SAFETY BOOSTS RETENTION

One little-discussed way to improve mailroom retention should already be a company goal -- safety, speakers during a Tuesday post-press session told attendees.

David E. Nelson, account consultant at Travelers Property Casualty, Alpharetta, Ga., said employees won’t stay in your employ long if their workplace seems unsafe.

"If it’s perceived as an unsafe workplace, it will increase your challenges in getting and keeping good people," he said. Indeed, distribution centers, where newspapers suffer the highest overall lost workday rates, also have extremely high turnover rates, he observed.

Any number of factors pushes up the turnover rate. But one of them is safety: Distribution and packaging workers are under deadline pressure and therefore rush to get work done. They also generally work the most dangerous shift: 1 a.m.-to-6 a.m. (and the time spent afterward traveling home).

Employees in packaging are prone to back injury, injuries from machinery and ergonomic-related injuries from repetitive actions that can injure backs, necks, legs and arms.

Nelson said solutions are necessary for safety’s sake. But making conditions right is also about keeping employees healthy, happy and on the job.

Driver safety incentive programs at the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch have helped reduce the company’s insurance premiums.

The company’s fleet-safety program was started in 1982 and aimed at cutting insurance payouts that had spiked to more than $1 million.

Between 1990 and 1999, losses have been below $100,000 for eight of the 10 years. ($393,000 in 1994 and $120,000 in 1998), said Richard Neergaard, the paper’s director of safety.

The paper couples training, intensive accident investigations, progressive discipline (including the loss of driving privileges), and incentives for helping improve safety performance.

Managers also complete an extensive search of state driving records before hiring. Another important component of the program is the peer-review panel, Neergaard said. Employees ultimately decide after an accident if a company driver is at fault, although that decision can be appealed to human resources, he said. But the peer-review panel decision stands as far as incentives are concerned. Awards for full-timers start at $50 per year and increase to $300 per year in the sixth accident-free year; part-time awards are halved.

When a department finishes the year with all drivers accident-free, its awards are doubled.

The workers like the program, and spouses like the awards (and further encourage good driving). Also, the incentives promote better driving and show management’s commitment to safety, he said.

He offered one caution: "Optimum results cannot be expected unless other safety program elements are also in place."

-Bob Sims