Custom Business Interiors Celebrates Record Number of Injury-Free Workdays

Two years ago, Custom Business Interiors was desperate to stop accidents.

"We had one month that was cataclysmic," production manager John Filar said. "It was worse than Vietnam around here. We had something fall on a guy, had a guy fall off a scaffold and had a nail gun injury."

The solution was implementing a safety incentive program. What the Las Vegas architectural millwork shop chose as their incentive program was simple enough. Food and money. They would treat employees to lunch every 50 days and raffle off $50 bills if they managed to work without injury.

Operations Manager Rick Poliquin said that the company does cabinets, paneling, and commercial work applications such as custom-designed bars.

Going over a year without an accident is a challenge for any company, and Custom Business Interiors had a long way to go to reach that mark.

"In the early 90's we had considerably more claims and our worker’s comp was at a high rate and a high modification factor," said controller Mary Garoutte. "We needed a good idea and came up with this right before we started with Nevada Contractors Insurance."

The NCI helped Custom Business Celebrate by providing lunch for the workers. Garoutte said that using money and food to get employee’s attention is effective.

"Every 50 days we go without an accident we do a lunch and money raffle," she said. "It’s peer pressure. Guys say to themselves, ‘I got a paper cut today, am I going to ruin our safety record for this?’"

Eleven $50 bills were raffled off to employees. One lucky winner was Brian Helsten, who is one of the most senior wood workers yet had never won one of the safety raffles.

Interest in the incentive program is high. Operation manager Poliquin said that is indicated by the chalk board used to measure injury-free days. One of them updates the board on a daily basis.

Controller Garoutte said that the company has monthly safety meetings, trains new employees extensively on the proper use of machines, and all employees are required to wear their shirts tucked in and make sure that operational safety guards are in place on all machines.

The technique has proven to work, since the company has reduced accidents down to zero and held that level for over a year. Garoutte said that money and lunches seem cheap compared to the cost of worker’s compensation claims. "I tell other companies that they should do the same thing," Garoutte said. "It’s a lot of fun."