Ontario businesses share in $3.2 million in HSEP rebates
The Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) announced in June that it paid out more than $3.2 million in rebates to companies participating in its Health and Safety Excellence Program (HSEP) in the first quarter of 2021.
The WSIB says the announcement about the record-sized rebate comes at a time where many businesses likely need it most and could also benefit from the pandemic-readiness related tools and resources offered through the program.
Since the program launched in November 2019, it has paid out more than $6.2 million in rebates.
HSEP aims to help businesses of all sizes improve safety in their workplaces. In many ways, it is similar to the Safety Groups program, where companies work on developing systems and processes to help address discrete modules. Unlike Safety Groups, however, HSEP is a more flexible program. It allows companies to work individually rather than in groups, and allows firms to scale up or down their level of involvement in the program on a quarterly basis, rather than from year to year.
Rodney Cook, the WSIB’s Vice President of Workplace Health and Safety Services, explains that about 2,300 companies from all industries are currently enrolled in HSEP. Of those, about 25 percent come from the construction sector.
“We’ve seen quite a lot of growth in the program over the past year, which some people might find surprising given the pandemic, but HSEP gives companies a clear roadmap to continue to improve their health and safety programs,” he says. “Also, because it’s aligned with ISO, COR and the province’s Supporting our Safe Employers program, companies can go into HSEP with clear goals of, for example, achieving their COR certification.”
That last point is particularly significant for smaller employers that may be struggling with the idea of pursuing COR certification. Through the HSEP and the rebates it offers—which are at least $1,000 per completed module for smaller businesses—working toward COR becomes a less daunting task.
HSEP is delivered by health and safety associations and those organizations approved by the WSIB. In the construction sector, authorized delivery providers include the Grand Valley Construction Association, the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association, and the Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario. Those providers help participating firms select modules to work on for their programs, and support participants in achieving their goals.
Cook also added that WSIB is working with partners at the Institute for Work and Health, and the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development to launch a partnership aimed at reaching small businesses, and understanding how investments in those companies’ safety programs affect workplace performance. WSIB intends to launch the program this summer, and hopes to select 500 companies to work in the pilot.
The board also recently opened applications for its annual Small Business Health and Safety Leadership Awards.
The awards recognize those Ontario-based companies with 50 or fewer employees that have achieved health and safety successes—no matter how small—in the past year.
The top three businesses will win cash prizes—$5,000 (gold), $3,000 (silver) and $2,000 (bronze)—plus recognition at a ceremony in November.
Applications for the awards are open through July 9.