Tighter budgets have led many companies to curtail training expenses in an effort to save money for their organization. No one knows this better than those who are managing budgets for safety training in the oil and gas industry. But the need for safety training persists and may be greater than ever moving forward. Some experts predict that things may begin to turn around for the industry in 2017 and that there may be a shortage of skilled workers because many of those displaced by the downturn have moved on to other industries. Training is crucial to the success and safety of inexperienced workers that may be coming into the industry.
LWCC is committed to partnering with its policyholders to help keep employees safe and healthy on the job. As an added value service, LWCC provides an online training solution to its policyholders at no additional cost. Training courses are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on any computer with internet access. Employees can complete training at their leisure, eliminating the time constraints of classroom training. Additionally, the student is not required to complete the entire course in one sitting. Only the final test must be completed in one sitting.
LWCC partners with UL Pure Safety to offer this safety training and management system to its policyholders. It works for businesses and organizations of all sizes and industries. Currently we are streaming 500 different courses and many of our oilfield clients use them to meet important safety requirements. Some of the available courses for example include global harmonization, first aid, fire prevention, lockout/tagout and fall prevention.
Certificates can be printed upon completion of each course and presented to the employee. A spreadsheet can also be supplied to assist with the tracking of each student’s progress and for recordkeeping.
The average cost of these courses is $30 per course but LWCC offers them to our policyholders free of charge. Since 2010, our policyholders have taken advantage of this offer by having their employees complete over 54,410 courses to date. More importantly, this training increases workforce knowledge of safe work practices.
We have received a strong, positive response from our customers who use online training. In addition, we have studied claims costs for our top five participating policyholders. As a group, these businesses have reduced their claims cost significantly and they have continued to utilize this resource well after seeing those results.
This training along with solid safety management practices has helped the group achieve this level of success.
LWCC’s team of Loss Prevention consultants located throughout the state can visit your work environment and partner with you to help determine if your organization could benefit from participating in our online training program. Additionally, LWCC also offers a Mobile Training Safety Center outfitted with laptops that will travel to your site to deliver online training. This eliminates the need for an employee to travel away from the site to receive training and is another cost savings for our policyholders.
To demonstrate this commitment to you, our loss prevention services are available to our policyholders at no additional charge. LWCC provides many other free, value-added resources to its policyholders, including an extensive video lending library, sample forms and programs, defensive driver simulators, safety meeting guides, and monthly webinars.
Richard Perkins, CSP, is the safety services manager for LWCC. Headquartered in Baton Rouge, La., LWCC is a private nonprofit mutual insurance company that is rated “A” (Excellent) by A.M. Best Company. As the largest writer of workers’ compensation insurance in Louisiana, LWCC employs over 240 people and serves approximately 20,000 policyholders in the state. Named to the 2017 Ward’s 50 group of top-performing insurance companies, LWCC was recognized for achieving outstanding results in the areas of safety, consistency and performance over a five-year period, 2012–2016. For more information, please visit www.lwcc.com.
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Richard Perkinshttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/richard-perkins/
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Richard Perkinshttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/richard-perkins/
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Richard Perkinshttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/richard-perkins/
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Richard Perkinshttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/richard-perkins/
Oil and gas operations are commonly found in remote locations far from company headquarters. Now, it's possible to monitor pump operations, collate and analyze seismic data, and track employees around the world from almost anywhere. Whether employees are in the office or in the field, the internet and related applications enable a greater multidirectional flow of information – and control – than ever before.
