It’s crunch time at the North Pole; to help, Sholley Insurance Agency has analyzed Santa’s workers’ compensation risk and how he mitigates his elves’ injuries.
Santa’s elves are the hardest working toy-makers around. They must be in order to operate the most immense toy manufacturing facility in the world. From woodworking and painting to assembly of high-tech gadgets, labor in Santa’s workshop is intense and nonstop.
Operating power tools, climbing ladders, and performing the repetitive motions of gift wrapping and tying bows means even the most careful elf faces the risk of a workplace injury. Supplying gifts to all of the nice children across the globe is tough work…. but someone’s gotta do it! We’ll talk about the naughty children later.
We have a few tips for Santa to minimize his workers’ compensation exposure:
- Implement robust safety training, equipment maintenance, and inspection programs.
- Require personal protective gear such as gloves, safety glasses, steel toed elf shoes, and parkas.
- Consider a job-rotation scheme on the assembly line to limit repetitive-motion injuries.
Toy-making on the tundra entails its own set of challenges but making sure the elves – and Santa – work in safe conditions can successfully reduce the frequency of workers’ compensation claims.
However, there’s always room for improvement. Santa might need to stop allowing the elves to help Mrs. Claus bake cookies; and to avoid animal bites, only specially trained elves should be authorized to interact with Santa’s reindeer.
Because Santa rewards his many elves for their labor in an unconventional way, calculating the cost for workers’ compensation coverage is similarly nonstandard. His premium rings in at a merry $500,000 a year.
That’s a lot of curly-toed shoes!
Santa also instituted a positive reward system to incentivize the elves to avoid injury. Rumor has it, Santa holds a drawing every month for a free trip to Aruba in the off-season.
