< PreviousOur Board of Directors and Board CommitteesAs 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.By 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 Chair, 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.Ron Koslowsky Michael Bereziak Yvette Milner Representatives of employers:Representatives of workers:Sylvia Farley Jean-Guy Bourgeois Marc Lafond Representatives of the public interest:Glenn Hildebrand Peter Dyck Elizabeth Roberts (retired April, 2021)The Chair 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.Chair:Michael D. WerierPresident and CEO:Richard DeaconAudit 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, Minister of FinanceColoured dots denote committee membership10 2021 WCB ANNUAL REPORTOur 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.Our VisionA safer Manitoba that fosters prevention and return to work.Our MissionWe provide our customers with valued services for insurance, prevention, compensation and return to work, while maintaining the integrity of the system.Our ValuesIntegrity: We treat our stakeholders fairly and honestly, while being accountable and transparent.Caring: We understand the unique needs of our customers and treat them with compassion, dignity and respect.Innovation: We continuously strive to make our systems more responsive, efficient and effective.Collaboration: We work together with our stakeholders to achieve our vision.Our Strategic PrioritiesCreate a SAFE Work Culture – Reduce the number and severity of injuries.Enable Successful Return to Work – Reduce days lost and improve the return to work experience.Deliver Excellent Service – Strive to improve customers’ satisfaction with their WCB experience.Grow Our People – Attract, retain and develop our people to align with our evolving needs.Richard Deacon President and CEOJamie Hall Chief Operating Officer, SAFE Work ManitobaRenzo Borgesa Vice President, Assessments, Innovation and TechnologyAndria McCaughan Chief Financial Officer, Finance and Administrative ServicesShannon Earle Vice President, Human Resources and StrategyDan Holland Vice President, Compensation ServicesCatherine Skinner General Counsel and Vice President, Compliance and Corporate Services2021 WCB ANNUAL REPORT 11Create a SAFE Work CultureManitoba benefits from a diverse economy that provides productive employment and an enviable quality of life. While every industry has its own risks, death, disease and disability are not part of the job. The WCB believes we all play a part in building safe and healthy workplaces. A truly safe Manitoba relies on employers, workers, industry-based safety programs, labour, the private sector, government agencies and the entire community working together towards the common goal of eliminating workplace injuries and illnesses.The COVID-19 pandemic continued to challenge our ability to fully deliver on a number of strategic initiatives aimed at making Manitoba a safety and health leader. One key initiative is the expansion and enhancement of industry-based safety programs (IBSPs). The healthcare sector is one industry that has been especially impacted by the pandemic. Recognizing it consistently produces the largest number of claims accepted by the WCB annually, we believe there is significant opportunity for this sector to improve stakeholder outcomes via the creation of a dedicated workplace safety and health prevention organization. Without a coordinated effort to address injuries and illnesses in the healthcare sector, our long-term reduction targets will not be met, impacting the overall workers compensation system.With the help of an interim board comprised of healthcare leaders, the WCB is funding a two-year pilot to bring workplace safety and health to the forefront of Manitoba’s healthcare sector by proving the need for a permanent healthcare IBSP. This initiative, called the Manitoba Association for Safety in Healthcare (MASH), will expand and enhance access to IBSPs to the healthcare sector so all Manitoba employers and workers have access to sector-specific services. Work is already underway on the successful achievement of two large organizations receiving their SAFE Work Certified status. This will lead to permanently establishing a broader industry-wide active engagement with MASH, Manitoba’s first-ever healthcare IBSP in 2022. The public administration sector is another sector with a time loss injury rate that is much higher than the provincial average. In 2021 our SAFE Work team and return to work experts continued to work with Manitoba Corrections to help address injuries which have increased over the past number of years. We look forward to helping them mitigate their days lost to workplace injuries and illnesses in the coming years. We also made inroads to increase participation in education and training, another of our strategic initiatives. Training is a foundational aspect of worker safety and our focus is to ensure high-calibre and 12 2021 WCB ANNUAL REPORTconsistent training is available to a wide audience. Here, the side effects of a largely remote working environment across the province worked in our favour as our shift to virtual learning helped us exceed our target of 50,000 participants with 58,939 participants attending workshops or e-learning classes provided by IBSPs and SAFE Work Manitoba. Of significance was the Young Worker Readiness Certificate Course with 10,934 young people trained to stay safe on their first job.In the fall, representatives from industry, labour, government and training provider stakeholders formed the Manitoba Training Standards Council to lead and direct the development and maintenance of training standards, for the new program called SAFE Work Endorsed Training (SET). SET will increase consistency of the content and quality of training delivered by independent training providers, unions, employers and IBSPs. It will also reduce employer uncertainty about the skills and knowledge that a worker might bring to the job by ensuring training providers, programs and worker training completions are tracked and accessible through a web-based portal. SET will objectively review and confirm that specific training meets the defined standards and continue to meet established standards, and ultimately aid in the reduction of workplace injuries and illnesses for Manitoba workers through standardized training.Certification is a fundamental initiative ensuring an employer has a comprehensive safety and health program in place. The pandemic has impacted our target of having 42 per cent of WCB-covered payroll be SAFE Work Certified. However, we are encouraged by the number of Manitoba employers joining us by becoming SAFE Work Certified and we will continue to promote this program. In 2021, 119 employers received their safety certification and another 187 are working towards completion of their requirements. 72%or morePercentage of WCB Payroll Served by an IBSP202142%TargetWCB-Covered Payroll that is SAFE Work Certified202114%Target42%or more2021 WCB ANNUAL REPORT 131 Estimated, to be confirmed mid-2022.2 Injury rates have increased during COVID-19 due to a significant drop in the number of full time workers employed during the pandemic.Time Loss Injury Rate (per 100 full time workers)Target20212.2 or less2.71,2Severe Injury Rate (per 100 full time workers)Target20210.4 or less0.741Finally, the strong SAFE Work Manitoba brand recognition is helping strengthen and advance our final strategic initiative, which is to increase prevention awareness and engagement. We have started work on the Manitoba Safety and Health Index, which will give a high level perspective on whether Manitoba is becoming safer based on factors in several areas. Our social marketing campaigns in 2021 stressed a number of key messages, including: the importance for workers to understand their right to a safe and healthy workplace; protecting workers from psychological hazards are just as important as measures related to physical health and the number one cause of work-related deaths in Manitoba is asbestos exposure and how actions taken today can reduce or even eliminate exposure to this potentially lethal hazard.The overall number of injuries in Manitoba increased slightly from 2020, although they remain lower than reported in 2019. The decline in injuries in comparison to 2019 can be attributed to the decline of on-site employment due to the pandemic. The culture of safety and health in Manitoba is a beacon of hope as we work together with our safety and health partners to minimize the impact of the pandemic and find our way to a better and safer Manitoba. 14 2021 WCB ANNUAL REPORTAll Injury Rate (per 100 full time workers)202020214.85.01Days Lost to Workplace Injury or Illness Rate (per 100 full time workers)Target20211.38 or less1.642021 WCB ANNUAL REPORT 15Enable Successful Return to WorkThe return to work process is a collaborative approach that includes a team of people helping an injured worker return to safe and suitable work. At the WCB, we work with all parties to ensure the injured worker, employer and healthcare provider all understand their roles and responsibilities to enable a successful return to work. This team approach means workers understand their rights to have a safe and suitable Return to Work Plan while employers recognize the benefits of having modified or alternate duties available for returning workers. Together, all parties play a part in achieving our goal to deliver the best possible outcomes for all stakeholders, which we believe will result in a reduction of Manitoba’s days lost to workplace injury and illness. Even through these trying times, we continued to provide compassionate care and service to injured workers. We have a multi-pronged approach that focuses on a number of key initiatives, including improving healthcare access and quality via partnerships. Despite our offices being closed to the public for the majority of the year, through our partnership program, we continued to offer healthcare exams offsite at a community clinic. This allowed us to still assess workers’ health and function as well as their ability to return to safe and suitable work while keeping all parties safe and adhering to pandemic protocols.The pandemic slowed our efforts to launch dedicated Worker Care Clinics. These clinics will improve timely access to, and quality of, healthcare for injured workers while expediting the exchange of information, facilitating both the adjudication and return to work processes. We were mindful not to initiate such a pilot project in the midst of a pandemic where healthcare resources are already strained. However, behind the scenes, the WCB further developed the financial business case, fee structures and various marketing materials to support a successful Worker Care Clinic model within the province once the pandemic eases.Increasing communication and outreach regarding return to work continued with the first “returning to work after an injury” social marketing campaign. We also focused on expanding family physicians’ knowledge around return to work by holding a virtual workshop that received positive feedback and we look forward to offering many more such workshops in the coming year. Finally, the pause in some of our 16 2021 WCB ANNUAL REPORTtraining programs due to the pandemic provided our return to work team the opportunity to overhaul our Return to Work Basics workshop and restructure it to make it more engaging and interactive when we relaunch it in 2022. Further progress was also made with our “just in time” delivery of return to work communications, scheduled to launch in early 2022. This initiative will ensure every time a worker reports a time loss injury, they will receive timely information and resources on the return to work process. Specifically, workers will learn about their roles and responsibilities in the return to work process, including the importance of clearly communicating their abilities and needs, staying in contact with their employer and actively participating in the Return to Work Plan. They will also learn what a safe and suitable Return to Work Plan should include and that the WCB is available to support them and their employer throughout the process.Strengthening WCB Support for Return to WorkWorker Satisfaction202085%202183%Employers with Return to Work Programswith short term claims78%76%with case management2021 WCB ANNUAL REPORT 17Worker Satisfaction with Employer's Return to Work Programwith short term claims86%83%with case management91%95%Our System Helps Injured Workers Return to Safe and Suitable WorkAfter 10 Days:After 60 Days:TargetTarget2021202158%70%All these initiatives are designed to help build capacity with our stakeholders to manage strong and effective Return to Work Programs. The results are very encouraging, as witnessed by our latest surveys. The workers compensation system, which includes employers, workers, healthcare providers and other stakeholders, is having a great influence on ensuring that injured workers are returning to safe and suitable work in a timely manner.18 2021 WCB ANNUAL REPORT2021 WCB ANNUAL REPORT 19Next >