How to Lower Your Experience Modification Rate (EMR)

Your EMR rating is a measure used to assess how much risk your organization may pose to employees and the workforce. This is calculated by your workers’ compensation claims to analyze the severity of incidents and injuries that have occurred in the past.  

It’s vital for employers to know that they have total control over their EMR rates by proactively managing incidents and injuries on-site. The safer the work environment, the lower your insurance premiums and your EMR rate, and the higher your cost savings.  

EMR Rate Calculation 

You might be thinking, what is my EMR rate? We’re glad you asked! Here’s how to calculate experience modification rate. 

An organization’s insurance premiums and worker’s compensation claims are reported to the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). The data for the past three years are used to determine your organization’s EMR, along with payroll information and your class code.  

The NCCI then compares your actual losses to your expected losses. Your expected losses are determined by multiplying your expected loss rate within your class code by payroll and dividing that number by 100. Your actual losses are represented by the claims that were submitted. Finally, your actual losses are divided by expected losses to calculate your EMR rate.  

What is a Good EMR Rating?

On average, a good EMR rating is anything below 1.0. If, for instance, your organization’s EMR is 0.8, this means that it is doing 20% better than the industry average. 

Companies strive to be lower than 1.0, as this indicates a strong safety program and record. Find ways to lower your EMR rate as this could be your competitive advantage when it comes to winning bids and tenders on large projects against others within your industry. This in turn, will help boost your ROI and your organization’s bottom line, as you can win more contracts, thus increasing your profit margins.  

How EcoOnline Can Help

EcoOnline wants to help you lower your organization’s EMR rate to protect your people and create a stronger safety culture. Many employers don’t realize this is in their hands and is a controllable metric. 

With the help of the EcoOnline EHS management solution, employers can gain greater visibility into their safety programs to easily identify gaps and deficiencies. Once these gaps are identified, employers and the workforce can work together to implement the necessary corrective actions to create a safer work environment. This transparency can help you build a proactive safety approach to avoid incidents, near-misses, and injuries, thus lowering your insurance premiums and worker’s compensation claims.  

The EcoOnline suite of solutions can also help you identify gaps in training, manage assets to protect against equipment failure or malfunction, and ensure contractors are compliant with all industry and company standards before setting foot on-site. With EcoOnline’ user-friendly, mobile solution you can empower your employees and place safety directly in their hands to create a greater sense of accountability and dedication when it comes to protecting each other on the worksite.  

It is everyone’s job from boardroom executives to front-line employees to work towards minimizing risk and protecting each other.  

Find out more about how the EcoOnline suite of solutions can help lower your organization’s EMR rate by filling out the form below or speaking to one of our safety experts today.