La-Z-Boy Inc. Wins Safety Excellence Award

Award sponsored by Board of Certified Safety Professionals

Custom-order residential furniture business, La-Z-Boy, concentrated on eliminating ergonomic injuries beginning in 2013. An ergonomic team with representatives from EHS, R & D, engineering and manufacturing aimed to reduce injuries by 25% over five years, with a four-phase program addressing production, launch, standards and research development, design and innovation. Since then, manufacturing operations experienced a 64% drop in ergonomic injury rates, reduced the average cost of workers compensation claims by 73% and increased the average efficiency of manufacturing employees by nearly 8%. This program continues to develop, with considerations for exoskeleton use and augmented reality, as well as traditional design processes.

Meet the Other Finalists

Caesars Entertainment Corporation

With more than 69,000 employees in 46 properties, Caesars Entertainment Corporation found itself with high levels of exposure to slip, trip and fall hazards, poor lifting techniques and other ergonomic issues across several departments. Starting in 2014, CEC moved from a reactive to a proactive safety program, developing a behavior-based safety observation program for supervisors and front-line workers, and improved training throughout. This program allowed CEC to decrease overall injuries by 46%, reduce the organization’s OSHA total recordable injury rate from 4.1 to 2.5 (casino hotel industry standard is 3.5), reduce insurance claims, workers compensation claims and labor costs, and increase employee productivity.

Walgreens

Walgreens established an Occupational Safety Leader-led model and Advocacy Care model to shift the organization’s care culture to be safety centric. The journey to transform a culture into an enriched, leader-led movement took authentic commitment across the entire organization. Walgreens transformed its safety culture through training, communications, accountability and ongoing recognition. Through this transformation, Walgreens witnessed significant results:

• Over the past five years, total claim volume, including team members, customers, druggist liability and auto liability, has been reduced over 40% across the entire Walgreen Co. book of business
• Over the past four years, team member injuries related to workplace violence events has seen a 58% reduction

The Walgreens Occupational Safety Leader-led Model and Advocacy Care Model continue to demonstrate positive results both in customer and team member experience and financial savings. By putting people first and staying abreast of industry best practices and opportunities for improvement, Walgreens has exhibited consistent commitment to safety.