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Community Practice Feature: An Integrative Approach to Business Risk

posted by TrueNorth Companies on Monday, August 26, 2024

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In an era where organizations are expected to do more with less, today’s business owners and decision-makers face the daunting task of balancing financial goals against the costs of supporting a healthy, productive workforce. What many fail to realize is that a well-designed benefits plan should strike harmony between these initiatives, enhancing company culture while propelling the business forward.

Setting the bar for organizational health and safety with D. C. Taylor Co.

TrueNorth client D. C. Taylor Co. personifies safety. So much so, in fact, that they have repurposed their company’s initials to help employees identify and recall key tenets of workplace safety.

As a result, D. C. Taylor Co. has earned regional, state and national recognition for accident prevention, hazard control and achieved incident rate excellence. More importantly, it has offered opportunities for the organization to scale their business and invest in their workforce by taking a revolutionary approach to employee health and wellness.

“Over the 75 years we’ve been in business, we’ve made every effort to build a reputation based on quality service and safety,” says Brent Taylor, President of D. C. Taylor Co. “In the last decade, TrueNorth’s team has challenged us to evolve and invest in ways that prioritize and protect those efforts.”

While no shortage of success today, back in 2013, D. C. Taylor Co. considered their insurance broker to be more of a vendor than a strategic partner. “We were growing frustrated with their ad hoc programming, poor cost control, and a lack of strategy." says Taylor. “We’d try hard throughout the year to minimize our risks, and yet every year, whether the results were good or bad, there was always an increase with no end in mind.”

"We have the tool you need."

Shortly thereafter, the D. C. Taylor Co. team decided to accept a meeting with TrueNorth. “The TrueNorth team that called on us had prepared a marketing theme with the slogan, ‘we have the tool that you need’”, recalls Taylor. “In advance of the presentation, one of their employees dropped off toolkits with a full set of tools - minus the hammer. When they came to our office to present, they brought the hammers with them!”

Charmed by the clever approach and empathetic discussion, D. C. Taylor Co. made the decision to transition their benefits to TrueNorth. “We decided to make the change because we wanted a team to clarify our status, anticipate our goals and create a plan to reach them. We weren’t getting that from our previous relationship.”

Adopting a holistic strategy

Since 2014, D. C. Taylor Co. has partnered with TrueNorth team members across the company’s divisions and lines of service to address risk, including property and casualty insurance, bonds and contract review, and appreciates the firm’s people-centric approach.

“With our previous broker, our relationship consisted of maybe two or three people,” said Taylor. “In a matter of 30 seconds, I can give you a long list of TrueNorth people who have been influential to D. C. Taylor Co. and made us feel like we’re an important entity to their business. As a result, I view these people as team members to us. In terms of value, I’m willing to bet that we’re paying less financially and getting double or triple the value by replacing singular points of contact with working teams that can serve and support every area of our business.”

In recent years, industry risks have evolved from transactional to more strategic in nature. When coverage is bound through the same broker, it can make it easier for companies like D. C. Taylor Co. to identify how these plans can promote the organization’s overall health. “It’s certainly a benefit to see the synergies that exist when you have specialty brokers interacting with each other inside the same organization,” says Taylor. “That’s a huge benefit to having the same broker relationship for all of our different needs tied to TrueNorth.”

In pursuit of safety excellence

D. C. Taylor Co. has one of the industry’s leading benefits and wellness programs. Pending wellness program requirements, the company’s plan currently pays healthcare premiums for employees, ensuring plan participants receive annual health assessments, biometric screenings and have access to high-risk programming, health education and HealthJoy, a concierge service that makes it easy to locate and schedule appointments to receive medical care.

While the program has helped D. C. Taylor Co. recruit talent, it’s also enabled the company to advocate for the health and wellbeing of their workforce. “That’s the most important thing to me,” says Taylor. “We’re not just providing our employees insurance; we’re incentivizing them to be proactive with their health and identify issues so they can intervene sooner rather than later.”

By integrating their safety, health and wellness initiatives, D. C. Taylor Co. has forged a path for current and future success. “We have this theme in our business that our company will be successful through safety,” says Taylor. “If we are the safest roofing contractor, that serves as our marketing and sales strategy, allowing us to partner with likeminded businesses that care enough about safety to prioritize it, too.”

Last month, EHS Today, the magazine for environmental health and safety leaders, named D. C. Taylor Co. among eight of America’s Safest Companies. The accolade identifies and celebrates companies that go above and beyond in the pursuit of safety excellence. On behalf of all of us at TrueNorth, we want to extend our heartfelt congratulations and applaud D. C. Taylor Co. for their unwavering commitment to safety.

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This article was reposted from thegazette.com, click here to view the original article.

About D. C. Taylor Co.

A roofing contractor with decades of experience servicing commercial and industrial properties, D. C. Taylor Co. is a leader in jobsite safety and has the knowledge and capabilities to assist organizations with roofing repairs, installation, and maintenance. Family-owned and operated, the company was recently named among EHS Today’s 2024 Safest Companies in America. Learn more at www.dctaylorco.com.