk Management

• Approaches to handle safety risks.
• Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Finding the fundamental cause of an incident.
• Risk Communication: Sharing risk information between stakeholders.
• Risk Mitigation: Reducing or eliminating risk(s)

Audit and Analysis

• Evidence-Based Approach: Rational and reproducible audit conclusions.
• Fault Tree Analysis: Deductive analysis to determine multiple failure combinations.

Human Factors

• Motivational elements and safety culture.
• Motivational-Hygiene theory and Safety Culture.

Exposure Limits

• Occupational safety and health administration (OSHA), (NIOSH) recommended limits for worker exposure to hazards.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• Protects users from hazards.
• Identifying a need for chemical protection (CPC).

Product Liability

• Employer responsibility for potential harm from products.
• Various circumstances determining product liability.

Workers' Compensation

• Covers employee injuries and compensation at work.
• Providing compensation for medical, and rehabilitation expenses.

Safety Management Systems

• Approach used to improve safety in organizations.

Safety Standards and Analysis

• Criteria and procedures for consistently improving safety processes.
• Benefit cost ratio analysis evaluating competing courses of action.
• Pareto Principle: 80/20 rule suggesting 20% of causes lead to 80% of incidents.

Safety Culture and Theories

• Safety culture and behavioral factors in the workplace
• Internal Audits, motivators and safety culture, and influencing factors.

This quiz covers essential topics in workers' compensation, including payments for medical expenses and benefits for injured employees. It also examines task analysis, common metrics for project performance assessment, and techniques for risk analysis and determination. Test your knowledge on these important aspects of project management and workplace safety.