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LS
LaborMAX Staffing
Director of Risk & Safety
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Based on Missouri data
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What they do
A Safety Director is responsible for determining and maintaining the strategic direction of their organization's health and safety program and developing a workplace culture where safety is the utmost priority.
$79,729 / year median in Missouri
+15% projected growth
Job Description
Director of Risk & Safety The Director of Risk & Safety is responsible for leading the company's enterprise-wide risk management and workplace safety functions. This position has overall responsibility for reducing the frequency, severity, and financial impact of workplace injuries while building and maintaining a proactive safety culture across the organization. The Director oversees two distinct but closely connected areas of responsibility: Risk Management -- Workers' compensation, claims administration, return-to-work programs, insurance and third-party administrator relationships, regulatory reporting, and the financial management and analysis of workplace injury claims. Safety -- Field and worksite safety initiatives, client worksite evaluations, incident investigations, safety training, regulatory compliance, and the development of consistent safety practices throughout the company's branch and regional operations. The Director is responsible for ensuring that information moves effectively between the Risk and Safety functions. Claims trends, incident data, and loss experience must be translated into field-level prevention strategies, while information gathered through worksite evaluations, investigations, and regional safety activities must be used to improve risk decisions and reduce future losses. This position works closely with executive leadership, regional leadership, branch operations, clients, insurance partners, legal counsel, and other internal departments. Essential Responsibilities Department Leadership and Strategy Lead the company's overall Risk and Safety function and establish a clear strategy for reducing workplace injuries and related costs. Develop annual and long-term Risk and Safety priorities aligned with the company's strategic and operational objectives. Establish clear responsibilities, performance expectations, and accountability for employees within the Risk and Safety Department. Maintain a clear distinction between claims management and injury prevention while ensuring strong coordination between the two functions. Develop policies, procedures, standards, and operating practices that can be consistently applied across the organization. Advise executive leadership regarding significant risk exposures, emerging trends, serious incidents, and recommended corrective actions. Develop and manage the department's budget, staffing needs, outside service providers, and other resources. Build a culture in which operational leaders own safety performance and the Risk and Safety Department provides expertise, standards, support, and accountability. Risk Management and Workers' Compensation Provide overall leadership and accountability for the company's workers' compensation and claims administration programs. Oversee the timely and accurate reporting, investigation, documentation, and management of workplace injury claims. Ensure effective management of open claims from initial reporting through resolution and closure. Conduct or oversee regular claim reviews with insurance carriers, third-party administrators, brokers, legal counsel, and internal stakeholders. Evaluate claim reserves, treatment progress, lost-time exposure, litigation strategy, and opportunities for claim resolution. Develop and oversee effective return-to-work and modified-duty programs. Monitor claim frequency, severity, total incurred costs, lost workdays, litigation rates, reserve development, and claim closure performance. Identify high-risk clients, branches, job classifications, industries, and work activities through analysis of claims and loss data. Partner with executive and operational leadership to develop strategies for reducing identified exposures. Support insurance renewals, underwriting submissions, audits, loss-control activities, and carrier relationships. Evaluate the effectiveness of insurance programs, third-party administrators, medical providers, legal counsel, and other risk-related service partners. Oversee OSHA recordkeeping and other required injury and incident reporting. Ensure appropriate coordination with Legal, Human Resources, Operations, and executive leadership on significant claims and incidents. Safety Leadership and Injury Prevention Lead the development and execution of the company's field-focused safety strategy. Establish consistent standards for branch safety practices, client worksite evaluations, employee training, incident response, and corrective action. Oversee safety support delivered through regional roles and ensure alignment with regional and branch leadership. Develop a regional safety support model that provides meaningful field presence while maintaining consistent company-wide standards. Establish expectations and protocols for client worksite evaluations, including evaluations conducted before placement of employees into higher-risk work environments. Develop criteria for identifying high-risk clients, assignments, industries, and work environments that require additional review or approval. Oversee job hazard analyses, worksite observations, safety audits, and other field-based risk identification activities. Develop and maintain effective safety orientation, training, toolbox talk, and continuing education programs. Ensure appropriate personal protective equipment requirements and compliance standards are established and communicated. Build effective near-miss, safety observation, and hazard reporting processes. Ensure identified hazards and corrective actions are documented, assigned, tracked, and resolved. Partner with regional and branch leadership to improve safety performance without transferring operational ownership of safety to the Safety Department. Serious Incident Response and Investigation Establish and maintain the company's serious incident response protocols. Ensure immediate escalation of fatalities, serious injuries, hospitalizations, amputations, major vehicle incidents, regulatory inspections, and other significant events. Lead or oversee internal investigations of serious workplace incidents. Coordinate the company's response with Operations, Legal, Human Resources, executive leadership, clients, insurance partners, and regulatory agencies as appropriate. Ensure evidence, documents, photographs, witness information, worksite conditions, training records, and other relevant information are properly preserved. Determine root causes and contributing factors rather than limiting investigations to the immediate event. Ensure corrective actions resulting from investigations are implemented and tracked to completion. Identify lessons from significant incidents and determine when broader organizational changes, communications, or training are required. Regional and Operational Partnership Serve as the primary Risk and Safety partner to senior operational leadership. Develop effective working relationships with Regional Vice Presidents and other regional leaders. Establish expectations for regional safety support activities, including worksite visits, branch support, training, incident follow-up, and corrective action management. Participate in regional business reviews and operating meetings as appropriate. Provide regional leaders with meaningful safety and risk performance data. Help operational leaders understand their exposures and develop practical improvement plans. Ensure regional safety personnel remain functionally accountable to the company's Risk and Safety standards while working closely with regional operations. Support Sales and Operations in evaluating prospective clients and assignments when risk considerations require additional review. Data, Analytics, and Performance Management Develop and maintain a comprehensive Risk and Safety performance dashboard. Analyze performance by region, branch, client, industry, job classification, assignment type, and other relevant factors. Establish leading and lagging performance indicators for both Risk and Safety. Use claims and incident data to identify trends and direct field prevention efforts. Measure whether safety activities are producing meaningful reductions in injuries and losses. Provide regular reports and recommendations to executive leadership. Establish appropriate department and regional performance measures.