Cor Audits - BCCSA
What is COR?
Certificate of Recognition Program (COR) is an employer incentive program developed by WorkSafeBC that assists employers to develop effective health, safety and return to work management systems. The result is reduced incidents, accidents and injuries as well as associated human and financial costs. There are two COR programs available – Health and Safety COR and Injury Management/Return to Work COR.
What are the benefits of COR?
There are several benefits to participating in the COR Program:
- Protecting the well-being of your workers is the right thing to do.
- Your corporate image will be enhanced with a strong culture of safety, ultimately attracting safety conscious workers.
- Achieving COR will position your organization with a competitive advantage.
- More and more organizations are telling us that COR certification is a requirement to bid on jobs.
- You will have all the tools in place for a healthy and safe workplace.
Upon completion of the COR Program and achieving a successful audit, your organization will have a comprehensive company health and safety program in place along with a corresponding manual.
There are also financial benefits. Your organization will be eligible to receive up to 15% on WorkSafeBC base assessments. Bottom line is that if your company is safer, there will be fewer accidents and injuries. Over time, you will reduce the cost of claims and lost time at work.
What type of organizations can participate in the COR Program?
Construction companies within Sector 72 are eligible to participate in COR. In addition, the COR Program is customized to the size of your organization:
- Small Business COR (for companies with less than 20 employees) and
- Large Business COR (for companies with 20 or more employees).
How long is the certification valid for?
COR certification is valid for three years provided that a company maintains their eligibility within the COR program and that training elements and auditing standards are maintained annually.
Injury Management / Return-to-Work (RTW) COR
Injury management/return-to-work programs are a proactive way for employers to help injured workers stay at work or return to productive and safe employment as soon as physically possible. They are based on the fact that many injured workers can safely perform productive work during the process of recovery. Returning to work is part of the worker’s therapy and recovery.
Effective injury management programs are initiated when the worker first contacts the employer. At this time, an early intervention procedure can be initiated to determine if the worker is capable of staying at work performing their normal duties or modified duties while the injury heals. These at work programs are an effective tool to ensure healing occurs while the injured worker is still performing meaningful and productive work. In many cases, this prevents any time loss from work. If workers do need time away from work, the injury management program can reintegrate the injured worker into the workforce much sooner.
Achieving RTW COR Certification
The actual audit for this program is conducted once the Health and Safety COR certification is achieved. It is an optional program with many rewarding outcomes ranging from treating injured workers fairly to financial rewards including the impact to a company’s bottom line and WorkSafeBC rebates on base assessments.
Reasons for an Injury Management/RTW Program
- Manage work-related injuries/illnesses from time of occurrence
- Facilitate the recovery of injured/ill workers
- Prevent disability
- Ensure fair and consistent treatment of injured/ill workers
- Prevent the loss of valuable workers
- Maintain communication between all parties involved in the Injury Management/RTW process
- Minimize impact of work-related injuries/illnesses on productivity
- Manage costs of work-related injuries/illnesses
- WorkSafeBC rebates on base assessments – up to 5% rebate
