Chamber Chatter Episode 17-Mike Cicak (Sheakley-Workers Comp and Benefits)

On the latest episode of Chamber Chatter we talk Workers Comp and benefits with Mike Cicak from Sheakley!

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This podcast was recorded in the IHeard Radio Lima Podcasting Center. And welcome
to Chamber Chatter, the Lima AllenCounty Chamber of Commerce podcasts and we have
a special guest with us today thatwe are going to be speaking with in
regards to workers comp and everything youshould know about your benefits. And today

(00:24):
we're going to feature Mike Chiceck.He is with Shaky. Hi. Mike,
how you doing excellent? Hin Nicole? Hi, So, we're glad
that you're here with us today.And you know, I would like to
first say happy anniversary to you personallyand to Shaky as a corporation because we've

(00:45):
been partners with you for over thirtyyears. But Shakely is how old this
year this summer is sixty years?Family owned for sixty years. Yeah,
congratulations, And you know, it'snice to have such a great partnership with
a family owned business because you know, that's how most small businesses start,
and Shakely supports small businesses and we'regoing to talk a little bit more about

(01:07):
that today. Mike. So,I have a question that most business owners
may not realize, and that isthat workers' compensation is actually required of all
business owners in the State of Ohio. Is that correct? Correct? And
the reason why that is because it'sactually the law. A lot of business
owners may not realize that, andthat's one of the reasons why we partnered

(01:34):
with Shakeley over thirty years ago,is because we wanted to be able to
offer cost savings for our small businessesand to make sure that they were operating
their businesses and functioning appropriate to thelaws in the state of Ohio. So
what is unique about the state ofOhio and workers compensation, Well, what
makes it so different Nicole is it'sa monopolistic state. It's one of the

(01:56):
few states where if you're a smallbusiness owner, you have to get your
workers comp insurance from the State ofOhio. So the state is the Ohio
Insurance Company, it's the Ohio BureauWorkers Comp and you have to go through
them to get covered. There aresome exceptions to that if you're large enough
to self ensure. There's some otherways some small businesses can look at the
self insured option. But that's whatmakes Ohio so different. It can be

(02:19):
a little bit more complex to navigate, and that's why that's what Shakley helps
small businesses do, is just thathelps navigate through the BWC system correct.
Correct. So for over sixty years, sixty years of Summer, we have
been a third party administrator to helpthose businesses manage claims if there's an injury
and represent the employer to be theiradvocate to make sure that if there's a

(02:43):
bogus workers comp claim or someone's questioningit, that that employer has representation.
Well, the game changed in theearly nineties when the state of Ohio passed
the law that said employers could pulltogether through soas like the line of Chamber,
so that those businesses can now bein a group rating program and that

(03:06):
is an option to help them cuttheir cost tremendously. Now the max discount
is a fifty three percent discount,So no matter what you're paying on a
worker's comp if you don't have manyclaims, you hopefully can get into that
group with Shakly in the Line ofChamber to cut your cost by fifty three
percent. That's huge. That's ahuge savings for four businesses because since our

(03:27):
partnership, we've been able to youknow, Shakely has been able to save
over five million dollars to our areabusinesses through this program. It's a great
feeling. It's a really good feeling, isn't it. You know that the
other businesses in Ohio that get toput that money towards their employees to whatever
else is going to benefit their businessand their team, and not to be

(03:49):
going towards a worker's comp premium.And it's important, but no one knows
to spend money on that if theydon't have to. That's absolutely true.
Now in order to get into thisparticul picular program with Shaicely, it's no
cost for a business. If I'ma business owner to get in contact with
you and ask how much could youknow how much would this cost me if

(04:10):
I was to change my workers compor hire other services from you? Would
have that business do that? Sure, it's a conversation, a phone call
and email just inquiring about it,and we encourage you to shop this out
and you can see what the optionsare to either pay the state directly or
if you are part of a group. Now there's close to ninety thousand companies

(04:31):
in the state that are in agroup. They'll shop it out, look
at the line of chamber group,look at Shafely, look at options to
see what other groups could potentially saveyou. But on top of that,
there's other discount programs that may ormay not make sense that you can stack
with that group rating program or groupretro program to lower costs. You might
have to jump through some hoops,you might have to implement some safety programs

(04:54):
or potentially a drug free program,but there may be incentive to do that.
And and the Bureau Workers Camp recognizesthat substance abuse is a problem.
I think we all know that we'vebeen impacted by it in some way,
right, whether that's family, friends, just news stories. Yeah. Absolutely,
So the Bureau Workers Comp has afour million dollar grant called the Substance

(05:17):
Use Recovery Grant or SIR Grant,where they will help pay for your substance
abuse program, whether that's updating yourdrug free policy, doing training, potentially
drug testing. So there's money outthere, Nicole to have those costs covered,
and we can help employers navigate thatas well. Well. That's really

(05:38):
wonderful because you know, just somethingas simple as reevaluate your policy, you
know that it is definitely something tohave a professional look at on a regular
basis, especially if you can getit done for free to update those and
you know, just to emphasize whatyou said to put some other safety measures

(05:59):
in place as well. You know, we're in our community and also in
the state of Ohio, there's alot of construction going on. We have
a lot of growth going on,and Shakely is able to provide a lot
of the requirements, such as safetyrequirements that these companies need. How would
they go about learning a little bitmore information about what Shakeley has to offer.

(06:23):
Thank you. You can always checkout our website. It's Shakley dot
comshe Akli dot com. You canalways contact me. But depending on what
your work looks like, what thescope is, what you have to do.
Yes, there's a plethora of differentsafety services that might help you.
Like we have multiple construction companies callingus where certain jobs require project safety inspections.

(06:46):
And again a small business, maybeyou're doing from ironwork, it's like
you might have a full time safetyprofessional and staff. Maybe not, but
some of these larger general contractors theywant certain on site inspections going on regularly,
so we can be the boots onthe ground, the eyes that years
to come out and do inspections tomake sure you're an compliant with whatever that

(07:08):
construction project requires. And training aswell, like what training needs to be
done on that job site. Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up
with the training because you know,Shakley does offer a plethora of safety trainings
as well as the drug free,alcohol free workplace trainings as well that you
just mentioned. And with that beingsaid, that also helps save money on

(07:30):
the worker's comp arena as well.Yes, yeah, the best the best
way to prevent a worker's comp claimfrom getting out of hand an expensive,
expensive is to make sure it doesn'thappen. So it's amazing how many skilled
safety professionals are out there that cansee things from a new light when they

(07:50):
step back and just see improvements thatcan be tweaked and made. Like just
just in the last week, wehad some working under our house. Every
person that was working on our drivewayhad a really bright yellow shirt. And
that sounds so simple, doesn't it. But we know this employer because they're
a client, and so I justcouldn't believe how safe they were being.
Like watching them do this, it'slike such a little thing is there's like

(08:11):
an excavator moving around and it's likewow, something so simple like that.
It's always good to have a professionalset of eyes give some input to make
sure that employer is doing everything theycan do so that they're safe as possible.
Well. Absolutely, we all knowthat an accident can happen at any
time in the blink of an eye, and we can try to do whatever
we can to avoid it. Butif we don't know certain things to avoid,

(08:35):
then it's bound to happen. Youknow. It's kind of like not
getting your brakes checked on your vehicle. Eventually something is going to happen.
Yep, well said, So thenext question that I have for you,
Mike, and you know, wereally appreciate you being here and giving us
this is information. But there's alot of changes being that's being done and
requirements in regards to the Department ofTransportation in the state of Ohio as well.

(09:01):
Did you kind of talk about thata little bit. Yeah. Every
week we speak with clients and peoplethat maybe don't know Shackly, that are
maybe in construction, manufacturing service,even retail businesses that have trucks, and
most of them think, I'm nota trucking company. I'm not a long
haul or short haul trucking company.I don't have to do anything because I'm

(09:24):
not hauling anything. Well, thestate doesn't care if you are a commercial
driver or you have commercial drivers andyour business owner and your team is driving
a vehicle that's ten thousand and onepounds and enough. That's one of the
first magic numbers. You are requiredto do certain things depending on where your
folks go and how far they gothat most of them don't think they have

(09:46):
to do that trucking companies have todo, so they don't care. They
don't discriminate whether you're a trucking companyor construction or manufacturing. So we're here
to help those businesses understand what theyhave to do. We are a safe
place to have those business conversations versusyou know, going to DOT and saying,
hey, you know, we're abcconstruction company. What do we have
to do? You don't want tomaybe be called out, So we can

(10:09):
have those safe conversations with us tofigure out, you know, maybe you're
right on point, you're doing everythingcorrect, or maybe you're not having you
know, maybe you don't have driverqualification files, or maybe you're not having
certain tax forms that you have tofile every year that you should be.
And then the second magic number,Nicole is twenty six thousand and one pounds
enough. Those are larger vehicles CDLdrivers. That again, like if the

(10:33):
company has excavators or other large machineryand they're moving that they're required to do
drug testing. There's a something calledthe Clearinghouse Mandate that went into effect a
little over three years ago where youhave to follow specific drug testing rules and
random drug testing rules that Shakeley ishelping them stand compliance with. So it

(10:56):
just feels great helping those businesses knowthat they're not alone and that we can
be a resource so that they cando it right and stay out of harm's
way. Well, that is amazingto know, and we really appreciate you
letting us and the small business communityknow. Whether that's small or large businesses.
You know, these are things likeyou said, that they one may

(11:20):
not even know that they have todo. And two it's it's a safe
conversation that they can have with you, whether their client with you currently or
not, so that they know thatthey are in compliance with the state because
they don't want to get fined thoseyou know if they if they are,
they could be hefty and it isour job and responsibility to help our small

(11:41):
businesses grow and save them money byyou know, helping them with workers compensation
premiums and keeping everybody safe as well. So thank you so much Mike for
being with us today. Congratulations toyourself and your work anniversary, and to
shake Lely for their anniversary as well. Hey, thank you so much,
Nicole. We appreciate the line ofChamber. We think so highly of everyone

(12:03):
there and thanks for the chance todo this and hopefully help businesses. Thank
you, and if you would liketo get in touch with Mike, you
can give the chamber a call atfour one nine two two six zero four
to five or find them at theworkers compa tab on Lina chamber dot com.
Thank you. This podcast was recordedin the iHeartRadio Podcasting Center. Thanks

(12:26):
for listening.