¶ … family-Owned funeral home do to be proactive with regard to safety management? The key to being proactive is to be attentive to the work environment and possible hazard areas. It is of paramount importance for any business owner to examine the working environment of the business and establish what areas and activities are at high risk of having an accident. Once the key accident-risk areas have been identified, steps can be taken to minimize the dangers, either by changing the dangerous element of the environment or developing an alternate method that incurs less risk of injury to the employees. For example, heavy lifting is often a duty that comes up at a funeral home, therefore heavy-lifting belts could be provided to employees to reduce the risk of back injury. If the owner can afford to invest in the equipment, machines can be used in place of manpower wherever possible, reducing the risk even further. If the business owner(s) are unsure as to what consitutes hazardous working conditions, or would like a professional outside opinion, they can have an expert from the insurance company due an evaluation of the working conditions, which is a service most insurers will provide for free.

Family-owned businesses can also be proactive by educating their employees on proper safety precautions. The knowledge of proper...

If the business does not have official safety protocols in place, which is more common in small businesses, then they can be drawn up and written explicitly based upon the evaluation of the work environment. This provides additional incentive to the owners for having the evaluation and recognizing hazardous areas in the workplace.
The other advantage to continuing to train and educate the staff is that they cannot claim negligence if an injury does take place. By being proactive in this manner, family-owned funeral homes can better protect themselves from bankruptcy due to expensive law suits.

In your opinion, what can HR managers do to reduce workers' compensation costs?

HR managers can reduce workers' compensation costs by implementing comprehensive safety initiatives in the workplace. Structured and consistent saftey programs must be created and updated regularly, which will aid in lowering accident rates at the company.

These programs must address a variety of issues. Employees must be instructed in proper safety compliance- continung education and training leads to a well-informed staff that is alert to safety risks. New equipment must be installed to reduce manual labor, and the accompanying risk…