Editor's Note: The three winners of National Underwriter's Excellence in Workers' Compensation Risk Management Award share key traits that make them champions: company-wide, employee-centric safety programs that yield savings in medical costs and drive down the number of incidents; collaborative personal relationships with the organization's TPA and medical providers; thoughtfully executed return-to-work programs that get injured workers back in action as soon as possible; and most of all, sincere devotion to the well-being of their employees. They also have some terrific stories to tell, and there are many valuable insights to be gleaned from their award-winning best practices. This year's winners are the Dallas Independent School District, Cosentino's Food Stores and International Paper, all of which will be celebrated during the Workers' Compensation Institute's annual Educational Conference (WCEC), set for Aug. 19-22 at the Orlando World Center Marriott in Florida. The award statuettes will be bestowed during the conference's general session, which begins at 9 a.m. on Aug. 20. The 2018 award is co-sponsored by Sedgwick and Safety National. Those attending WCI's conference can meet our winners and have the chance to hear all about the finer points of their programs on Aug. 21 during "Winning Strategies for Workers' Compensation Risk Management," a panel discussion moderated by NU Editor-in-Chief Shawn Moynihan from 9:45 to 11 a.m. in Grand Ballroom 8A, as part of the National Trends in Workers' Compensation track. Related: How a Dallas school district slashed workers' comp costs What follows is the second of our three winner profiles.

Cosentino's Food Stores is one of three winners of the 2018 National Underwriter's Excellence in Workers' Compensation Risk Management Award.

The next time you go grocery shopping, take a minute to notice the myriad tasks each employee performs, from stocking shelves to slicing meat at the deli. As you push your cart around the store, watch the baker taking bread out of the oven or the clerk at the fish counter wrestling with the live lobsters. Then consider how you would manage the workers' comp risk if you owned and operated such a business. That's the reality Aaron J. Greer, director of human resources for Cosentino's Food Stores, faces every day. The Kansas City-based, family-owned and operated regional grocer began in 1948 as a small neighborhood store run by Cosentino brothers Jim and Jerry, who were later joined in the business by younger brother Dante and sisters Mickey, Mary and Joyce. Jim and Dante have passed away, but Jerry continues to be involved in day-to-day operations, which today include 30 locations and 4,800 employees. Its leadership now includes members of the second and third generations, as well. Cosentino's no longer uses a price-based model to control workers' comp costs, an approach that wasn't as successful as its leaders had hoped. "From the outside looking in, the model felt broken," says Greer. "The employees were disappointed with the care they received and unhappy with the process, too." Now, the company focuses on treatment outcomes and employee feedback about the process and the providers. In 2012, a new, employee-centric program was put in place that to date has yielded a 49% reduction of overall program cost on a per-employee, per-month basis, bucking the Kansas City area's trend of increased health care costs overall. "This is not because of what we do individually but because of the whole team approach," Greer adds. Cosentino's operates its program by following three basic principles: |

• Get the employee care as quickly as possible;
• Get the employee the best treatment possible based on outcomes; and
• Be the employee's partner throughout the process.

"We're obviously concerned about price increases in health care, but our primary concern is the employee's view of us when the claim is closed," Greer says. "If they don't have a positive view of this process, then we've failed." Related: 10 workers' compensation trends to watch in 2018 |

The benefits of job analysis

In the grocery industry most injuries are musculoskeletal, usually incurred when lifting. Others can suffer lacerations from box cutters or knives, in addition to the usual slips, trips and falls. Cosentino's workers' comp process starts with thorough job analysis and post-offer testing, which has yielded reductions in costs overall. "We've seen a workforce that is better able to handle the jobs they are hired for right from the start with less risk of injury," Greer says. He recommends drafting the most detailed job analysis possible, which he forwards to Cosentino's health care providers — who are then invited into the stores to see firsthand how the employees do their jobs, matching actions to job descriptions. "Even the small amount of time they spend with you goes a long way in helping them understand the needs of the business," Greer notes. To improve his own understanding of the risks employees can face, Greer has spent time in every department in the store with every crew. "Working a few hours in a department allows you to learn so much more than you can from a written job description." As with most grocery stores in major metropolitan areas, Cosentino's stores open early and close late, with some open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company established an open-to-close program with a dedicated phone line that connects employees to a nurse assigned to them. This gives employees an advocate from the first call about their injury until closure, even if they get hurt on a weekend. That nurse is well versed in the stores' processes, understands the detailed job requirements, and routes injured employees to the correct provider immediately. As a result of this early intervention, claims tend not to escalate, Greer says. Employees learn early in their careers that risk management is not a restriction but rather a way to help them stay on the job. Instead of dictating safety measures, the company has made the training more worker-centric, enlisting employees who had on-the-job injuries and involving them in ongoing safety training. As is the case for many businesses, Greer acknowledged that language can be an issue. Most of the employees for whom English is a second language speak Spanish, but the company has other staffers who are fluent in Spanish to ensure that everyone understands the safety rules. "We're educating everyone, all the way down to utility clerks, that the money we would use to increase salaries or improve benefits is affected by employee injuries that we can prevent." Related: 10 more issues impacting workers' compensation in 2018 |

Teamwork and communication

Cosentino's has a workers' comp team of three: a safety manager who is responsible for loss prevention; Greer, who is the program manager and focuses on the resolution of claims; and the company's general counsel, who also is involved with claims resolution. Greer and his team stay in constant communication, and meet every other Friday morning for about an hour to do a quick review of all pending cases. "In that hour we're always able to move cases along and pull out unwanted delays that we weren't aware of," he says. "Our priority is to make sure injured employees know how much they're missed and make them want to be back as soon as possible," Greer adds. "We don't consider our program to be workers' compensation management. We consider it to be taking care of family." See also: 3 ways agents can control workers' comp costs Get workers moving to reduce workplace injuries