Change, it seems to be the only constant. Innovation and new products from businesses seem to be a constant stream. 

In the world of insurance and risk, it is much the same. In 2015 ACC paid $718,000,000 to cover the cost of work-related injury claims.

To anyone reading, that is a big number, and it has come from everyone's pocket at some time int he form of ACC Levies. Be it as a business owner or employee you have paid it at some point.

With the introduction of the new Health & Safety at Work legislation it has created a bit of an upheaval in many workplaces with many many more needing to get themselves sorted to be compliant.

It is actually not that onerous or costly. It is seen as more government red tape, and for some, it will be. 

However, it is an opportunity, as a business and employer, to demonstrate that you do care about your staff. 

We have assist quite a number of businesses in this area in the last 6-7 months, and all have given us extremely positive feedback about it.

By engaging in better work practices that are safer, you will get the appreciation of your employees. Frankly the most valuable part of your business.

The law changes around H&S are starting to gain some traction. ACC is responding by changing their approach to how ACC levies for employees and business owners are managed.

First off ACC is going to do away with the Workplace Safety Discount schemes. They are ten years old and aren't seen to be driving the change in workplace safety quite as well as they would like. 

Also as it is now mandatory that all businesses have a health & safety plan, providing an additional incentive to do so is now redundant.

With WorkSafe being responsible for overseeing the new legislation, ACC is working with them closely. 

Reporting on injuries from medical providers and ACC to WorkSafe are going to increase the number of WorkSafe visits to businesses. 

This raises the issue of incident notification. Yes you as the business owner, if injuries happen at your workplace, have a responsibility to notify WorkSafe or face penalties. More here. WorkSafe Notifiable Events

Another way ACC will be approaching workplace safety is in the way they manage levies. 

Rather than taking an incentive approach, with discounts for having H&S systems in place, they are going to take a direct level approach.

What ACC will be doing is directly measuring how effective your plan is in reducing workplace injuries.

ACC will be taking an approach of providing a no-claims discount for no injuries or better than average injury rates and increased levies where there are injuries or worse than average injury rates.

This will result in levy loadings and discounts from +75% loading for larger businesses with poor injury rates and -50% discounts for large businesses with excellent reduction of injury rates.

For smaller businesses, this is limited to +/-10%, which will be where the majority of businesses in New Zealand fall.

This sounds a bit confusing as there are two approaches. The approach for you will be determined by the value of the ACC levies you pay, above or below $10,000 per annum presently. More on this link Experience Rating

ACC's page Workplace Incentives has quite a bit of information on what they are doing.

How can we help?

Because we approach our business advice from a position of risk rather than just insurance, we can assist across the spectrum of business risk to ensure you are sorted!

We look at you the business owner, what do you need in direct insurance to ensure the financial survival of both your business as well as your family.

We look at how your ACC levies are structured and how these could be better managed to minimise the financial cost on your business.

We engage a Health & Safety specialist when it is needed to complete your H&S Planning and asset in implementing this into to your business.

We assist with ensuring you & your employees get the best start on their retirement savings by educating them on how the KiwiSaver scheme works. From this we talk about how they can make better decisions to maximise the opportunity KiwiSaver has for them. As a business owner, you are part of this you are paying 3% on top too.

Wrapping risk up by reviewing the way you insure your business, plant, equipment, stock, and liability, we give you piece of mind you can focus on going forward rather than picking up pieces.

Finally because we do all of this effectively as a free service to you, aspects will have their fees and premiums, you will have money to put towards employee benefit schemes to increase retention and further reduce absenteeism.

We have found a niche where we can do this without increasing the cost to get the advice, for businesses that are often reluctant to pay consultants for that advice.

We would love to be your risk manager, give us a call and try us out!