Each November, Risk & Insurance recognizes employers throughout the U.S. who achieve excellence in workers’ compensation with the Theodore Roosevelt Workers’ Compensation and Disability Management Award (Teddy Award).

Since 1994, 82 employers have received Teddy Awards. Past winners include Target Stores, Villanova University, Marriott, Frito Lay, IBM, Los Angeles Unified School District, Pepsi Cola, Aramark, the City of Philadelphia and American Airlines.

According to Michelle Kerr, Associate Editor of Risk & Insurance, the award program continues to thrive. “There is too little public recognition of the great things that employers are accomplishing with their workers’ compensation programs. There are so many companies taking creative and proactive measures to keep their people safe, and to help them heal and get their lives back to normal when injuries do occur. The Teddy Awards give us the opportunity to honor their passion and commitment.”

Selecting the Award Winners

A panel of industry experts, primarily composed of prior year’s winners, evaluates the nominee’s injury prevention, disability management and workers’ compensation programs. Judges look for creativity solving tough workers’ compensation challenges and evaluate performance data in these areas:

• Injury frequency
• Lost-time days
• Total claims costs
• Medical costs
• Indemnity costs
• Experience mod

And as an added benefit, the Teddy Awards also provides the benefit of sharing best practices. “There is a halo effect [as] other companies in the region or in the industry sector [look more closely] at how to achieve similar results and accolades. In essence, when we highlight an individual company’s success, we have the opportunity to elevate the broader workers’ compensation platform,” Caryl Russo, Senior Vice President at RWJBarnabas Health Corporate Care and a Teddy Award winner stated in Risk & Insurance.

We congratulate all of the Teddy Award winners!

Learn about the 2017 Teddy Award winners