Teddy Awards

Teddy Awards 2016: Share Your Success

Apply now for the 2016 Theodore Roosevelt Workers' Compensation and Disability Management Awards.
By: | March 17, 2016

Last November in Las Vegas, the 2015 Teddy Award winners faced a packed session at National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference® & Expo, with attendees eager to learn more about their successful programs.The session was enthusiastically received.

Afterward, attendees were overheard saying to colleagues, “We should start doing that … let’s discuss it when we get back to the office … .” Clearly, conference organizers were spot-on when naming that session “Steal These Ideas!”

Does your company have ideas worth stealing too? Are you proud of what you have been accomplishing with your workers’ compensation and injury prevention programs? We’d like to learn more about them.

The application is now available online for the 2016 Theodore Roosevelt Workers’ Compensation and Disability Management Awards, aka The Teddys.

The awards are open to both for-profit and nonprofit employers, as well as governmental entities. And while there are quite a few large employers among our list of past winners, small and mid-size entities are encouraged to apply.

Our judges look for quality rather than quantity, and plenty of past winners have proven that it’s possible to accomplish great things even with limited resources.

Some food for thought as you prepare your application. We are looking for well-rounded programs that take a holistic approach to safety, workers’ comp and disability management. Teddy Award winning companies, no matter their size or industry, have several core characteristics in common.

They do everything possible to protect their most valuable asset: their people. They strive daily to reduce workplace risks and prevent injuries from happening.

When injuries do happen, winning companies waste no time securing expert care for their workers. They also have systems and practices to ensure that they’re getting the best possible outcomes for their medical spend.

Our judges look for quality rather than quantity, and plenty of past winners have proven that it’s possible to accomplish great things even with limited resources.

Teddy winners frequently amaze us with their 110 percent commitment to getting all injured employees back to work, using imaginative strategies that turn the old model of return-to-work on its head.

They also track and measure everything — continuously and aggressively looking for opportunities to improve outcomes while eliminating wasted expense.

Along the way, many of them also develop effective strategies that help manage challenges such as union negotiations, legacy claims, litigation and fraud.

Not least of all, Teddy winners get results. We look at the last five years’ worth of performance data to gauge whether the company’s programs really help achieve the intended goals.

Judges factor in every element potentially affecting that performance, including the intensity of the challenges faced, as well as the age of the program.

Teddy winners go above and beyond best practices, and they have a firm grasp of the big picture. They leverage the talent of internal teams as well as vendor partners to build programs that enable them to drive year-over-year improvement for the long-term.

For inspiration, read about last year’s Teddy Award winners. It could be your organization whose praises we’re singing this year.

The 2016 Teddy Award winners will be profiled in the November 2016 issue of Risk & Insurance®, and will be recognized at the National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference® & Expo in New Orleans, held Nov. 30 – Dec. 2, 2016.

For questions about the awards or the application process, please contact Michelle Kerr at [email protected] or 215-784-0910, ext. 6216.

Michelle Kerr is Workers’ Compensation Editor and National Conference Chair for Risk & Insurance. She can be reached at [email protected].

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