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E.R. Wagner reaches safety milestone
Nov. 14 marked two years without lost time due to injuries for E.R. Wagner Casters & Wheels Division in Hustisford, Wis., a division of Milwaukee-based E.R. Wagner Manufacturing Company, a 102 year-old, privately held company.
The milestone was a product of the company’s revitalization of its commitment to safety and employee training.
Honoring its workers’ long-time dedication and hard work, E.R. Wagner Casters & Wheels organized an event at its facilities where employees each received a $100 bill and were recognized and thanked personally by company executives.
“One of our core values is people,” said E.R. Wagner Casters & Wheels vice president and general manager Wade Fletcher. “People have to go to work each day, so we want this to be the kind of place where people are excited to come – and safety is a major piece of creating that kind of environment.”
While E.R. Wagner Casters & Wheels already had a strong commitment to safety, and had been implementing a number of programs for years, the company decided to revitalize its efforts in 1999. With the help of Waukesha-based R&R Insurance Services Inc., E.R. Wagner Casters & Wheels put new emphasis on training employees at all levels to empower themselves and recognize the benefits of a safe workplace.
With R&R Insurance Services’ consultation, the company fine-tuned its strategic vision to include:
• re-energized focus on safety;
• requirements regarding training and new employee orientation;
• updated reporting systems; and
• new approaches for keeping employees productive, even after an accident.
To maintain the program and ensure long-term commitment, E.R. Wagner Casters & Wheels made a real effort to ensure safety was always on the minds of its employees.
“We had constant emphasis and reinforcement vehicles in place to help keep our people focused on safety,” said human resources director Patty Hill. “Each month, we would hold departmental meetings that addressed safety issues as a main agenda topic, and we also conducted quarterly quizzes that encouraged our employees to retain the information we had given them.”
Better safety programs also benefited the employees themselves. Rather than sending employees home, not allowing them to work until they are cleared by their physician, E.R. Wagner Casters & Wheels brought their employees back on restricted duty to provide administrative support – like filing and sending company mailings and light duty production work. This meant employees would not lose pay because of their injury.
According to Frank Wegner of R&R Insurance Services, “the importance of implementing better safety programs helped both employees and the company. For the employee it meant they could go home without disability or soreness and play with their children, pursue their hobbies in comfort and still earn the pay necessary to support their families. For the company it meant their insurance costs would be reduced for worker’s compensation by more than 50 percent.”
“Overall, safety means much more than just focusing on making our equipment safer and less dangerous to use,” said Hill. “Instead, the investment needs to be made in training and procedure. By empowering our employees to help foster a safer atmosphere we obtained support on an individual level – they have more of a vested interest.”
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