Construction SafetyUnit VIII Assignment – Fall ProtectionStu.docx

Construction Safety
Unit VIII Assignment – Fall Protection
Student Name:
Date:
Instructions:
Each of the following slides contains a construction site photo
that depicts one or more fall hazards.
Examine each photo and answer the questions in the notes
section of each slide. Make sure to also move the red arrow
(provided in the bottom left corner of each slide) to point
toward the location of the hazard.
Save the completed presentation and upload it into Blackboard.
Be sure to put your name at the top of this first slide!
Figure 1
(Occupational Safety & Health Association [OSHA], n.d.-a)
Identify and describe the fall hazard in this photo. Move the
arrow over the photo to indicate the location of the hazard.
What OSHA construction standard(s) could be cited?
What would you recommend to correct the hazard(s)?
2
Figure 2

(OSHA, n.d.-b)
3
Figure 3
(OSHA, n.d.-c)
1
2
Identify and describe the fall hazard(s) in this photo. Move the
arrows over the photo to indicate the locations of the hazards.
4
Figure 4
(OSHA, n.d.-d)

5
Figure 25
(OSHA, n.d.-e)
1
2
Identify and describe the fall hazard(s) in this photo. Move the
arrows over the photo to indicate the locations of the hazards.
6
References
Occupational Safety & Health Administration. (n.d.-a). Figure 1
[Image]. From Is this a fall hazard? [PowerPoint presentation].
Retrieved from
https://www.osha.gov/dte/outreach/construction/focus_four/falls

/falls_ hazrec.ppt
Occupational Safety & Health Administration. (n.d.-b). Figure 2
Retrieved from
/falls_ hazrec.ppt
Occupational Safety & Health Administration. (n.d.-c). Figure 3
Retrieved from
/falls_ hazrec.ppt
Occupational Safety & Health Administration. (n.d.-d). Figure 4
Retrieved from
/falls_ hazrec.ppt
Occupational Safety & Health Administration. (n.d.-e). Figure 5
Retrieved from
/falls_ hazrec.ppt
7

ABSTRACT
J
ohor
I
nsurance
is
a long
-
established retail
-
level
Singaporean insurance company, facing significant
threats to its survival and sustainability. This capstone
case deals
with the remuneration, benefits, and reward
strategies and practices
central to the success of JI
’s
strategic change.
School of
Business
and Governance
Advanced Human Resource Perspectives

Table of Contents
Foreword 2
Capstone Case – Johor Insurance 3
Background 3
Consultant’s Recommendations 5
The phases of JI’s change6
Existing JI Staff 7
Staffing Profile 8
Sales 8
Claims 9
Adjusters 10
Professional Services 11
Capstone Case – JI Part 2 – Two months later 12
Affect and behaviour of staff 12
Preparations for separating CUAP 13
Division-by-division progress 14
Sales 14
Claims 15
Adjusters 16
Professional Services 17
Key items for report 18
Foreword
This capstone case forms the basis for your semester-long
assessment for BUS340, Advanced Human Resource
Perspectives.
It is based on an amalgam of actual circumstances and events,
although any resemblance to an actual organisation or person is
coincidental.
You’re encouraged to apply learning from all topic areas you
covered in your studies, synthesising knowledge and skills to
address an unstructured, authentic problem.
Your unit coordinator and teaching staff are available to guide
your progress every step of the way, and we encourage you to
make use of all other resources available at Murdoch – such as

the Learning Centre, and the specialist Librarians.
Capstone Case – Johor Insurance Background
Johor Insurance(JI) has a 127-year history in Singapore, starting
as a friendly society (British Colonial Mutual Society) in 1890,
which self-insured mutual fund contributors. Insuring mainly
factories, exporters and shipping operators, they de-mutualised
and became a publicly listed company (as JI) on the Malayan
Stock Exchange in 1960. JI’s headquarters are still in the
original location in Victoria St. When Singaporean and
Malaysian currency interchangeability ended in 1973, JI was
one of the first firms to delist on the Stock Exchange of
Malaysia and Singapore (SEMS) and re-list on the new Stock
Exchange of Singapore (SES).
Over the next 100 years, JI’s business drifted into the major
insurance markets of the day – life insurance, home and
contents insurance, and car insurance. Their market share, once
close to 50% of the entire insurance market in Singapore, had
drifted slowly but steadily down since the 1955, after a change
in Government policy that made the new Central Provident Fund
(CPF) compulsory for all Singaporeans. Most workers were
choosing to “add-on” life insurance to their CPF contributions,
rather than pay into and maintain a separate policy. A move in
the 1970s to taking on insurance policies in West Malaysia
helped stabilise the company for a decade.
Through the 1990s, JI’s board attributed the declining market
share to the dramatic reduction in the life insurance business
after the CPF decision, however 20 further years of declining
share led to a point where they were now a ‘legacy’ company –
their customer base was mainly older people, lifelong customers
who were not sufficiently motivated to change companies. As a
result, their profit margins, adjusted for natural disasters, was
the lowest of all Singaporean insurance companies.
An activist shareholder accumulated JI stock through this time,
and finally had enough votes to get two of his staff onto JI’s

board. They immediately instructed the CEO to call in an
international management-consulting firm to analyse the
business, and recommend a strategy to regain market share and
profitability.
This consultant’s assessment of the consumer insurance
business (cars, homes, household goods) showed a very
crowded, intensely competitive market, thin margins, mass
offshoring of back-office support services, and very risky
reinsurance and underwriting practices. Moreover, the industry
was fundamentally changing. The “rusted-on” customers, who
generally didn’t change insurers due the inconvenience involved
with comparing quotes, bargaining between providers, and
negotiating premiums, were now using free apps and websites to
compare premium rates, and insurers were having to bid against
each other for consumer-level policies, further driving down
cash flow and profits.
The management consultant’s recommendations surprised many
board members.
Consultant’s Recommendations
Rather than advocating for cost reductions (staff, property, cash
holdings, and reinsurance costs), and aggressive price-led
marketing to regain market share at the retail consumer level,
they recommended a radical refocus of the business.
The consultants recommended dividing the business into two
sub-units, each a wholly owned entity. One unit will keep
servicing the existing home and car insurance customers, the
other the will use existing insurance knowledge, skills, and
capital to focus on insurance associated with business
customers. Business insurance customers typically insure
against loss occurring from theft, burglary, fraud, transit
damage and breakage, fire, third-party loss, indemnity, and life
policies on key staff.
Once the home and car insurance arm had stabilised and
established as a profitable going concern, it is to be sold,
providing the capital needed to underwrite and expand the

business insurance arm. It is the business insurance arm that JI
is staking its future on, and will be the niche market they plan
to dominate for years to come.
The current structure at JI has four main departments, each
headed by a Director (not at board level):
· Sales (in three main sub-departments) o online and call centre
sales staff conduct sales direct to retail customers, and handle
outbound selling to customers who are due to renew their
policies. o resellers’ agents – these sales staff deal with
insurance resellers, those companies that offer an insurance
policy as an extra to their normal services. For example, a car
dealerships who get a commission for bundling a JI car
insurance policy with new car sales. o Marketing
· Claims (online, call centre)
· Adjusters
· Professional services (actuaries, re-insurance specialists,
treasury, legal, regulatory compliance, HRM)
The following chart illustrates the process on a general level.
The phases of JI’s change.

JI Separates into two distinct divisions, with the working titles
JI Retail,
and JI B2B
JI Retail
Car, Home, and Property
Insurance
JI B2B
Business Related Insurance
JI Retai
l prepares to separate:
Non
-
retail polices transferred
to B2B
JI B2B prepares to expand.
JI
Retail in its final form, is sold for
$11.5 billion to a multinational
under
writing company to
establish a Singaporean
brand.
Procee
ds transferred to B2B

JI
B2B is officially launched as
“
Commercial Underwriters
Asia
-
Pacific
”
.
Existing JI Staff
The consultant’s report also made a specific mention of the
importance of JI’s staff throughout this change. Specifically,
they mentioned:
1. To maximise the sale price of the retail arm of JI, they need
to all retain key executives, for two reasons. Firstly, their
research has shown that it is easier to sell a business to
international interests when experienced and stable management
is already in place. Secondly, the insurance industry in
Singapore is very heavily regulated, and all firms involved in
life insurance, general insurance, and any deposit-taking
activity are required to have key personnel approved and
registered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Having to replace these key personnel and have them approved
by MAS would be a very challenging task – it may take over a
year.
2. The new organisation, to be known as Commercial
Underwriters Asia-Pacific (CUAP) will need staff with a set of
skills, qualifications and attributes that suit the task of setting
up a new organisation.
The competing needs between the two arms of the organisation
are apparent – JI wants to retain the best available staff to be
attractive and stable to potential purchases. The emerging arm

of CUAP wants the best staff possible to build and launch the
new enterprise.
JI follows the National Wages Council’s
(NWC) guidelines on wage increments.
Staffing Profile
Sales
As with most of JI’s workforce, the bulk of their sales staff are
in the Victoria St building. A 320seat call centre occupies three
floors of the building. The call centre is set up in such a manner
that call agents can sit anywhere, handle incoming and outgoing
sales calls, and answer internet-based enquiries.
Each of the sales sub departments has offices on these three
floors.
The 190 phone sales and renewal staff took up most space, 12
sales team leaders, reported to one of eight shift managers. The
operating hours for sales staff started at 7am and went to 10pm,
every day of the year except National Day, Chinese New Year,
and Good Friday.
At the same time the telephone sales staff were working, a
smaller team of 20 staff covered the “chat sales” desks – their
job was to respond to online enquiries form the internet, either
through “chat services” or responding to e-mail enquiries. There
were two team leaders managing the chat sales desks.
The (nine-person) reselling team, despite being physically and
organisationally situated with sales and marketing, did not
actually do any active selling. Their role is to negotiate
agreements with channel partners, set up and support the
administration of reselling agreements, and every month,
calculate resellers’ commissions and remit payments. The
consultants’ report made no mention of CUAP doing channel
sales, as these sales are nearly always of retail and
consumerlevel policies.
The marketing team is unusually large for a firm this size –

nearly 30 staff are directly engaged in marketing JI, however
the consultant’s report showed the marketing team is
functionally and structurally unbalanced. For example, six staff
are directly engaged in writing and placing advertisements and
fliers in magazines and newspapers, even though less than 2%
of new customers could be traced back to these advertising
channels. The marketing staff also handled incoming media
enquiries, although there is no outgoing, proactive public
relations activity. All marketing staff were engaged in
marketing direct to retail level consumers, none had any
experience or desire to deal with reselling channel partners or to
business clients.
Claims
For JI, claims staff are seen as an administrative function. They
also work in the Victoria St location, taking up one entire floor.
Customers have the option of calling through a claim, or
lodging the details online. For incoming claims by phone, staff
are required to recite a script from their computers, and input
the customer’s responses into designated fields. At the end of
the conversation, the computer program will make a
determination on how the claim is to proceed – it may indicate
either an automatic, uncontested payout, or indicate that a
claims adjuster needs to be appointed to investigate the claim
and make a determination.
In a separate subdivision, a team of clerks cleared the incoming
information from online and postal claims. In a similar way to
the call centre staff, they had to populate fields in a computer
program in a certain order, and follow up where there was
missing information. Again, the computer made the
determination whether to proceed the claim with an uncontested
payout, or engage a claims adjuster.
The two teams of claims processors never worked together,
although sometimes a worker who failed or performed poorly at
processing phone claims was re-allocated to the online and

postal team. Hence, staff across the company saw the online and
postal team as a “dead-end”, where the incapable and poor
performers were sent to wait until retirement.
One major internal issue the consultant identified was the poor
productivity of the claims section. JI promised a 24/7 claims
hotline, and due to safety regulations, a minimum of three
people had to be rostered on at any one time. Some nights there
were as few as three phone claims, and the staff spent their time
doing low-value “busy work”, or watching TV. Absences from
night shifts were very high, and the overtime penalties JI paid
to regular day-shift staff to cover the night shift added up to
over $200 000 a year.
Worse, the consultant employed a “shadow-shopper” to lodge
fake claims by phone and online, benchmarking the experience
against other major insurers. Of the eight companies
investigated, JI ranked seventh overall, the eighth company had
a notoriously poor outsourced claims call centre.
Text Copyright © 2017 Murdoch University
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Adjusters
The 60-strong adjusting workforce is distributed across the
country, with only a small team in the Victoria St office. They
are a very mobile workforce, most of them don’t have a desk or
an office, instead working from cars and home offices. The
adjusting workforce also an issue identified by the consultant.
Contemporary insurance practice was to have a very small team
of adjusters who handled long-term cases, and contract
independent adjusters for everything else.

In contrast, JI’s adjusting workforce did nearly all adjusting
activities. There were two reasons where external adjusters are
used;
1) were in outlying areas and in west Malaysia, where it was
unfeasible for JI staff to travel for hours to investigate a single
case, and
2) where serious fraud was suspected or highly technical
specialist investigations were needed.
Since most of JI’s current business is home and car claims, most
adjusters spend their days travelling between sites, inspecting
home damage, looking at crashed cars at panel-beaters, and
meeting with staff from other insurance companies to settle
claims. This cost of each adjuster’s car averaged $28 000 a
year, once depreciation, maintenance, fuel, and insurance were
accounted for. Added to this are the allowances JI have to pay
to adjusters for home offices, home internet, and frequent travel
for training.
However, JI had a long history of directly employing adjusters,
their rationale being that directly employed adjusters are more
likely to spend time with cases, investigating deeper, and saving
more money on payouts. Contracted adjusters, who only get
paid when they finish and settle a case, are more motivated not
to investigate too deeply and quickly pay out on a case, thereby
costing JI money on claims that should have been denied.
One threat to the change the consultant identified is the total
absence of any specialist knowledge in adjusting commercial
and business insurance claims. Although the existing adjusters
are experienced and very well trained in assessing and
investigating home burglaries, and dented cars, they have no
exposure to typical business insurance claims such as employee
fraud, business interruption payouts, deliberate sabotage, or ICT
systems malfunction or intrusion. The lack of capacity here is a
significant barrier to the successful spin-off and sale of CUAP.
Professional Services

The Professional Services department consisted of the team of
specialists that are essential to running an insurance company.
These specialists include:
· actuaries,
· re-insurance specialists,
· treasury managers,
· legal officers,
· regulatory compliance officers, and • HRM staff.
All staff in the professional services division
(with the exception of the administrative-level HRM staff) are
on individual workplace contracts.
Another issue the consultant flagged as requiring attention is
the contracts the Professional Services staff work under – there
is no consistency between salaries, allowances, and other terms
and conditions of employment. Some contracts require minimum
three-months of notice to resign, some are
only a month. The actuaries and re-insurance Figure 1: Legal
Staff Preparing for a Trial specialists all have a 12-month non-
competition clause in their contracts, should the employment
relationship end, however the legal and regulatory officers do
not. Contract terms are summarised in the below table.
Actuaries
Re
-
insurance
Treasury
managers
Legal officers

Regulatory
compliance
HRM
Executive
No-compete clause in contract
Three month notice period
One month notice period
Annual grant of special-class share options with 3-year vesting
period.
Performance bonuses – cash.
Professional body memberships paid Continuing education
allowance

Capstone Case – JI Part 2 – Two months later. Affect and
behaviour of staff.
The staff’s reaction to the impending change at JI was
predictable – a mixture of fear, uncertainty, and anxiety. A
small number of staff were quite looking forward to it – they
saw an opportunity to gain a promotion amongst all the change
and turmoil.
The Board of Directors has asked for, and is receiving, updates
on the change project every two weeks. The two new Board

Members have directed the CEO to meet with representatives of
the Singapore Insurance Employees' Union (SIEU) to open a
line of communication about the coming few months.
Internal research amongst employees, and feedback from the
SIEU indicated that staff have formed an opinion that JI was
nearly bankrupt; would all be laid off; and not receive their
accrued benefits and entitlements.
This information is untrue and was not communicated by the
company – it may have been a rumour sparked and fuelled by
competitors who see the opportunity to poach high-value staff
and large clients. As a result, productivity fell, especially in the
claims section.
The Board decided to take an unprecedented step as an act of
good faith to both the staff and prospective owners of JI Retail.
They commissioned a major auditing firm to analyse the
projected financial liabilities associated with the promises made
to staff regarding accrued leave (of all types), voluntary
redundancy provisions, training, relocation, bonuses and other
rewards. The auditors came back in a week with the figure of
$23.5 million, subject to further investigations.
The board then lodged $23.5 million in a fiduciary trust
account, naming an independent lawyer as trustee and fiduciary
and all current staff as beneficiaries. The CEO announced this
to staff and the share market simultaneously on a video/tele
conference. A formal letter from the trustee was then couriered
to all staff outlining the terms of the fiduciary relationship they
had with the independent lawyer. Specifically, it made mention
that all expenditure relating to staffing entitlements had to be
requested by JI or the staff member (or their bargaining agent)
directly to the independent lawyer, who would assess the
request on its merits against the current workplace policies, and
remit the funds as needed. Regular wages and salaries were still
paid by JI.
This unprecedented gesture had an immediate effect across the
company. Many staff called the fiduciary lawyer’s information
hotline to clarify information, and the level of emotional unrest

supervisors were reporting to the executives immediately fell.
With this major issue temporarily dealt with, the Board and
CEO could now focus on the progress in each individual
division.
Preparations for separating CUAP.
The CEO has created a series of working groups; four staff from
each from Sales, Claims, Adjusters and Professional Services.
There are two parallel sets of working groups – one for the
entity that will become CUAP, and one for JI Retail.
Working from the benchmarking reports the consultants
provided earlier, the teams are drafting ‘ideal’ workflows and
organisational structures to equal or exceed competitors’
practices. A member of the HRM management is in each group,
mainly to ensure that groups stay focussed on what is ideal, not
“retrofitting” an ideal future to current practices.
For reasons that will become apparent in the progress reports
(below), the HRM delegates started to discuss the employment
relations framework to which the posttransition organisations
had access. While JI in its current form was adequately served
by the guidelines from the NWC, the new entities, especially
CUAP, may not be. The Board Transition Committee has added
the investigation of this issue to your brief.
Figure 2. Working groups
Division-by-division progress
Sales
This department faces the biggest change in size and structure
in the organisation. In theory all sales staff are needed by one
or the other parts of the company, however, an over-supply of
sales and renewal staff emerged.
The project managers have adopted a “field sales only” model
for CUAP, meaning that all selling and renewals is done by a

team of sales staff who visit the customers’ premises for new
policies, and for renewals; working on the assumption that once
familiar with
CUAP, customers could
Figure 2. Sales staff visiting customers at their premises helps
build a stronger be upsold more relationship. insurance.
Projected workforce needs modelled on the workflow of JI
Retail shows the size of the internal (call centre) workforce has
a surplus of 40 sales staff on phones, and five from the online
chat service.
The sales staff are not yet aware of this; most are operating on
the assumption that they will all have the same job in one of the
organisations.
JI Retail intends to maintain the reselling business.
The Board does have concerns over the ability of the current
marketing team. Launching two new brands in a new niche
market is a difficult task; even with the advantage JI has from
127 years of operations. There is a heavy public relations
workload coming up, something in which the current team has
very little experience or capability.
Your team needs to put in place plans to manage the size and
composition of the sales workforce, (for both JI Retail and
CUAP) which may include an organisation-wide reallocation of
staff.
Claims
The claims workforce also faced reshaping. The CUAP Claims
working group investigated the benchmarking report, and then
did their investigations into contemporary practices in business
insurance claims. By far the most successful model was a
“customer partnership” model, where claims staff actually
visited the customer’s premises. Research indicated that
business and commercial customers felt more “attached” to their
insurers when they could deal with them face to face.

Figure 3. Although it may cost extra; some customers prefer to
deal with insurance companies in person.
Clearly, this was the model with which to launch CUAP. The
issue obstructing it is clear – all JI’s claims staff are in Victoria
St, and claims staff are needed to move to other areas of
Singapore and Malaysia.
The Claims working group from the JI Retail side projected that
they would need 65 staff in the new organisation, leaving a
surplus of 25 staff. CUAP need ten in central Singapore.
Adjusters
According to working groups from both streams, this part of the
workforce is going to be under-resourced. The JI Retail
adjusters working group briefly considered activating the
Board’s offer of voluntary redundancies to all JI Retail
adjusters, but when that was fed back up to the Transition
Committee by the HRM staff, they decided against it.
Although the consultants’ benchmarking report showed that
independent, contracted adjusters were now an industry norm,
the Board did not want to change a practice and structure that
worked reliably and effectively before the sale. Even the
smallest teething problems with such a critical part of the
operation may spook potential buyers.
This division presented perhaps the least difficult re-sizing to
deal with. It is projected that at least another 20 adjusters will
need to be placed into the organisations.
The only issue was the limited experience the current adjusters
have with investigating and negotiating settlements with
commercial and business-to-business customers. Some claims
businesses put through for losses such as income disruption or
key personnel accident and injury; required special investigative
skills, forensic accounting, and particular legal knowledge.
These skills are essential for CUAP to be successful, and the
Board Transition Committee has added the resolution of this

issue to the brief.
Of all the departments, Professional Services is the only one
that faces a significant staffing shortfall.
Because of MAS and Insurance Act (Cap 142) requirements, the
entire professional services department needs to be duplicated,
approved, and registered before the formal offer for sale goes
through.
The Board has specifically mentioned this department as a
potential beneficiary from a new industrial relations framework,
and has added to the brief a requirement to discuss using an
enterprise agreement for CUAP, particularly given the
flexibility an agreement would supply for the rewards and
bonuses for the Professional Services group.
Figure 5. Actuaries’ bonus plans are difficult to form, as most
of their work is constructing risk analysis models.
Key items for report.
Your task is to form a plan for achieving the Board’s strategy of
splitting the company in two, preparing one half for sale, and
the other half to start focussing on their new business niche.
This assignment is formed so you can complete one part of it
each week immediately following class, and we strongly
recommend this.
As a minimum, your report must cover the following items.
These are covered in the order they appear in the session guide.
Please note, these topics are a minimum, and not an exhaustive
list. You need to use your best judgement to form a
remuneration plan that meets the need of the changing
organisation:

Points to be covered as a minimum in each section.
1
Introduction to unit. Human resources strategy and
organisational strategy.
• Alignment of HRM activities and strategy with corporate
strategy.
2
HRM’s role in change management – principles and models.
· Using HRM activities and structures to prompt, actualise, and
re-freeze change.
· Minimising staff loss at times of change.
3
Principles and practice of HRM Ethics,
Corporate Social Responsibility, Occupational
Health and Safety.
• Applying the principles of CSR, OHS, and HR ethics to the
change project.
4
Organisation and job design for high performance and staff
engagement.
• Using the period of change to reorganise and redesign jobs for
satisfaction, performance, and commitment. At least one
redesigned job role to be explained.
5
Advanced staff selection and/or staff promotion.
• Selection processes for moving internal staff around the
redesigned organisation, while observing the practices of CSR
and Ethics
6
Human resources development.
• Using HRD activities to prepare staff for effective
performance in the changed environment.
7
Workforce planning – upsizing, downsizing, reallocation.
• Show a method for choosing which positions are redundant,
how to offer Voluntary Redundancies, how to reallocate.

8
Strategic remuneration models and costing.
• Argue a case for position-based remuneration or skills based
remuneration, or a combination of both. Use an example
position to demonstrate your model.
9
Strategic rewards and incentives.
• Choose one position and design an incentive scheme.
10
Industrial relations strategies and practices.
• Argue a case for either staying with, or disengaging from the
TAFEP and the NWC.
11
HR evaluation
• Create an HRM evaluation plan, and advise how data will be
collected and used.
Noto bene: There is a 10% over/under allowance for the word
count for both assignments which make up this report (from
1557 to 1903 each assignment). The word count starts the page
after the table of contents, and continues until the last word
before the reference list. However, if you find you have
insufficient space to present your plan, it is acceptable to attach
some information as appendices. If you do attach appendices, it
is very important that these are only supporting information,
and the critical discussion is contained in the body of the report.
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con
Table of contents
1.0
Case Overview
2
1.1 Challenges
3
1.2 Strategies
4
2.0
Change Management
4
2.1 Changes
4
2.2 Force field analysis
5
2.3 Levin’s change model

5
3.0
Ethics
9
3.1 Recommendations
11
3.1.1Working conditions
11
3.1.2 Transparency
11
3.1.3 Removal of transfers
11
3.1.4 Summary
12
4.0
Job designs
12
4.1 Results
13
4.2 Recommendations

13
5.0
Hiring & Selection methods
14
6.0
Human Resource Development
16
6.1 Training needs analysis
16
7.0
Conclusion
20
8.0
References
21
1.0 Case overview
Johor Insurance (JI), a company with 127 years of history, deals
with major insurance markets which consist of life, home &
contents and car insurance. Up till 1955, JI managed to hold on
to almost 50 percent of the market share in the insurance
industry. However, the numbers have been steadily going down
due to the government policy of having compulsory CPF. This
policy made people to simply “add-on” life insurance to their
CPF rather than buy and maintain a separate policy with an
external company like JI. The life insurance business saw a
major reduction and eventually, 20 years down the road, JI’s
main customer base is currently older lifelong customers who
are not motivated to change companies. As a result, the profit

margin was the lowest in the insurance industry.
1.1 Challenges
The government’s CPF policy was just one of the challenges
faced by JI. A consultants’ assessment of the current insurance
market showed a very crowded, competitive market with thin
margins and mass off-shoring of back-office support services.
Technological advances were also a problem. The life-long
customers of companies who didn’t change due to the hassle of
finding, comparing and negotiating policies, now had free apps
and websites doing the job for them. This made insurance
companies bid against each other in order to get customers by
offering better deals than their competitors. JI’s staff
departments also had issues as illustrated in table 1.1

JOHOR INSURANCE
SALES
CLAIMS
ADJUSTERS
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
-Unusually large size
- Working hours from 7am to 10pm every day except National
day, Chinese New Year and Good Friday
- Reselling team did not actually do any active selling. Focused
on channel sales instead.
-Functionally and structurally unbalanced
-Six staff engaged in placing advertisements in traditional
media like papers and magazines even though less than 2% of
new customers are attracted via these media.
-No outgoing, proactive PR activities. All staff focused and
engaged on marketing to direct retail consumers. No experience
or motivation to deal with business clients or reselling channel
partners
-Two teams of claims staff, each dealing with phone claims and
online claims. Never worked together. Online claims division
was seen as dead-end as low performing staff from phone claims
division were transferred over.
-24/7 claims hotline and minimum of three staff rostered at any
point of time. Small number of calls meant that staff did not
have productivity and were simply there for the sake of being
there.
-Absence from night-shift was high, resulting in JI paying over-
time penalties of over $200,000 a year

-Shadow shopper lodged fake claims and benchmarked against
other major insurance companies. JI ranked 7th out of 8.
- 60 staff working as adjusters doing all adjusting activities, but
contemporary practice was to have a small team of adjusters to
handle long term cases and contract independent adjusters for
everything else.
- Adjusters costs of car, travelling and other allowances like
home internet costed more than $28000 annually.
- No specialist knowledge in adjusting commercial and business
insurance claims. No exposure to typical business insurance
claims like employee fraud and deliberate sabotage.
- All staff are on individual workplace contracts.
- Contracts were not consistent in regards to salary, allowances
and terms & conditions.
- Some contracts had minimum one-month notice to resign
while others had three-month notice.
-Actuaries and re-insurance specialist have 12-month non-
competition clause while legal and regulatory offices did not.
Table 1.1
1.2 Strategies
The consultant had come up with recommendations to help JI
recover and gain back it’s market share. Diagram 1.1 illustrates
the big picture.
Figure 1.1
Separating into two entities with the retail arm being sold for
profits after stabilising, JI will subsequently be launched as
Commercial Underwriters Asia Pacific (CUAP). CUAO will

deal with business related insurance as their core transactions.
Retaining key executives is an important part of this strategy.
Research has shown that it is easier to sell a business to
international interests when the management is stable and
experience. It is also to avoid the time consumption of getting
approvals from Monetary Authority of Singapore(MAS) for new
hires.
2.0 Change Management
2.1 Changes
Being separated into two distinct entities, JI will have to induce
certain changes in the organisation and its’ staff. Improvements
to customer service, improvement of claims processing, courses
to expand knowledge of staff, reduction of overtimes while
maximising human resource are some of the changes needed to
improve JI’s current situation. Salaries and contracts will have
to be readjusted to ensure consistency as this will directly help
the human resource department to handle employees efficiently
at the same time raising motivation and dedication amongst
staff. Change management models can be used as an aid for the
implementation of changes.
2.2 Force Field Analysis
Force field analysis is a model which depicts the drivers and
restrictors for change in the organisation. It is used in change
management and understand the processes for change in
organisations (Lewin, 1951) Drivers enable the organisation to
identify positive motivators and factors for change while
restrictors help to show what are the obstacles for the changes.
When there is imbalance between driving forces and restraining
forces, changes takes place (Lewin, 1946)
Fig 1.2
2.3 Lewin’s change model
At the unfreezing stage, HR must be able to build the

motivation for the changes. The organisation must be able to
identify the drivers for the change and understand why they
need such changes. It minimises barriers for the change and
helps to increase the possibility of a successful change
(Levasseur,2001). The movement stage is where the existing
system is examined and the development of changes take place.
(Levasseur,2001). The refreeze stage is where the new changes
are tested and continuously monitored to ensure that the new
changes have completely eradicated old habits and practices
which were there before the change (Levasseur,2001).
Unfreeze
Role of HR: Change Leader
Actions needed
Sales and marketing
Claims
Adjusters
Professional services
Brainstorm on the process of re-grouping and re-structuring of
manpower in the department.
Explain need to move forward with technology and show
benefits of social media advertising.
Evaluate how staff from both teams can work with each other
and have a better communication channel. Consider rotation
between staff of both teams.
Assess manpower needs for hotline manning and shift work.
Reduction in number of employees needed for hotline service (if
possible).

Study costs of having contract- based adjustors vis a vis having
full time adjustors.
Research on government initiatives like works skills sg, to
calculate costs and study benefits of upgrading programmes
Look into optimising adjusters’ activities via the use of a
standard checklist for claims assessment and incentives for
reduction of initial claim amounts (e.g. lower claim amount =
higher incentive)
Look into MOM regulations and labour law to understand how
contracts can be streamlined.
Draft salary guidelines, terms and conditions and clauses which
can referenced from these government acts.
Issues and addressing them
Issues:
Employees may be uncertain about such changes and how it may
affect them. This might lead to a resistance to the change and
general fear of economical loss like loss of pay and losing of
jobs.
Addressing:
Communicate these possible changes that are to happen by
holding a briefing explaining the need for changes. Q & A
session at the end of such briefing to let employees voice out
their queries. Employees can also direct questions before the
brief to their immediate superiors which can then be collated to
have them answered at the end.
Table 1.2

Transition
Role of HR: Change Educator
Changes to be made
Sales and marketing
Claims
Adjusters
Dismantle and reallocate reselling team to other departments.
Provide training to optimise performance at the new
departments that they are posted to
Stoppage of marketing via traditional media like newspapers
and magazines. Send a small group of staff to WSQ Social
media marketing courses.
Re-task marketing team to shift focus on business clients
Change workplace timings to ensure employees are well-rested
and energetic to push on with sales
Rotation of staff from both online and chat teams to remove
“dead-end” perspective.
Monthly evaluation of productivity and increase in allowance
for night-shift staff so that absentee rates will drop.
Disciplinary actions on employees who repeatedly are absent.
Provide training on customer service and improving customer
based skills.

Alignment with contemporary practice by employing contract-
based adjusters to handle short-term cases and full-time
adjusters to continue working on long term ones.
To avoid problem of contract-based adjusters closing cases to
receive commission fast without regard to claim amount,
incentive can be given for claims which are closed below initial
claim amounts
Send adjusters on WSQ certified courses to gain experience on
business related insurance claims
Realign contracts to be consistent. The contracts must adhere to
government rules and regulations on employment contracts.
Streamline terms and conditions. This makes it easier for HR to
execute actions if the terms and conditions are breached instead
vis a vis having different clauses for different group of staff
Issues:
There would be a high employee turnover rate. Certain group of
employees might not be comfortable in learning new skills, for
example, older senior workers who have been doing things the
same way for years. The organisation might have to pump in
additional money to send workers for courses, inducing extra
costs.
Addressing:
Opening up of communications channel for employees to voice
out their concerns. There could also be a peer learning system,
where employees are encouraged to share knowledge and
“tutor” their peers in certain areas. For lowering of costs,
organisation could tap on workers skills future credits and
leverage on government programmes which help older workers

(e.g. Career centres by NTUC and CDC etc.)
Table 1.3
Refreeze
Role of HR: Change Advisor
Actions needed
Sales and marketing
Claims
Adjusters
Receive and review feedback from department staff on the
changes. Consider optimising work based on the feedback
given.
Gain and study reports on the change from traditional media to
social media marketing. Analyse if sales due to social media
marketing has increased.
Get reports on absentee rates after the change was implemented.
Have call recording to study what was done well and what was
not done so well.
Implement customer satisfactory survey at the end of each
service call.
Get reports on claims and cases that were successful. Study if
there has been an improvement in the investigation process.

Continue to provide the adjusters with incentives for closing
cases through proper investigation techniques and channels.
Continuously gather feedback from adjusters, especially on
business related claims, to understand areas which they need
improvement or help on.
Review contract terms either annually or bi-annually to ensure
that it remains attractive and competitive with regards to current
market rate.
By reviewing and taking note of market rates, skilled and
talented employees will not be lured to other companies.
Issues:
Employees might still be adapting to changes. Not all
employees can adapt to changes at the same rate and there might
be outliers who could not cope with others. Certain employees
might also fall back to the old way of doing things out of habit.
Addressing:
Identification of outliers and employees who might have trouble
coping is important at this stage. A open channel for
communications and constantly gathering feedback will prove
crucial in helping these employees. Actively gathering feedback
and having support channels to get them back on track will
prove beneficial. Feedback must be a two-way channel and the
employees must also be aware of what the organisation thinks
that they are doing right or wrong. Rewards and remunerations
will also help to keep the morale and motivation of employees
high.
Table 1.4

Starting with the first stage of unfreezing, HR needs to be the
change leader by spearheading the transformation within the
organisation. HR needs to convince the employees on why the
changes are needed and to help them (employees) realise that it
would be better for the future. A successful unfreeze stage will
weaken the restraining forces and improve the driving forces for
change. At the transition stage, HR will employ the changes and
at the same time support the employee’s movement towards
change by being the change educator. At this stage, HR will
also need to have the foresight on employee turnover and have
contingency plans to retain as much of the talented staff as
possible along with keeping costs down. Lastly, at the third
stage which is refreezing, HR will need to be change advisor by
continuously monitoring the changes and their effects. With
constant feedback and reviews, they will need to hold the ship
tight until practices that have arose from the changes have
become status quo.
3.0 – Ethics
A system of moral principles and a branch of philosophy which
defines what is good for individuals and society. This is the
definition of ethics by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
in 2014. Under Ethics, one of the categories commonly used in
organisations is justice based ethics. Justice is loosely described
as the principle of fairness and the idea of moral equity
(Schmalleger, 2018). This studies how human resource
management staff should conduct themselves with employees so
that they go away with the impression that they are being
treated fairly. In an organisation, there are four types of justice.
Table 4.1 shows the breakdown of the types.
Justice Based Ethics

Distributive Justice
Procedural Justice
Natural Justice
Social Justice###
Fig 1.3
Department
Current Situation
(Ethical Problem)
MOM Guidelines (G)
Recommendations (R)
Sales
Overworked
· 15hrs/day
· Working 8 out of 11 Public Holidays/year
· No rest day
Underpaid
· No extra pay for working on PH or extra 3hr/day that they
usually work
Part IV of the Employment Act
Employees should maximum work 12 hr/day. Anything more is
considered overtime but this is only up to 14hrs/day (G)
Entitlement of 11 Public Holidays (PH). If working on them,
additional day pay must be given
Overtime pay must be given for the extra hours worked per day
(Hourly basic rate of pay x 1.5 x Number of hours worked

overtime)
Employee should be given 1 rest day/week
Cut working hours by 8hrs, change to 8am-3pm(7hrs).
(42hr/week).
Employees in Sales are not shift workers so by doing this,
consent in writing must be given by employees. Provisions of
Section 38 & 40 explained and 1 rest day/week must be given
Employees can either continue to work on PH but be given PH
pay(extra day of pay) or given the entitlement of rest on the 11
PHs.
Claims
Department Transfer
· Underperforming employees being transferred to another
department with no future work progression or any chances of
career enrichment
Nil
Employees should be given performance reviews when their
performance is not up to standard and given a chance to do
better.
Online and postal team should be recruited as a separate entity
and not a place to throw underperforming employees (takes
away the stigma of the job)
Adjusters
Nil
Nil
Nil
Inconsistency in workplace contracts
· No consistency in terms and conditions of employment
(salaries, allowances, bonuses,etc)
Employment Practices
Notice period of termination of contract should be aligned to
the length of service if not specified in the contract

All employees under a same department should be given the
same terms and conditions in a contract.
Table 1.5
3.1 Recommendations
3.1.1 Working Conditions
Proper working conditions are part of an employee’s basic
human right. In the Sales department, from working hours to
rest days to overtime pay, none of the current protocols follow
the guidelines set in the Employment Act by the Ministry of
Manpower (MOM). They are not ethical and instead treat
employees as just tools for production. Recommendations are
cutting the working hours from 15 to 7 hours, 1 rest day per
week given and overtime pay for working on 8 out the 11
designated public holidays (PH). This pay can be avoided by the
employee by giving the employees rest on the PH day instead.
These above are the ethical alternative provided to each
employee with a focus on basic human rights.
3.1.2 Transparency
Under professional services, there is a lack of transparency in
workplace contracts given to employees. The inconsistency
leads to toxic comparison among employees with each
determining in their opinion, which is the “better job”. Those
receiving fewer benefits for example will find it unfair. This
leads to the employee having a lack of trust and commitment
towards his job. Recommendations are to standardise the
workplace contracts among all in professional services. If some
need further clauses, there should be separated from the
department thus preventing any juxtaposition. By doing this, the
norms of professional conduct do not get violated, thus being
fair and equitable for the employees.
3.1.3 Removal of Transfers
Under the Claims department, the process of uprooting
employees creates a sense of negative stigma with the
employees believing one team was worse off than the other.

Also employees in the online and postal team were shown to be
unhappy over their job thus showing no commitment towards
their job in general. Recommendation is to treat both teams as
separately as possible with no chance of inter team transfer.
Also, instead of re-allocating underperforming employees, they
first should be given a performance review where the employee
can also find out where the problem lies. They then should be
given a second chance which lead to employees having the
mentality to want to do better as they want to uphold the good
faith the employer had in them by giving a second chance. This
is in lieu of treating employees fairly with consistent practices.
3.1.4 Summary
Employees are human beings with their own needs and worries.
They should be treated as such and not just as set pieces of a
job production. Giving them respect with an emphasis on basic
human rights allows employees to feel they are fairly treated in
the job. This leads to better meaningfulness in the job thus an
increase in commitment which overall leads, to better
productivity.
4.0 Job Design
High performance, lower staff turnover and higher profitability
are direct correlations to engaged and committed employees
(Dernovsek,2008). To have such employees, there must be good
employee engagement. In all firms, employee engagement is a
crucial portion of HRM. One crucial aspect of such engagement
is finding the right employee for the job. The job needs to fit
the employee such that he finds a sense of meaningfulness in his
job. This leads to high commitment of the employee thus highly
increasing his productiveness in the job.
Each organisation is designed with its own battle rhythm in
mind. This is where the most effective system of work suited to
the organisation is designed. The job is designed with three
main factors in mind. They are motivational, mechanistic and
socio-technical. In gist, job design helps to reduce job
dissatisfaction which is results of repetitive tasks. The Job
Characteristics Model is a tool used to determine if the work

environment constitutes to a performance problem due to its
negative characteristics. It can analyse work performance and
with the results, jobs can be re-designed to better suit the
department and its employees.
Sales
Claims
Adjusters
Skill Variety
4.5
4.5
3.5
5.1
Task Identity
3.0
3.5
4.5
4.9
Task Significance
5.5
4.6
6.0
5.2
Autonomy
6.0
4.7
4.0
5.0
Feedback from Job itself
3.0
4.5
3.0
3.9
Feedback from others
5.7

3.6
2.5
4.0
MPS
92.65
83.41
51.33
100
Table 1.6
4.1 Results
Doing the Job Characteristics Model has given some clarity on
each department and its performance. The results table show
that Claims and Adjuster departments are low performing.
Adjusters were not specialized in an important aspect of
commercial and business insurance claims. This lack of capacity
is one of the major reasons its poor performance. Employees in
Claims department are dependent on technology, computers to
be specific. Reading from a script up to the results, it is the
computer that churns it, not the employee’s critical thinking
skills.
4.2 Recommendations
Computers and technology itself should not be the main model
used in Claims department. There should be an emphasis on the
communication skills of the employees. The script should be
taken out, allowing each employee to ask the question in their
own preferred way. This develops the employee and customer
relationship, thus forming a connection between both. By
allowing the employee to take charge of the claims process from
start to finish, they have autonomy over the job, which in turn
allows them to feel empowered. Employees then will feel a
personal responsibility to succeed in the job.

Another way to improve on the job design is to merge the two
teams into one. Instead of throwing underperforming employees
from one team to another, they instead could be completely cut
from the team. By this process of elimination, the employees
left in the teams will be highly skilled workers who are able to
produce effective results.
For Adjusters, sending current employees for specialist training
allows task variety in their job. They can pick up a new skill
and use it to take up new claims thus improving the
organizations’ overall performance with their addition of this
tasking to their usual ones.
5.0 Selection Methods
Selection is defined as the process of choosing and identifying
the most suitable person for a particular position (Beardwell,
Holden, and Claydon, 2004). Selection matches the skills and
qualifications of applicants in line with the organisational needs
(Gummadi 2015). The selection process will also be more
effective only when the recruitment process was done well,
making recruitment a crucial factor (Osoian and Zaharie, 2010).
Using the proper selection methods for each position is a crucial
part for JI’s strategy.
For JI’s strategy to succeed, there has to be a change in the
hiring process. For JI’s B2B arm, staff with the right set of
skills are needed. With a streamlined hiring process, HR must
first identify the job scope, staffing needs and develop proper
selection criteria. Thereafter, the hiring process can begin with
recruitment ads placed both internally and externally. With the

candidates being assessed using interviews and other methods of
selection, the right candidates would then be hired. The table
below lists various selection tools specific to each department,
in order to aid the selection process.
Fig 1.4
1Selection Tools
V
R
CPU
Sales
Claims
Adjusters
Structured Interviews
0.53
0.7
0
Assess organisational skills and problem-solving skills by
asking situational based questions
Assess candidates previous work experiences, education and
skill- based courses related to software like Excel and Word
-
Assess previous work experiences and educational/skill
qualifications in the particular job scope (e.g, HR
diploma/degree for HR department)
Aptitude tests
0.84
0.74
20.00
Mock sales pitch – ability to be convincing and assertive.
Test on verbal skills, and being fluent in English, Voice
modulation and other sales techniques
-
Mock tests using scenarios which needs adjusters to determine

claims.
Test on knowledge with regards to business insurance claims.
Assess candidates’ knowledge with regards to the particular
department:
· Labour Law for HR personnel,
· Accountancy papers for accountants
· Legal knowledge on Insurance Act Cap 142 for legal officers.
Unstructured Interviews
0.40
0.5
0
Assess candidates on past experiences with regards to inter-
personnel skills.
-
Assess based on past experience specifically dealing with
business related insurance
Assess leadership skills, ability to multi-task and work under
pressure based on past experiences
Personality tests
0.35
0.27
40.00
Test on the candidate’s ability to engage people, self-awareness,
assertiveness and being able to adapt to people’s behaviour
-
-
Test the candidates on their personal traits specifically for
administrative tasks. For example, meticulousness,
resourcefulness, teamwork.
Where V = Validity, R = Reliability and CPU = Cost Per Unit
(Table 1.7)
6.0 Human resource development
Training needs analysis is used widely for the purpose of

training and development of staff in the organisation.
Consisting of three stages of organisational, task and person
analysis, training needs analysis helps to assess what staff need
training on based on their performance. It helps management to
analyse how to train their staff and rate the success of the
training.
Training needs analysis falls under human resource
development. With JI aiming to establish CUAP, the staff need
to be trained and developed well so as to increase chances of
success. JI would need to establish a training environment that
is conducive for the training and development of its’ staff.
Table 1.8-2.0illustrates the training needs analysis for each
department. To evaluate the effectiveness of the training
programmes, models like the Kirkpatrick model could be used,
which is elaborated in fig 1.5.
6.1 Training needs analysis
Sales
To market the product of JI and proactively engage the public
via different means to promote products. To be able to answer
queries on JI’s insurance products from the public.
Required trainings
Telephone etiquette
Effective presentation skills
Communication in customer service
Methods
Workshops/Seminars
Workshops/Seminars
Workshops

Suggestions
Telephone Etiquette & Techniques on Handling Difficult
Callers
EON Consulting & Training Pte Ltd
A 1-day course with group discussions, role playing and
lectures
Professional and Effective presentations
A 2-day course which focuses on engaging audiences and
communicate messages with clarity
Effective communication in customer service
A 1-day workshop which teaches techniques to structure
conversations and create positive first impressions
Evaluation of training effectiveness
Kirkpatrick model
Table 1.8
Claims
To be able to answer claims enquiries and process/handle claims
via online, mail and phone.
Required Trainings
Customer service
Telephone etiquette
Communication and teamwork in workplace
Methods
Seminars
Workshops/Seminars
Team training (Cross training)

Suggestions
Managing customer complaints and feedback
Marketing Institute of Singapore
A 2-days course which focuses on replying customer feedback
and enquiries effectively.
Telephone Etiquette & Techniques on Handling Difficult
Callers
A 1-day course with group discussions, role playing and
lectures
Rotation of employees between online and telephone department
to share knowledge
Kirkpatrick model
Table 1.9
Adjusters
To be able to meet clients and have the ability to assess damage
in order to determine claims to a fair amount, especially with
other insurance companies
Required Trainings
Commercial and Business insurance claims
Methods
Workshops with industry endorsed institutions and with
certification
Case studies and on the job training for trainees to gain
experience and knowledge
Suggestions

General insurance courses by IFPAS.
-
Kirkpatrick model
Table 2.0
Background services which are required for the insurance
company to run and support crucial company matters such as
HR, Legal issues and accounts.
Required Trainings
Competency in handling administrative tasks which include HR,
Legal services, Finances etc
Methods
Workshops
Suggestions
Contract law for non-legal professionals
By Marketing institute of Singapore
A 1-day course which focuses on drafting, interpreting and
enforcing contracts. Includes video training
Essential skills for Professional administratorsBy EON
Consulting & Training Pte Ltd
A 2-days course which teaches on administrative competency
and productivity by using SMART goals and other techniques
Kirkpatrick model
Table 2.1
*All suggested courses are WSQ certified and support the Skills

Future movement.
Fig 1.5
7.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, this report has covered 5 major topics for JI to
look into with regards to its strategy of expansion, rebranding
and gaining back market share. Starting with change
management which studies the force field in JI and how to
manage the change movement training and developing staff in
order to get ready for the upcoming change, this report helps to
put up a picture of how the change can be affected.

8.0 References
Beardwell, I., Holden, L. and Claydon, T.(ed.), (2004), Human
Resource Management A Contemporary Approach, 4th edition
Dernovsek, D. (2008). Creating highly engaged and committed
employees starts at the top and ends at the bottom line, Engaged
employee, 42
Gummadi, R. K. (2015). Recruitment and selection practices of
IT companies in Andra Pradesh – A study of select units. Zenon
Academic Publishing.
Levasseur, R. E. (2001). People skills: Change management
tools—Lewin's change model. Interfaces, 31(4), 71-73.
Lewin K. (1951) 'Field Theory in Social Science', Harper and
Row, New York
Lewin, K. (1946). Force field analysis. The 1973 Annual
Handbook for Group Facilitators, 111-13.
Schmalleger, F., Schmalleger, F., & Schmalleger. (n.d.).
Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction, 12th Edition
Zaharie, M., & Osoian, C. (2013). Job recruitment and selection
practices in small and medium organisations. Studia
Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, 58(2), 86.

Johor insurance seperated into 2 divisions/sub-units
JI Retail
Focusing on: Car, home, property insurance
Seperated with non-retail transferred to B2B.
Sold off to MNC underwriting company. Proceeds goes to B2B.
JI B2B
Focusing on: Business related insurance
Expanded, and re-launched as Commercial Underwriters Asia
Pacific
2

Welcome
I
Managing Fall Protection
Hazards Workbook
Latino Worker Resource Center
Welcome
II
WELCOME…
Falls are the leading cause of death in
construction. When working from heights,
such as ladders, scaffolds, and roofs,
employers must plan projects to ensure that
the job is done safely. This is not the place
to cut corners or cheat on safety. It’s your
life hanging in the balance, so pay attention
and know what it takes to keep you safe.

This publication contains:
1. The purpose for the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) and its enforcement duty under
law.
2. Important terms and definitions within OSHA’s fall
protection standard, specifically competent person.
3. The nature of fall hazards in construction.
4. Procedures for erecting, maintaining, disassembling, and
inspecting fall protection systems.
5. The use and operation of guardrail systems, personal fall
arrest systems, safety net systems, warning line
systems, safety monitoring systems, controlled access zones,
and other protection to be used.
6. Emergency response procedures.
7. OSHA’s standards and references.
Acknowledgments, Credits & Disclaimers
III
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Copyright ©2015

The content of this Managing Fall Protection Hazards Handbook
is mostly taken from OSHA’s fall protection standards 29 CFR
1926 Subpart M and other standards. Other contributions come
from OSHA Letters of Interpretation, OSHA Fact Sheets and
posters. Additional information on scaffolds, steel erection,
general industry and stairways & ladders is also provided. The
Construction Safety Council will also like to acknowledge the
following for their support as well…
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
• CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training
(eLCOSH images)
• Oregon OSHA
GENERAL DISCLAIMER
This material is not a substitute for any provision of the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or any
standards
issued by OSHA. If at any time it is discovered that the
materials presented vary from Federal or State OSHA
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American National Standards Institute (ANSI), state laws or
local ordinances, it is understood that those regulations, laws
and
ordinances will take precedence over the materials presented
herein. In some cases, the information given may imply a
higher
level of protection than required in some Federal or State OSHA
regulations. The mention of any products or materials by brand
name in no way constitutes endorsement. Any products or
materials not mentioned within this manual that may be
considered

acceptable as protective devices, equipment, or practices is not
intentional and should not rule out their acceptability as
employee or environmental protection.
OSHA DISCLAIMER
This material was produced under grant number Susan Harwood
Grant # SH26315-SH4 from the Occupational Safety and
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necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department
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Finally, this Managing Fall Protection Hazards Handbook is
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Course Description
IV
Reasons for Development
• Protect the safety and health of the worker.
• Train competent persons to perform
frequent and regular inspections of the job-
site, materials and equipment.
• Help employers understand and react to fall
hazards in construction and comply with
Federal rules and regulations.

Employers have the responsibility to:
(1) Develop safety programs to comply with
OSHA standards.
(2) Provide for frequent and regular inspections
of the job-sites, materials, and equipment to
be made by competent persons designated
by the employers.
(3) Not allow the use of any machinery, tool,
material, or equipment which is not in
compliance with any applicable requirement
of [OSHA]. Such machine, tool, material, or
equipment shall either be identified as
unsafe by tagging or locking the controls to
render them inoperable or shall be physically
removed from its place of operation.
(4) The employer shall permit only those
employees qualified by training or
experience to operate equipment and
machinery.
Employer’s responsibility to train workers:
(1) The employer should avail himself of the
safety and health training programs the
Secretary provides.
(2) The employer shall instruct each employee in
the recognition and avoidance of unsafe
conditions and the regulations applicable to
his work environment to control or eliminate

any hazards or other exposure to illness or
injury.
Course Goal
The goal of this course is to enhance communication
of fall hazards between employers & employees and
to prevent accidents. At the conclusion, each course
participant will possess the confidence to recognize
and avoid unsafe conditions and behaviors as well as
be able to identify regulations applicable to fall
hazards in construction.
• Train competent persons.
• Become more aware of fall hazards in
construction and function within a safety
management system.
Course participants will learn
• Occupational Safety & Health
Administration (OSHA) fall protection
standards.
• The correct procedures for erecting,
maintaining, disassembling and inspecting
fall protection systems.
• How and when to make managerial
decisions, such as how to implement a job-
site Fall Management System.
Intended Audience
The target audience is the construction employer,

manager, employee or employee representative
who, as part of a safety and health program, would
either be acting to fulfill the requirements of a
competent person (to conduct frequent and regular
inspections of a job-site) or performing safety and
health evaluations for their member employees and
performing training as described in OSHA’s
construction safety & health standard 29 CFR 1926.
• Job-site Competent Persons
• Qualified Persons
• Site Supervisors
• Owners
Table of Contents
1
Page
Table of Contents
Important Terms & Definitions
...............................................................................................
....................................... 1
Contractor Fall Management System
...............................................................................................
............................. 1
Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
...............................................................................................
... 2
General Duty Clause…
.............................................................................................. .
.................................................... 2

What is OSHA’s General Duty Clause?
...............................................................................................
....................... 2
Fall Fatalities in Construction
...............................................................................................
......................................... 3
Reporting of Fatalities and
Catastrophes............................................................................
...................................... 3
Employee Rights:
...............................................................................................
............................................................ 5
EMPLOYERS:
...............................................................................................
............................................................... 5
Refusing to Work because Conditions are Dangerous
............................................................................. .................
6
OSHA’s Multi-Employer Worksite Citation Policy
...............................................................................................
........... 7
The Creating Employer
...............................................................................................
.............................................. 7
The Exposing Employer:
...............................................................................................
............................................. 7
The Correcting Employer:
...............................................................................................
.......................................... 7
The Controlling Employer:
...............................................................................................

......................................... 7
Your Rights as a Whistleblower
...............................................................................................
...................................... 8
Whistleblower Laws Enforced by
OSHA.....................................................................................
............................... 8
Under the following laws, complaints must be filed in writing:
.......................................................................... 8
Filing a Complaint
...............................................................................................
...................................................... 8
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
...............................................................................................
........................... 10
Employers Must Pay for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
.............................................................................. 10
Employers are not required to pay for:
...............................................................................................
................... 10
Federal Standards (Construction, Part
1926)......................................................................................
......................... 11
Subpart M
...............................................................................................
................................................................ 11
Subpart L
...............................................................................................
.................................................................. 11
Subpart R
............................................................................................. ..
................................................................. 11

Federal Standards (Construction, Part
1926)......................................................................................
......................... 12
Subpart
X............................................................................................
..................................................................... 12
Subpart D (29 CFR Part 1910)
...............................................................................................
.................................. 12
American Society of Safety Engineers (ANSI
A10.32)...................................................................................
................ 13
American Society of Safety Engineers (ANSI Z359)
...............................................................................................
....... 13
Qualified
Person.....................................................................................
...................................................................... 14
Competent Person
...............................................................................................
........................................................ 15
Conventional and Alternative Fall Protection Systems
...............................................................................................
. 20
(Passive)
...............................................................................................
................................................................... 20
Table of Contents
2

(Active)
...............................................................................................
..................................................................... 20
Guardrail Systems
...............................................................................................
......................................................... 21
General Guidelines
.................................................................................... ...........
............................................. 22
Safety Net Systems
...............................................................................................
....................................................... 23
Personal Fall Arrest Systems
...............................................................................................
......................................... 25
Full Body Harness
........................................................................................ .......
..................................................... 26
Lanyards
...............................................................................................
................................................................... 26
Rope Grabs
...............................................................................................
............................................................... 27
Shock Absorbers
...............................................................................................
...................................................... 28
Lifelines
...............................................................................................
.................................................................... 29
Horizontal Lifeline:
...............................................................................................

................................................... 30
Lifeline Anchors
...............................................................................................
....................................................... 31
Attaching Anchors
...............................................................................................
........................................................ 32
Using Fall Arrest Systems Safely
...............................................................................................
................................... 32
Distance of Fall
...............................................................................................
............................................................. 33
Inspection and Maintenance of Personal Fall Arrest Systems
................................................................................ 35
Harness Inspection
...............................................................................................
....................................................... 35
Lanyard Inspection
...............................................................................................
................................................... 36
Shock-Absorbing Packs Inspection
...............................................................................................
........................... 37
Visual Indication of Damage to Webbing and Rope Lanyards
................................................................................ 37
Cleaning of Equipment
...............................................................................................
............................................. 37
Positioning Device Systems
...............................................................................................
.......................................... 38

Restraint Systems
...............................................................................................
......................................................... 39
Hole Covers
...............................................................................................
................................................................... 40
Holes
...............................................................................................
........................................................................ 40
Walking / Working Surfaces
...............................................................................................
......................................... 42
Protection from Falling Objects
.............................................................................................. .
.................................... 43
Custody of Fall Protection
...............................................................................................
............................................. 44
Warning Line Systems
...............................................................................................
................................................... 45
Controlled Access Zone
...............................................................................................
................................................. 46
Controlled Decking Zone (CDZ).
...............................................................................................
.................................... 47
Safety Monitoring Systems
...............................................................................................
........................................... 48
Fall Protection Plans
...............................................................................................
..................................................... 49
Discussion Points
...............................................................................................

.......................................................... 50
Walking/Working Surfaces Strength and Integrity
...............................................................................................
....... 50
Housekeeping
...............................................................................................
.......................................................... 50
Unprotected Sides & Edges
...............................................................................................
.......................................... 51
Table of Contents
3
Leading Edges
...............................................................................................
.......................................................... 51
Hoist Areas
...............................................................................................
............................................................... 51
Holes
...............................................................................................
............................................................................. 52
Formwork & Reinforcing Steel
...............................................................................................
...................................... 52
Ramps, Runways/Walkways
...............................................................................................
......................................... 52
Excavations

...............................................................................................
................................................................... 53
Dangerous Equipment
...............................................................................................
.................................................. 53
Overhand Bricklaying
...............................................................................................
.................................................... 54
Roofing Work on Low-sloped Roofs
...............................................................................................
............................. 54
Steep Roofs
...............................................................................................
.............................................................. 54
Precast Concrete Erection
...............................................................................................
............................................ 55
Residential
Construction............................................................................
.................................................................. 56
Wall Openings
...............................................................................................
............................................................... 57
Walking/Working Surfaces not otherwise Addressed
...............................................................................................
.. 57
Stairs and Ladders
...............................................................................................
........................................................ 58
General Requirements
...............................................................................................
............................................. 58
Rules for Ladders
........................................................................................ .......

..................................................... 59
Specific Types of Ladders
...............................................................................................
......................................... 60
Stepladders
...............................................................................................
.............................................................. 60
Portable Ladders
......................................................................................... ......
...................................................... 60
Fixed Ladders
...............................................................................................
........................................................... 62
Cages for Fixed Ladders
...............................................................................................
........................................... 63
Wells for Fixed Ladders
...............................................................................................
............................................ 63
Ladder Safety Devices and Related Support Systems for Fixed
Ladders ................................................................ 63
Requirements for Mounting Ladder Safety Devices for Fixed
Ladders................................................................... 64
Defective Ladders
...............................................................................................
.................................................... 64
Wooden Ladders
...............................................................................................
...................................................... 65
Aluminum Ladders
............................................................................. ..................
................................................... 65
Job-Built Ladders
...............................................................................................
...................................................... 65
Ladder Use

...............................................................................................
............................................................... 66
Inspection and Maintenance
...............................................................................................
................................... 67
Ladder Safety Checklist
...............................................................................................
............................................ 68
...............................................................................................
...................................................................................... 68
Criteria for Ladder Purchase and Care
...............................................................................................
..................... 68
Temporary Stairs
...............................................................................................
.......................................................... 69
Stair
Rails.......................................................................................
.......................................................................... 69
Handrails
...............................................................................................
.................................................................. 70
Table of Contents
4
Midrails
...............................................................................................
.................................................................... 70

Aerial Lifts – OSHA Fact Sheet
...............................................................................................
...................................... 71
Hazards Associated with Aerial Lifts
...............................................................................................
............................. 71
Training
...............................................................................................
..................................................................... 71
Retraining
...............................................................................................
................................................................. 71
What to Do Before Operating an Aerial Lift
...............................................................................................
................ 72
What to Do While Operating an Aerial Lift
............................................................................................. ..
.................... 73
Standards that Apply
...............................................................................................
................................................. 73
29 CFR 1926 - Subpart L
...............................................................................................
................................................ 74
What Is a Scaffold?
...............................................................................................
.................................................. 74
Guardrail Systems
...............................................................................................
.................................................... 78
Crossbracing can be used as a top-rail, mid-rail, or neither, but
never both ......................................................... 81
Canopies
...............................................................................................

.................................................................. 83
29 CFR PARTS 1926 – SUBPART M
...............................................................................................
................................ 85
FALL PROTECTION IN CONSTRUCTION
...............................................................................................
..................... 85
Introduction to OSHA
1
Discussion Points
protection standards.
rights & responsibilities under the OSH
Act.
-Employer Worksite Citation Policy.
and programs.
n Campaign – Plan, Provide,

Train.
Important Terms & Definitions
• Fall Management System
• General Duty Clause
• OSH Act
• Multi-Employer Worksite Citation Policy
• Creating Employer
• Exposing Employer
• Correcting Employer
• Controlling Employer
• Federal Standards
• Industry Consensus Standards
• Qualified Person
• Competent Person
Contractor Fall Management System
A Site-specific Fall Protection Plan may include
the following elements:

Employee Involvement
Standards
Accountability Plan
-site Analysis
-job Planning
-site Inspection Check-lists
s
Introduction to OSHA

2
Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
OSHA’s Purpose…
To assure safe and healthful working conditions for working
men and
women; by authorizing enforcement of the standards developed
under the Act; by assisting and encouraging the States in their
efforts
to assure safe and healthful working conditions; by providing
for
research, information, education, and training in the field of
occupational safety and health; and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, that this Act
may be
cited as the “Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970”
(OSH Act).
…
Fall Protection in
Construction
OSHA 3146-05R 2015
This informational booklet is intended to provide an overview

of frequently cited OSHA standards in the construction
industry. This publication does not alter or determine
compliance responsibilities, which are set forth in OSHA
standards and the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Employers and workers in the 27 states and territories that
operate their own OSHA-approved workplace safety and
health plans should check with their state safety and health
agency. Their state may be enforcing standards and other
procedures that, while “at least as effective as” Federal OSHA
standards, are not always identical to the federal requirements.
For more information on states with OSHA-approved state
plans, please visit: www.osha.gov/dcsp/osp.
Material contained in this publication is in the public domain
and may be reproduced, fully or partially, without permission.
Source credit is requested but not required.
This information will be made available to sensory-impaired
individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 693-1999;
teletypewriter (TTY) number: 1-877-889-5627.
Cover photo: Dona File
Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970
“To assure safe and healthful working conditions for
working men and women; by authorizing enforcement
of the standards developed under the Act; by assisting
and encouraging the States in their efforts to assure
safe and healthful working conditions; by providing for
research, information, education, and training in the field
of occupational safety and health...”
file:///C:Userskramer-
allisonAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary%20Inter
net%20FilesContent.OutlookNR11ROVHwww.osha.govdcsp

ospindex.html
Fall Protection in
Construction
U.S. Department of Labor
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSHA 3146-05R 2015
Contents
The Continuing Need for Fall Protection . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 1
Why Does OSHA Have a Standard for Fall Protection? . . . . . 1
What Subpart M – Fall Protection Covers . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 1
What is Subpart M? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 1
What are Employers’ Responsibilities
to provide Fall Protection? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 2
When must employers provide Fall Protection? . . . . . . . . . . . 2
What construction areas and activities
does Subpart M cover? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 2
What kinds of Fall Protection should employers use? . . . . . . 3

Examples of Fall Protection Requirements for Certain
Construction Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Leading Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 3
Overhand Bricklaying and Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4
Roofing Work on Low-Slope Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 4
Working on Steep Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 4
Residential Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 5
Other Walking or Working Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5
Conventional Fall Protection Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 6
Guardrail Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 6
Safety Net Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 8
Personal Fall Arrest Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
Personal Fall Arrest System Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Positioning Device Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 13
Fall Restraint Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Additional Fall Protection Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 14
Warning Line Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 14
Controlled Access Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
Safety Monitoring Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18
Other Hazards that Require Fall Protection . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . 19
Hoist Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 19
Holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 19
Ramps, Runways, and Other Walkways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20
Excavations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 20

Dangerous Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 20
Wall Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 20
Protection from Falling Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 21
Guardrails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 21
Overhand Bricklaying and Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21
Roofing Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 21
Toeboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 21
Canopies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 22
Fall Protection Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Presumption of Feasibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22
When Can I Use a Fall Protection Plan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22
Elements of a Fall Protection Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23

Fall Protection Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 24
Verification of Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 25
Fall Protection Requirements in
Other OSHA Construction Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 25
Subpart M – Fall Protection: Non-mandatory Appendices . . 26
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Workers’ Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
OSHA Assistance, Services and Programs . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 34
NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation Program . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 37
OSHA Regional Offices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
How to Contact OSHA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

FALL PROTECTION IN CONSTRUCTION
1
The Continuing Need for Fall Protection
Why Does OSHA Have a Standard for Fall
Protection?
Historically, falls are the leading cause of fatalities in
construction, accounting for about one-third of all fatalities
in the industry. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported that there were 291 fatal falls to a lower level in
construction in 2013, out of 828 total fatalities.
OSHA recognizes that incidents involving falls are generally
complex events, frequently involving a variety of factors.
Consequently, the standard for fall protection deals with both
the
human and equipment-related issues in protecting workers from
fall hazards. This publication is intended to help workers and
employers better understand the Fall Protection in Construction
standard’s requirements and the reasons behind them.
What Subpart M – Fall Protection Covers
What is Subpart M?
Subpart M lays out the requirements and criteria for fall
protection in construction workplaces. For example, it applies
when workers are working at heights of 6 feet or more above
a lower level. It also covers protection from falling objects,
falls from tripping over or falling through holes, and protection
when walking and working around dangerous equipment
without regard to height. Subpart M provisions do not apply,
however, to workers inspecting, investigating, or assessing

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