5 Ways To Get The Best Rate On Your Workers Comp Insurance
The price of your workers comp insurance is not always locked in tight. You might have something to say about it.
There are things you can do to get a better rate on your workers’ compensation.
How To Get The Best Rate On Workers
Comp
One of the things the team at Western States hears me say all the time, is that business owners are misled into thinking that their worker’s comp is a fixed rate.
Business owners are told that their workers’ comp rate is what it is and they have no option to pay it.
This is wholly inaccurate.
At Western States, it is our mission to help business owners take control of their total cost of risk, which is a very insurance-y way of saying how much they pay overall to manage the risk in their business.
A big part of that is workers’ compensation, a coverage that you absolutely have control over when it comes to how much you pay.
Here are the five steps to find the best rate on your workers comp:
1) Choose The Right Agent
I know that sounds self-serving. That agent doesn’t have to be Western States. We’re a good fit for some, not for others.
But in order to take control of your workers’ compensation premiums, you have to be working with an agent that understands how to do that.
They must understand the market, the carriers, your unique business, and they must be willing to dive in and ask you tough questions, not just skip over the surface to make the process easy.
I’m not saying it should be hard to get a workers’ comp quote, but the right agent is going to dig into your business and figure out those places that you have opportunities to reduce your premium.
Most often that’s dealing with your Experience Mod. The right agent is going to do that.
2) Confirm Class
Codes & Payroll
The very first thing your agent should do is make sure that your classification codes for different employees and different job types inside your business are categorized correctly.
Verify that you are being charged the proper rates versus the proper payroll. This is the kind of thing that is 101 level insurance work, but most business owners never dig into it.
They just assume that their policy is set up correctly and what we find is over 60% of the time, that is not the case.
This is an easy win if your agent is willing to take just a couple of extra minutes to verify everything on your policy.
3) Choose The Right Insurance Carrier
Not all insurance carriers are created equal.
Most insurance agents who shop your policies don’t want you to know this. There are workers’ compensation specialists, insurance carriers in which all they do is workers comp. Its not always best to just go with the same carrier as your general liability.
There are carriers that focus on workers comp specifically for contractors or specifically for manufacturers.
There are carriers who are able to package your workers’ comp into a broader set of coverages to provide you a holistic approach.
And all of these carriers have pros and cons and nuances to their workers’ comp offering.
You want to make sure you’re working with the right insurance carriers so that when you do have that loss or you do have that question or you do want to push them on a particular aspect of your policy, they understand what you’re talking about and are willing to work with you.
4) Operate A Safe Business
This may sound like remedial stuff, but operating a safe business, putting the proper procedures in place, putting the proper processes in place, building a culture of safety inside your organization are vital to reducing your workers’ comp premiums.
At Western States, this a large part of how we approach a client, as an advisor, helping you put these processes and procedures in place.
That’s the work that we do.
So if your agent is not helping you build safety into your business, understand you’re paying for that service, you’re just not getting it.
But building procedures and processes and a culture of safety is an enormous part of getting the best rate on your workers’ compensation premiums.
5) Consistent Policy Reviews
Depending on the size and nature of your business, you may not need quarterly reviews, which is what we’ll set up for some of our middle-market accounts and accounts that have more frequent workers’ compensation claims.
We like to review your policy every 6 months.
Either way, consistent workers comp policy reviews keep you ahead of your Experience Mod, they keep you ahead of the curve.
They keep your mind focused on what you’re doing in terms of safety and procedure and help find places in your business that may be causing unnecessary claims.
This keeps the lines of communication open between you, your insurance professional, your carrier, leadership staff, and ultimately provides the ability to message down to your boots on the ground team.
Take Away
The best way, to the get the best rate on your workers’ comp insurance is to start with a free Experience Mod Audit Review.
Western States can help.
If we aren’t your current insurance professional, we should be!
- You can call or text us at 801.798.7461
- Matt@westernstatesinsurance.net.
I look forward to introducing you to a new way of viewing your insurance program.
