The Study That Should Have Changed Workers’ Comp Forever

How a Buried OSHA White Paper Proves What Safety Professionals Have Known All Along

There’s a study most people in safety and risk control have never heard of. It’s an obscure study where the results were buried on page 15 of a January 2012 OSHA white paper that most people never read.

The results are remarkable.

The Numbers That Nobody Talks About

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation analyzed 16 small employers participating in OSHA’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program over a 12-year period from 1999 to 2010. The study compared their workers’ compensation experience before and after implementing comprehensive safety programs.

Here’s what happened:

Read those numbers again. This isn’t a 5% improvement or a marginal gain. This is transformational change.

Why This Matters

These weren’t massive corporations with unlimited safety budgets. These were small businesses—the kind that struggle with resources, tight margins, and the day-to-day challenges of keeping operations running. If they could achieve these results, any organization could.

The implications are enormous. At a 15% reduction in injuries, employers could save $9 billion per year in workers’ compensation costs alone. At 35% effectiveness, that number jumps to $23 billion annually. But the Ohio study participants blew past those projections.

The Real-World Evidence

I’ve seen these results firsthand. When I took over safety at one company, their TRIR was 11.12—way above the industry average. We had 33 injuries that year, with a dozen in litigation and one reserve starting at over $200,000.

Eighteen months later? TRIR down to 2.88. Seven total injuries—six handled with short light-duty assignments, and just one minor lost-time case. No software, just a whole lot of manual effort. A structured, written safety program like the ones that the Ohio study validated.

What Makes Safety Programs Work

The white paper identifies six core elements that drive success: management leadership, worker participation, hazard identification and assessment, hazard prevention and control, education and training, and program evaluation and improvement.

These aren’t revolutionary concepts, but they do take time, money, and resources—and a whole lot of relentless commitment. Studies show that programs without strong management commitment and active worker participation are ineffective, so both are imperative to reduce injury risk.

The Data We’ve Been Ignoring

The Ohio study isn’t alone. OSHA examined injury and illness prevention programs in eight states and found reductions ranging from 9% to over 60%. California saw a 19% net decrease in injuries five years after requiring safety programs. Texas averaged a 63% reduction over four years for employers required to implement programs.

The Department of Defense embraced this approach and saw lost-day rates drop by 41%—from 31.5 per 100 workers in 2002 to 18.7 per 100 workers by 2009. The Marines achieved a 50% reduction.

The evidence isn’t just strong. It’s overwhelming.

Why Has This Been Buried for a Decade?

Who knows! We have proof—rigorous, longitudinal data from real employers—that structured safety programs dramatically reduce injuries and save money. Yet most companies still operate reactively, treating safety as a compliance checkbox rather than a systematic process.

The 2012 OSHA white paper was part of a push for mandatory Injury and Illness Prevention Programs (I2P2). That initiative stalled in Congress, and with it, the momentum behind these findings faded. The study got buried in bureaucratic archives while workers continued getting hurt at preventable rates. Not saying that legislation is a magic bullet. This isn’t about regulations. It’s about results.

Why aren’t companies implementing this now, based on the ROI?

Historically, setting up written programs is a huge lift. Typically, the time, money, and resources discourage small businesses from even getting started. Look at the numbers: 90% of companies with less than 20 employees don’t have written programs, even when some of them are legally required to. Companies with 500 employees or less? Only about half of them have written safety programs.

This in the face of 2.6 million injuries just in 2023—you would think this might generate some traction. Nope. Maybe insurance companies would require the programs since they’re so effective? Nope. Writing checks for higher premiums and increasing rates is just easier.

Making It Economical and Scalable

The challenge isn’t whether safety programs work. The Ohio study and dozens of others prove they do. The challenge is implementation—especially for small and mid-sized businesses that lack dedicated safety staff.

That’s exactly what makes Smarter Risk different. We’ve taken what works—the proven elements from SHARP, VPP, and programs like the ones I built—and made it accessible. No need to reinvent the wheel or figure out where to start. The research has been done. The methods have been validated. Now we just need to make them scalable. That’s where Smarter Risk leverages technology to make implementing these programs fast and affordable. The goal is to reduce the cost (time and money) of prevention so that prevention is the obvious choice.

What You Can Do Today

Start with the basics

You don’t need a massive budget or expensive software. Start with a smarter risk assessment. It takes less than 15 minutes and doesn’t cost you anything upfront. We deliver a risk improvement plan instantly—again, at no cost to you.

Get leadership buy-in

Management commitment is consistently identified as a critical success factor. Programs without top-level ownership simply don’t work as well.

Involve your workers

When employees are encouraged to offer ideas and see their contributions taken seriously, they tend to be more satisfied and productive. Worker participation makes an important contribution to an employer’s bottom line. Check out our blog article on implementing safety programs, and pay close attention to the section about alignment—it’s more than just “employee buy-in.”

Measure everything

The Ohio employers didn’t achieve 52% claim reductions by accident. They tracked their performance, systematically identified hazards, and continuously improved their programs.

The Bottom Line

We don’t need more research on whether safety programs work. We have that research. It’s sitting on page 15 of an OSHA white paper that deserves far more attention than it’s gotten.

What we need is action. We need companies to stop accepting preventable injuries as inevitable. We need leaders to recognize that investing in safety isn’t a cost—it’s one of the highest-ROI decisions they can make. If you want to see numbers specific to your organization, check out our Safety ROI Calculator. You’ll be shocked at how much injuries are costing you and the huge ROI that just a small investment in safety pays.

The Ohio study proved it’s possible. We have made it fast, economical, and scalable. The only question left is: Are you ready to take action?

Give Smarter Risk a few minutes of your time. Try us out for free. If you see the value in saving hundreds of man-hours to get your program up and running, we charge only $500 a year for our intelligent plan, which gives you all the tools you need. Plug that into the ROI calculator and see if it’s worth your time.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What was the Ohio OSHA study?

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation analyzed 16 small employers participating in OSHA’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) over 12 years (1999-2010). The study measured their workers’ compensation experience before and after implementing comprehensive safety programs, finding dramatic reductions: 52% fewer claims, 80% lower claim costs, 87% less lost time, and 88% fewer claims per million dollars of payroll.

2. Why haven’t I heard about this study before?

The study was published on page 15 of a January 2012 OSHA white paper as part of a push for mandatory Injury and Illness Prevention Programs (I2P2). When that legislative initiative stalled in Congress, the momentum behind these findings faded, and the study became buried in bureaucratic archives despite its remarkable results.

3. Were these large companies with big safety budgets?

No—these were small businesses, the kind that struggle with limited resources and tight margins. That’s what makes the results so significant. If small employers could achieve 52% claim reductions and 80% cost savings, any organization can implement effective safety programs.

4. What are the six core elements of effective safety programs?

According to the OSHA white paper, effective programs include: (1) management leadership, (2) worker participation, (3) hazard identification and assessment, (4) hazard prevention and control, (5) education and training, and (6) program evaluation and improvement. Both management commitment and worker participation are critical—programs lacking these elements tend to be ineffective.

5. How long does it take to see results from a safety program?

In the real-world example shared in this article, one company reduced their TRIR from 11.12 to 2.88 in just 18 months—dropping from 33 injuries (with a dozen in litigation) to just 7 injuries with minimal lost time. That was without using any software but it was extremely time consuming—it required a trained safety person for 40 hours a week for 18 months. This was the very reason Smarter Risk was built: to enable those results much faster and for those without any safety experience.

6. How much does it cost to implement a comprehensive safety program?

Historically, implementing written safety programs has been expensive and time-consuming, which is why 90% of companies with fewer than 20 employees don’t have them. Modern platforms like Smarter Risk have changed this—you can complete a comprehensive risk assessment in 15 minutes and implement a full safety program for $500/year, making prevention more economical than paying for injuries.

7. Will a safety program actually lower my insurance premiums?

While no one can guarantee specific premium reductions, insurers recognize and reward documented safety programs because they reduce claims. The Ohio study employers didn’t just reduce injuries—they cut claim costs by 80%. Insurance carriers price based on risk, so reducing your actual risk profile through proven safety programs typically leads to better rates and improved insurability.

8. What’s stopping companies from implementing these programs today?

The main barriers are time, cost, and complexity. Setting up traditional written safety programs requires hundreds of man-hours and specialized knowledge. Most small businesses don’t have dedicated safety staff. That’s why digitizing and automating the process—making it fast and affordable—is key to getting more companies to actually implement what the research proves works.