He said Belk--which before 2004 focused on fire safety and Occupational Safety and Health Administration compliance--was "getting hit with ongoing increases on the workers' comp and general liability side." The organization realized it needed to bring in a team with experience developing and implementing a risk management program.

That team started with Mr. Nesbit in 2004, later adding Mark Meek (safety manager), Martha Basco (assistant risk manager) and Mashea Miller (risk triage analyst), which operates as a tight unit.

Mr. Nesbit, who has served on both sides of the fence, has been in the industry for about 30 years--the first 22 with St. Paul Companies, where for 10 years he was director of national programs working with national accounts on the risk management consulting side. Later, he worked as risk manager for Buffet's Inc., a restaurant company where "we rebuilt the staff and were able to reduce [comp] frequency by about 50 percent over five years."

As an insurer, he observed how often risk managers were "siloed and in their own world--safety and claims were in a different world," with risk managers often focused on regulatory compliance but not taking an integrated approach, "either with business partners within the company, or even within risk management."

One of the moves that got the attention of Belk store managers initially, according to Mr. Meek, was when the company instituted an allocation program that charges back claims costs to individual stores.

"So if the claim's over $1,000, the store gets charged $26,000," Mr. Meek noted. "That impacts that store's bottom line, which makes that store manager pay attention. That got us the buy-in."

By the time safety programs were introduced to the stores, he added, "they were starving for the information because they wanted to eliminate the opportunity of being charged for claims."

So far in 2007, he said, over 1,500 managers--80-to-90 percent of the total--have received training on safety practices, hazard identification, the impact of a loss on a store, and how to handle a customer claim (which involves role-playing).

Accident prevention and awareness training takes management team members out of the store--not only for the three hours of classroom work but also the two-hour drive to the meetings each way.

With that kind of time investment, "we had to demonstrate this would show an impact," Mr. Nesbit said. "Last year, when we did that, we had a 20 percent reduction in claims. For 2007, our claims frequency year-to-date is already down 10 percent over this time last year. We have also reduced the number of associates who are currently out of work due to a work-related injury since Feb. 1, 2005--down to 23."

The program was so successful, in fact, that "this year when we asked to do it again, the answer was, 'Sure. Not only are you going to be able to do it, but we're going to help you get 50 percent more people to these meetings.'"

To keep the training fresh, the risk management department sends monthly safety committee agendas and a newsletter with information about accidents that have occurred and how they can be prevented.

Store managers also hold a daily 10-minute meeting with associates to incorporate accident prevention, while Mr. Meek provides managers with a weekly pictorial of a hazard to share with associates.

All this has empowered store managers, teaching them to recognize hazards and correct them. In the past, Mr. Nesbit said, Belk's culture was very different. "Store managers and associates were not empowered to identify or resolve hazards."

The program has paid off in a big way, with the reduction of workers' comp loss projections by $19.5 million, according to a May 31 actuarial study cited by Mr. Nesbit.

At the same time Belk focused on workers' comp exposures, reducing injuries to customers has also been a priority--with employees and shoppers often facing some of the same risks.

Mr. Nesbit said the most dramatic change has been "the culture, and that starts with the Belks"--with the owners showing a personal concern for safety. "A lot of it is just telling [associates] to be safe," Mr. Meek said. "It sounds simple, but it's a department motto. We're telling the stores to treat people nicely--like how you would want to be treated--and not worry about insurance and the financial side."

Previously, when there was an accident, he said, the company mentality was, "Don't talk to the customer, don't talk with the associate--just call it in and walk away." Now the policy is for members of the risk management team to sit down with the store manager and associate to discuss the loss, and "engage the associate about how the accident happened so we can learn from that from a prevention standpoint."

Before the risk management program, Mr. Meek said, about 60 percent of claims were medical and about 40 percent were indemnity or lost time, "because the stores were treating associates like pariahs, and they weren't bringing them back." With a changed culture, the ratio is now 80 percent medical and only 20 percent lost time.

Ms. Basco said designated medical clinics were set up for each store. Part of the orientation program for new employees, she noted, is to let them know that if injured, "we will send them to a designated clinic, because they can get the best care there."

She also follows up on every lost-time case, engaging store managers to help injured employees return to work as quickly as possible. Stores are further encouraged with a credit of $13,000 when they help an employee get back on the job.

"Part of the training we do with managers is explaining to them the financial, social and psychological impact of a claim on an associate, and how an injury affects them personally--with their family, financially and other ways," she said, adding managers are taught how to help an associate return quicker via light-duty work--an about-face employees appreciate.

"In the past, if you got injured, you were forgotten about," she said. "The Belks wanted a program that carries through care and concern for the associates." The return-to-work program, she added, has "helped reduce not only our number of accidents but also our number of lost work days."

When he first started with Belk, Mr. Nesbit said the company's four divisional heads "were not given the resources to know or manage their losses, and didn't know how to utilize risk management. Now we're on a first-name basis, we travel with them, we give them quarterly report cards showing key areas and how they're doing. Now they're concerned and competitive."

For example, he said when risk management met with one division recently, "they pulled out their sheet and were telling us, 'We're still number one, and it's the other divisions who are driving the claims.'"

To honor their safety and loss control achievements, Belk awards trophies to divisional, regional and store managers.

Before the risk management program was launched, a store manager's expertise focused on selling, "and they had no idea about risk management," according to Mr. Nesbit. "It's not that we want to make them into risk managers, but we need to give them the basic tools so they can respond, because they're the face of the company to the associate and to the customer."