Your EMR, or Experience Modification Rate, is a number used by insurance companies to evaluate your business’ past cost of injuries and future chances of risk. The lower your business’ EMR, the lower your worker compensation insurance premiums will be. An EMR of 1.0 is usually considered the industry average.
Reduce Your Workers’ Compensation Exposure & Improve Your EMR
In general, your core permanent employees are your most skilled and safety-minded workers. Your variable employees, on the other hand—those you bring on to meet short-term workload demands—tend to be more prone to workplace injuries, which negatively affects your EMR.
This presents a challenge for contractors: How can you get the non-full-time workforce you need to meet workload spikes and still protect your EMR?
To solve this problem, many contractors partner with construction staffing agencies to meet their fluctuating workforce demands. At Tradesmen International, for example, we pay workers’ comp premiums on all our employees and, ultimately, take on all responsibility for our craftworkers’s claims, so your EMR won’t go up if one of our safety-minded people is injured. This lets you add more workers to your project without risking your EMR or increasing your workers’ compensation exposure and premium costs.
An effective safety program can also help improve your EMR. By eliminating hazards and ensuring your employees are well-trained in key safety areas, you can help prevent injuries from occurring—and no injuries means no workers’ compensation claims. While your goal will be to prevent every injury, accidents can happen. Having a comprehensive, proactive safety plan in place can help reduce injury to all employees on the jobsite and mitigate EMR-damaging incidents from occurring.
Benefits of Improving Your EMR
The lower your EMR, the more of an advantage you have over competitors when it comes to bidding on projects. In the past, a business’ EMR was mainly used to calculate insurance premiums. Today, however, state, federal and even private construction contracts are including an EMR requirement as a pre-requisite to bid. That means a high EMR can eliminate you from even submitting a bid (in addition to raising your insurance costs).
To discuss your staffing needs and get proven craftworkers for your next project, contact Tradesmen International today: Get Skilled Craftworkers