Builders University
Builders University (BU) exists to provide information and training to help you enhance your business, improve your bottom line, and develop a comprehensive, high-impact risk management strategy to keep your employees safe. Review our current class descriptions below.
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In partnership with our Risk Management Consultants, we offer these safety training courses.
Driving conditions such as weather, traffic, and road quality can create a minefield of road hazards. Erratic behavior of other drivers and personal distractions like cell phones only compound the problem. Mix in the unpredictability of pedestrians — even animals — on the road, and you can see how quickly accidents can happen unless you're a skilled defensive driver.
We invite all company drivers to assess and develop their defensive driving skills and awareness, with the help of the Builders Mutual Insurance Company Driver Safety course.
By attending this class, you will be able to:
- Discuss the advantages and benefits of defensive driving.
- Develop safe defensive driving habits and attitudes, which prevent injuries and fatalities.
- Identify roadway risks and hazards.
- Differentiate between Driver (drowsy, distracted, impaired) vs. Driving (too little or too much light, weather, road quality, traffic, other drivers, vehicles, pedestrians, even animals) conditions.
- Distinguish between aggressive driving and road rage, and use techniques to avoid confrontation.
- Increase your knowledge on how to safely hook up and drive with a trailer.
- Increase your company's bottom line by reducing costly collision-related vehicle repairs, insurance claims, and lost work time.
After you've taken the Builders Mutual Driver Safety course, you'll be on your way to a stress-free driving experience that can save your company money, time and more importantly, lives.
What's Builders Mutual's top contractor claim? Falls. Don't be another statistic!
Year after year, the #1 reported job-site accident remains the same – falls. So why don’t contractors pay more attention to fall hazards and the safety programs that can prevent injury or even death? Often, they do not realize they are at risk. Don’t be another statistic! During class, you will hear experiences of how falls affect contractors’ businesses, employees, and their employees’ families. You will learn to:
- Identify typical fall hazards on job-sites.
- Develop fall prevention solutions.
- Connect fall protection with productivity.
- Learn how to effectively use guardrails to protect workers.
- Review the use of harnesses and components of a fall protection system.
- Establish job-site safety procedures for ladder.
- Review scaffold use and inspection.
- Review OSHA standards related to fall risks.
Do you or your employees have the tools you need to work safely? The OSHA-10 Hour for Construction Industry course is designed to assist employees with recognition and avoidance of safety and health hazards on the job-site. This is an entry level look at identifying hazards on construction job-sites. Who should attend? Company owners, field employees and anyone who has a safety responsibility on the job-site would benefit from this class. Learn from actual claims that have occurred — one misstep or unsafe behavior can affect you and your company. Instructors will discuss real-life situations and offer corrective solutions. This is a two-day course delivered in a classroom.
By attending, you will be able to:
- Recognize and avoid job-site hazards and protect others from harm.
- Learn about what rights and responsibilities you have as an employee in regard to safety on the job-site.
- Anticipate what to expect from an OSHA inspection, including employer rights.
- Understand safety practices for fall protection, electrical, personal protective equipment (PPE), and more.
- Feel safer working on the job-site.
Federal OSHA authorizes Builders University faculty as outreach instructors. Upon completion, you will receive a course completion card from Federal OSHA.
The OSHA 30-hr course is designed for commercial and residential contractors, both company owners and their employees and anyone who has a safety responsibility on the job-site. Learn from actual claims that have occurred — one misstep or unsafe behavior can affect you and your company. Instructors will discuss real-life situations and offer corrective solutions. This is a four-day course delivered in a classroom. If you have already taken the 10-hr course, it's time to deepen your understanding of the construction safety hazards and solutions.
Be attending this four-day class, you will be able to:
- Discuss common causes of accidents and fatalities.
- Learn to identify and eliminate safety hazards.
- Understand construction hazards to make job-sites safer.
- Strengthen safety knowledge to effectively communicate safe practices to others.
- Learn where to find additional safety resources.
Federal OSHA authorizes Builders University faculty as outreach instructors. Upon completion, you will receive a course completion card from Federal OSHA.
If you are looking for assistance with safety training our consultants are ready to deliver on a wide variety of topics. Topics include hazard identification, safe work practices, safety compliance, safe tool or equipment operations, safety inspections, accident investigation, risk reduction strategies and technical topics. Each can be customized by the Risk Management Consultant to meet the policyholder’s specific needs. Courses are instructor led and can be delivered in person or virtually. Classes often range from 30-120 minutes in length.
WorkSafe supports business owners with safety training for new workers. By attending this class, you will be able to:
- Understand the role of a safety program plays in the company.
- Learn the basics of safety before workers step foot on the job-site.
- Train your workers to recognize and avoid job-site hazard and protect others from harm.
- Increase accountability with checklists and acknowledgement forms.
Take advantage of all Builders Mutual has to offer.
From business owners and office staff to project managers and superintendents, Builders Mutual will educate you on how to get the job done right.
For many construction businesses, there is no way around hiring subcontractors. It can begin a mutually beneficial professional relationship, but it doesn’t come without risks. Subcontractor exposure generates the greatest amount of additional premium at audit. Our team of experts is here to help ensure you’re doing everything in your power to avoid pitfalls that can cost you at audit time.
By attending this class, you’ll learn to:
- Distinguish between a subcontractor and an independent contractor.
- Understand how uninsured subcontractor exposure is calculated.
- Minimize the uninsured subcontractor exposure and decrease total premium due.
- Determine if a subcontractor’s Certificate of Insurance is applicable.
- Identify the types of subcontractors that will always be treated as uninsured for general liability, even if they have general liability insurance.
After completing this class, you’ll feel confident hiring the right subcontractors that will minimize your audit premium at the end of your policy.
Assigning construction operations to the correct classifications is very complex. One mistake can lead to big problems down the line. By being aware of the most commonly misused construction classifications, you can prevent mistakes and ensure you avoid any unfavorable audit variance.
In this class, you’ll learn how to classify the following construction operations:
- Finish cleaning a job-site
- Construction debris pick-up
- Job-site security
- Clerical office work
- Employees that work from home
- Drives
- Salespeople
- Indirect supervisors
- Interior trim, residential, and commercial carpentry
- Workers’ comp project classification
By completing this class, you’ll have a full-working knowledge of these classifications and avoid mistakes that prove costly in both time and money during an audit.
For residential, commercial, and trade contractors, a Builders Mutual Workers’ Compensation insurance policy protects a company’s most valuable asset — its employees. Accidents happen, and when they do, you want an insurance company focused on getting injured workers the medical care and rehabilitation they need to get back on the job-site. Having the policy is step one. But what do you do when an accident happens? Knowing the basics of how to approach a job-site injury can be crucial to ensuring you make the best of a bad situation.
By attending this class, we’ll provide insight that includes:
- The proper procedures to take immediately following an injury on the job-site
- Helpful policies to put into practice that can mitigate risks
- Basic knowledge of the Workers’ Compensation claims process
- How to get your injured worker back to work as soon as possible
With the knowledge provided in this class, you’ll know exactly what steps to take following an injury on the job-site and eliminate any surprises from the claim process.
You can count on Builders Mutual to look out for you. We provide educational materials and safety training to limit incidents, but we know that accidents can happen. When they do, our Claims department is ready to respond with unparalleled service, speed, and individual attention. We make the claims process as smooth as possible by assigning a single point of contact who handles the claim from beginning to end. But how does that process work?
By attending this class, you’ll get an in-depth dive into the overall processes and procedures of the Builders Mutual claims department that includes:
- The core values of our claims department
- The 5 major steps of the claims process
- What you can expect when you interact with our claims team
- Tips you should know to make the claims process simple
After taking this class, you’ll feel at ease knowing our claims team is a group of tenured experts that offer caring, knowledgeable, and dependable support to see you through.
Claims happen every day and at Builders Mutual, we’ve seen them all. To help business owners know which safety areas they should be focused on, we’ve identified our top four claim types in terms of frequency (how often the claim happens) and severity (how expensive the claim is). With the Builders Mutual Focus Four, we make it easy for you to focus efforts to prevent unnecessary injuries and fatalities — and protect your bottom line.
By attending this class, you’ll learn how your business can focus on these four key areas of safety:
- Year after year, falls are the top reported job-site accident. With proper training and protection, they can be prevented.
- Strains and sprains account for about 1/3 of injuries in construction. Learn how completing a proper Job Hazard Analysis to identify hazardous tasks can make a difference.
- Struck-by hazards are the 2nd highest cause of fatalities among construction workers. You’ll learn how proper PPE, anchoring objects at heights, using well maintained tools, and more can help prevent these accidents.
- Millions of workers drive or ride in a vehicle as part of their jobs, and motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of work-related deaths in the U.S. Having a comprehensive Driver Safety program is a crucial prevention strategy.
After attending this class, you’ll have all the knowledge needed to limit these accidents and keep your workers healthy at the end of each day on the job-site.
Risk is a factor for every business, and construction brings a unique set of risks to the table. Builders Mutual is here to help you learn to manage it responsibly. By doing so, you not only help to ensure your workers are going home safely at the end of each day, but you’ll also improve your company’s bottom line.
By attending this class, you’ll learn strategies for managing construction risk that include:
- Common Exposures
- Control Measures
- Return on Investment
- Prevention Efforts
Participants in this class will explore the risks that impact any size construction business and leave feeling confident that they’re prepared to manage their unique risks.
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