Western Growers tech to prevent agricultural worker injuries
Western Growers Insurance Services, Irvine, Calif., has fine-tuned its wearable technology, called the Connected Worker Program, to prevent agricultural employees from injury — including COVID-19 functions too.
Modern solutions are needed, especially because the injury rate for agricultural workers is higher than it is for employees in other industries, according to a news release.
The program measures certain motions and detects unsafe movements of employees during their shifts. The data is shared with the supervisor and used to identify risk trends, improve safety measures and coach workers on injury prevention techniques, according to the release.
“With several hundred thousand hours of worker data logged, this solution is proven to lower the risk of injury from field to facility, simultaneously increasing the earnings potential of employees and lowering workers’ compensation costs and insurance premiums for employers,” Jeff Gullickson, president, said in the release.
An app collects and tracks data from the wearable devices — ranging from body sensors to a smart phone worn on the belt.
The Connected Worker Program provides COVID-19 functionality for agricultural operations as well.
With data collection and GPS capabilities, employers can log temperature readings, record answers to health-screening questionnaires and monitor contact tracing.
To request a demo, visit https://pages.wgis.com/connected-worker/. Email Ken Cooper at kcooper@wgis.com for more information.
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