< Previous10Our Board of Directors and Board CommitteesBy statute, the Board of Directors consists of 10 members appointed by the Government of Manitoba after consultation with employers, workers and the public. The tripartite representation includes a neutral Board Chairperson, three representatives of employers, three representatives of workers and three representatives of the public interest. The President and CEO is a non-voting member of the Board of Directors.As stewards of the accident fund, the Board of Directors plans for the future of the compensation system. The Board of Directors sets the WCB’s strategic direction; makes policies about compensation, rehabilitation, assessment, prevention and investment of the funds within the investment portfolio; and monitors progress in these areas.Ron KoslowskyMichael BereziakYvette MilnerRepresentatives of employers:Representatives of workers:Sylvia FarleyJean-Guy BourgeoisMarc LafondRepresentatives of the public interest:Glenn HildebrandPeter DyckElizabeth RobertsThe Chairperson of the Board of Directors and the President and CEO are members of all committees. For a description of the responsibilities of each committee, see the Terms of Reference available at www.wcb.mb.ca/board-and-executive.Coloured dots denote committee membership.Audit CommitteeExternal Members – Doug Einarson and Scott GreenlayFinance CommitteeInvestment CommitteeExternal Members – Brad Peacock, Cathy Rolland and Nestor TheodorouGovernance CommitteePrevention CommitteeExternal Members – Neal Curry, Executive Director, Made Safe; Rick Farley; Richard Groen, Deputy Minister, Department of Finance; Chief Prevention Officer (vacant)Our Leaders Executive Management CommitteeOur Executive Management Committee oversees the strategic direction of the WCB and leads a diverse group of employees who fulfil the WCB’s vision for A safer Manitoba that fosters prevention and return to work.Darren Oryniak Acting President and CEOShannon Earle Vice President, Human Resources and StrategyRenzo Borgesa Vice President, Assessments, Innovation and TechnologyJamie Hall Chief Operating Officer, SAFE Work ManitobaCatherine Skinner General Counsel and Vice President, Compliance and Corporate ServicesAndria McCaughan Chief Financial Officer, Finance and Administrative ServicesDan Holland Vice President, Compensation Services112020 WCB ANNUAL REPORT12Enable Successful Return to WorkThe 2020 pandemic created many challenges in navigating our Return to Work Roadmap that was introduced last year. Despite the challenges, the Roadmap provided valuable guidance in support of our return to work goals and continued to steer the organization to improve the overall return to work experience for injured workers and their employers, and reduce days lost to workplace injuries and illnesses. 2016201720182020201974%82%84%85%83%Strengthening WCB Support for Return to WorkWorker Satisfaction2020 WCB ANNUAL REPORT13Our return to work initiatives are focused on applying best practices, innovation, and working with partners to help optimize recovery and facilitate a safe and suitable return to work. To achieve our goal, we know we need to increase confidence in return to work amongst our key audiences – workers, employers and healthcare providers. We have gained a strong understanding of the challenges and opportunities that exist to make a strong return to work practice as natural and instinctual as safety and health.In 2020, we continued to develop resources that support our message that “A good return to work plan helps an injured worker return to safe and suitable work” and intend to further share resources in the coming year. Ensuring that everyone has the right information at the right time will ultimately promote successful return to work.The pandemic abruptly changed our plans for the year and many of our return to work initiatives were impacted as a result. We quickly shifted much of our focus to tackling COVID-19 claims, which dramatically increased in numbers as the year progressed. Developing new processes and rolling out training to staff helped ensure we could adjudicate these claims in a timely manner, thus alleviating some of the financial worry for workers in uncertain times.To support the provision of benefits and services to injured workers, we adapted some of our existing processes, including the introduction of virtual healthcare assessments using video conferencing technology, as well as moving in-person assessments to a community-based medical clinic.As the pandemic abates in the coming year, we will ramp up our efforts to develop and nurture relationships with key stakeholders and make further inroads in fulfilling our return to work vision.Our System Helps Injured Workers Return to Safe and Suitable WorkAfter 10 Days:Target:Target:After 60 Days:70%95%2020:2020:58%91%14Deliver Excellent Service Employers increasingly took advantage of the email and online chat feature, which quickly became our most popular forms of communication and allowed us to help them in real time. We also worked with healthcare providers representing athletic therapists, chiropractors and physiotherapists to develop agreements that authorized virtual treatments to support the health and recovery of injured workers. As we continued navigating our way through a challenging year, it became apparent that our in-person training also needed to move to the virtual world. We reworked many of our in-person workshops, and created some new materials and activities for online audiences.We also branched out a bit further with online learning and launched the first of many planned webinars. Each webinar was pre-recorded, but on launch day the presenters were live to perform polls with the attendees and answer questions that came into the Q&A box.Overall customer service satisfaction results trended positively despite the challenging environment we all faced in 2020. Injured workers specifically gave higher marks to our case management team this year. Key drivers for satisfaction identified in our survey results included compassionate service, personal attention and being kept well informed at every stage. Also, important to our customers was the fact we continued to improve upon timeframes for how quickly injured workers with new claims received their first pay.The pandemic created opportunities to shift from in-person service to virtual and, on several fronts, the WCB embraced the challenges of using technology to help our customers. We encouraged employers to connect with us by phone, email and online chats while injured workers continued to reach us by phone and email.Enhancing Injured Worker Customer Satisfaction 2020Ensuring Prompt Customer Service Claims paid within 14 days of injury70%TARGET74%2020with short term claims88%76%with case management2020 WCB ANNUAL REPORT15The COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic impact on all businesses across the province. To help mitigate the financial impact to employers, the WCB issued a surplus distribution of 20 per cent of employers’ 2019 premiums, returning $36 million back to employers. This decision was made cautiously, considering the risks and long-term financial impacts COVID-19 may have on the WCB, while focusing on assisting employers. We also waived interest and penalties on premiums while still offering an average assessment rate of $0.95 – the lowest in Canada.Employers continued to report their annual payroll online using our online reporting tool with overall usage increasing to 82 per cent.Funding Target and Funding Level143.7%130.0%TARGET2020Improving Employer Customer Satisfaction202076%201973%201875%201776%201672%16Grow our PeopleIn 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we work and we had to move rapidly to ensure we kept our employees safe and healthy. The sudden shift to having the majority of staff working from home resulted in adapting well-established processes to fit the new reality of home offices. Leadership and staff worked together to make adjustments in how we could continue to provide service to our customers with minimal disruption. Technology played the biggest role in ensuring our work could continue and our IT team worked tirelessly to make the necessary upgrades to allow more staff to connect remotely to our proprietary software. Technology and embracing training methods never used before at the WCB allowed our many training programs to move seamlessly from in-house to virtual learning after our training team modified their techniques to support learning from home. They quickly developed their training to be more learner-driven and included opportunities for self-study and practice. Hiring also continued during the year with interviews conducted over the phone or via video conferencing. New employees received their orientation and necessary training online thanks to the available technology. Finally, employees were encouraged to keep up or even upgrade their skills by taking advantage of online training opportunities and courses.Our concern about safety and health did not just include preventing the spread of COVID-19, but also focused on the physical and mental health of our staff. We expanded the allowable expenses to the Lifestyle Spending Account to allow employees to purchase equipment that would make their home offices more comfortable. Leaders across the organization also expanded their mental health knowledge by taking online training through Queen’s University and all staff were encouraged to take their allotted two mental health days.2020 WCB ANNUAL REPORTThroughout the pandemic, regular communication was sent to all staff on a daily and then weekly basis to ensure they were kept up-to-date on developments. The internal Workplace Safety and Health Committee also developed weekly emails to share uplifting messages, provide staff information on staying physically safe and offer ideas for maintaining mental health. The staff newsletter, BoardTalk, shared stories, contests and updates to help staff stay connected. Employees in various departments came up with innovative ways to maintain communication and positive energy, such as a establishing a music library and planning virtual gatherings. From mid-March to the end of 2020, staff remained flexible and adapted to an ever-changing work environment. For most of this period, the majority of WCB employees worked from home, while a small contingent remained at the office throughout the pandemic to maintain operations. A pandemic recovery committee with representatives from key departments was established to monitor and implement COVID-19 prevention recommendations from provincial health authorities and develop and implement a comprehensive recovery plan to gradually and safely return staff to the office to restore pre-pandemic business operations.In preparation for an eventual return to the office, the WCB developed an online course called COVID-19: Best Practices for a Safe Workplace that was made available not only to the general public, but all WCB employees were encouraged to complete the course before returning to the office.Our Annual United Way CampaignStaff Contributions $121,268Total Donations $242,53617Finally, while many of the usual United Way activities had to be cancelled, our employees worked within public health restrictions to continue the tradition of holding a campaign to raise money for the community organization. Our optimism for the future was reflected in our campaign theme of Rallying for Recovery, where we reached almost the same level of donation as the previous year. Our United Way fundraising efforts shows the depth of caring and compassion our employees have for those Manitobans less fortunate.Throughout this challenging year, the WCB benefitted from leaders who were responsive to employees’ needs and concerns, and employees who were quick to adapt to a changing environment. Customer service continued to be dependable and responsive, even though staff were working from home and the WCB service offerings moved online.This year, the WCB was once again proud to be recognized as one of Manitoba’s Top Employers – the 10th consecutive year that the WCB has been selected for this honour. In a year like no other, our team pulled together to deliver on our promises while keeping each other safe and healthy.1820202019Funded position$ 637,802,000$ 646,821,000 Funded ratio143.7%146.8%Number of registered employers38,07337,711Average assessment rate (per $100 of assessable payroll)$ 0.95$ 0.95Assessment revenue, Class E employers$ 171,435,000$ 180,537,000Investment income $ 145,722,000$ 199,952,000Investment rate of return (gross)9.1%12.4%Operating expenses$ 104,035,000$ 101,106,000Financial InformationYear at a Glance2020 WCB ANNUAL REPORT1920202019Time loss injury rate (per 100 full time workers) 2.5 *12.5Days lost to workplace injury or illness (per full time worker)1.64*1.50Total injury claims 22,64527,495Time loss injury claims 12,04412,755Severe injuries2,361*2,413Fatality claims (accepted in the year)1419Average days paid for all wage loss claims 34.330.1Claim costs incurred$ 185,718,000$ 192,616,000Claims Information* Estimated, to be confirmed mid-2021.1 If COVID-19 claims are excluded: Time loss injury rate would be 2.3*Next >