MEMIC Group has named Wyman’s to its annual list of MEMIC Award winners in recognition of its achievements in safety excellence.
The company was recognized with a 2022 MEMIC Award for Safety Excellence by embedding workforce safety into its culture and demonstrating continuous training and employee engagement to prevent workplace injuries. work. Participation in safety workshops, on-site trainings, pre-project safety planning and ergonomic assessments are among the basics for price review.
“Wyman’s has worked hard to build a culture of safety that sets an example for all of our policyholders and for their industry,” said Michael Bourque, President and CEO of MEMIC Group. “We are proud to partner with Wyman’s employees to make it an ever safer and more productive place to work. »
Hartley Webb, MEMIC’s safety management consultant, who has advised Wyman’s for nearly two decades, said the company’s commitment to workforce safety has paid off in the form of downward trends in losses in recent years.
Webb said working with Wyman’s safety team has significantly reduced claims to achieve total claims rates per payroll of $10 million that are well below industry average in medical-only categories. and compensation.
“This is one of the best overall safety programs I’ve seen for agricultural and food processing operations, especially for the blueberry harvesting and processing industry,” said Webb, citing “strong management commitment to safety, strong employee involvement, good program training, safety audits and performance evaluations, full-time safety personnel for farming and processing operations , and a long-standing involvement with MEMIC Loss Control consultants and the use of our online security services.
Webb said Wyman’s safety program has evolved from a program run by a small group of people to a sophisticated program that uses less manual labor and more mechanization.
“Where thousands of seasonal workers raking blueberries by hand once created far too many opportunities for injury, the fields have improved over time so harvesting can be done mechanically,” Webb said. “As array performance increased dramatically, so did their safety scores.”
Founded in 1874, Wyman’s – a fruit grower and processor based in Milbridge, Maine – has held a MEMIC policy for more than 18 years and is one of only four employers insured by the MEMIC group to be recognized in 2022 for consistently improving its workforce safety practices to achieve outstanding results.
“One of our most valuable assets is our people, and with safety as our number one priority, we are committed to leading the way in the manufacturing and agricultural industries and will continue to launch new innovative initiatives,” said the vice president of human resources at Wyman. said April Norton. “Through our nearly two decades of partnership with MEMIC, we have been able to create a workplace safety culture that has led to a reduction in our total recordable injuries and lost time due to injury for our employees. ”
“This award would not be possible without the efforts of all of our employees, safety coordinators and safety teams, at each of our sites, organized and led by Tammy Parker and Rebeca Ortiz, whose mantra is ‘Safety is our job at full-time, not a part-time practice,” Norton said. “We are deeply grateful for this recognition of safety excellence and will continue to live up to this award.”
MEMIC provides workers’ compensation insurance to more than 22,000 employers from Maine to Florida. The MEMIC Awards were established in 1994 as part of its annual review of insured work to instill a culture of workforce safety and celebrate best practices in protecting workers from injury.
