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Message from the Chair and Acting President & CEO
October 2021
Now, more than ever before, we’re here to help. As we begin recovering from the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important for us to maintain our focus and ensure stability.
We are pleased to share our updated 2019 – 2023 Strategic Plan with you. By extending the current plan, we can ensure that Ontarians continue to receive the services they rely on us for, and that we continue to deliver those services in a financially responsible way.
As always, our focus is on the people we serve. Whether they are working in a hospital, grocery store, on a farm, or at home, when a work-related injury or illness happens, we’re here to help. Over five million people depend on us to ensure that coverage continues for the over 300,000 workplaces across Ontario – and benefits are paid to the people that need them.
Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve adapted our supports to meet the needs of our customers. We offered a financial relief package to help businesses during the uncertainty and we made sure that not a single day of pay for someone who was injured or ill was missed.
We remain committed to a future where going to work is as healthy and safe as possible for all Ontarians.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Witmer,
Chair
Tom Bell,
President and CEO (A)
Here to help
We’re here to help. When an injury or illness happens on the job, we move quickly to provide wage-loss benefits, medical coverage, and help getting back to work. We cover over five million people in more than 300,000 workplaces across Ontario. We also raise awareness of, and promote, health and safety in the workplace with a goal of helping to keep Ontarians safe while they work.
Mandate
Our mandate as an independent trust agency is to promote workplace health and safety, to facilitate return to work, recovery, and re-entry into the labour market for people who have a work-related injury or illness, or their spouses, and to provide compensation and other benefits in a financially responsible and accountable way.
Vision
Our vision is to help make Ontario the safest and healthiest place to work in North America.
Values
- Be compassionate
- Work with integrity
- Always be helpful
- Earn people’s trust
Public value
We deliver public value to Ontarians by reducing the disruption and devastation caused by work-related injuries and illnesses, while making Ontario a safer place to work.
Achieving our vision
Since the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) was founded, our efforts have been centred on reducing the disruption and devastation caused by work-related injuries and illnesses while supporting businesses to prevent those injuries and illnesses in the first place. As jobs and places of work change and evolve, the WSIB remains here to help.
We continue to focus on completing our existing priorities. We want to make it easier to work with us – this means providing services that are quick, convenient, and accessible. Our motivation is to help make Ontario workplaces as safe and healthy as possible, and help get the best possible outcomes for people who are injured or ill as a result of their work.
This strategic plan maintains our momentum to creating lasting change on the journey to achieving our vision.
Contributing to a healthy Ontario
We are a proud public organization. This strategic plan builds on over 100 years of helping those impacted by a work-related injury or illness. Public value is measured by how well we contribute to the overall economic and social well-being of Ontario. As an agency of the government, accountable to all Ontarians, we have an obligation and responsibility to show and measure the value we deliver as we progress toward our vision.
How we deliver public value
We deliver public value to Ontarians by reducing the disruption and devastation caused by work-related injuries and illnesses, while helping to make Ontario a safer place to work. We must deliver our services in a way that meets the needs and expectations of the people we serve and work with.
- We are continuously asking:
- Are we helping to make Ontario a safer place to work?
- Are we improving return-to-work and recovery outcomes for people with work-related injuries or illnesses?
- Are we meeting our customers’ needs and expectations?
- Are we sustaining our organization through efficient and effective management?
To answer these questions we will continue to publicly report on our progress with measures that show how we deliver public value.
How we're measuring public value from 2019 to 2023
We are committed to monitoring our progress. We will use these metrics to do so and will add to, or refine them, to ensure they continue to measure whether we are delivering value.
Delivering public value 2019 to 2023
Here’s how we will continue reduce the disruption and devastation caused by work-related injuries and illnesses and make Ontario a safer place to work.
Ontario should be one of the safest and healthiest places to work.
Businesses want to protect their employees and prevent work-related injuries and illness from happening. Prevention doesn’t have to be costly, but doing nothing can be. All injuries or illnesses have a cost and negatively impact people, businesses, and the broader community. That’s why we offer voluntary programs and services that help businesses build healthy and safe work environments to meet their responsibilities and return-to-work obligations.
To help make Ontario a safer place to work we will:
- strengthen integration, accountability and effectiveness of the occupational health and safety system
- promote and encourage healthy workplaces through our health and safety program
- raise awareness of rights, obligations and best practices to empower proactive health and safety planning
| Measure | Baseline1 | By 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Health and Safety Index | -4.2% | Increase  |
| Lost-time injury rate | 1.14 (including COVID claims) | Decrease  |
| 0.93 (excluding COVID claims) |
1 Baseline is the 2020 result for all metrics, unless otherwise specified.
People deserve access to leading health-care and rehabilitation services, and safe and lasting return to work.
A work-related injury or illness can be devastating. In addition to physical recovery, a person may face anxiety and worry about future employment. For an employer, it sidelines or removes a productive employee and disrupts their business.
The research is clear – returning to work as soon as it is safely possible is essential to financial and psychological well-being. It’s also important that return to work is healthy and sustainable to ensure long-term well-being. The goal is not just to get people back to work – ultimately, it’s to help people get back to their lives.
To improve return-to-work and recovery outcomes we will:
- provide customized return-to-work services to people that need the most support
- improve access and quality of care for people with work-related illnesses or injuries
- improve sustainable employment outcomes
| Measure | Baseline | By 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration of full and partial loss-of-earnings benefits | 3 months | 16.0% | Decrease |
| 6 months | 10.4% | ||
| 12 months | 6.5% | ||
| 24 months | 4.2% | ||
| 48 months | 2.8% | ||
| 72 months | 2.0% | ||
| Return to work at 100% pre-injury or illness earnings within 12 months | 87.9% | Increase |
|
Our customers should get the services they need and expect as quickly as possible and with the least amount of effort.
We are making it easier for people and businesses to work with us. This means providing our services in a convenient way and making fair and transparent entitlement decisions, helping to reduce the stress on those impacted after a work-related incident has occurred.
We are continuing to improve our existing services and listening to how our customers want to work together with us, so we continue to deliver what they need.
To meet our customers’ needs and expectations we will:
- build an accessible, personalized customer service experience
- provide quality services in a convenient and timely manner
- ensure that decisions are fair, transparent and evidence-based
| Measure | Baseline | By 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Overall satisfaction for: | ||
| People returning to work | 68% | Maintain  |
| Businesses supporting their employees returning to work | 81% | Maintain |
| Businesses with account-related inquiries | 84% | Increase |
| Health and safety programs | 77% | Increase |
| Time to first decision | 95% | Maintain |
| Time to first payment | 71% | Increase |
We must ensure the organization has the people, tools and technology to continue delivering value and financial strength.
Our goal is always to support those who need us. Doing that successfully includes ensuring that we have the people, tools and technology that we need to meet our business objectives and deliver our services efficiently and effectively.
Investing in the right tools and technology to provide better, more efficient service is essential. This includes using data and analytical tools to make good, evidence-based decisions and improve our services. It also means strengthening our existing IT foundation to allow us to work as efficiently as possible.
Our people are our backbone – we must provide them with an engaging, supportive work environment. We are committed to ensuring an equitable, diverse and inclusive environment for the people we work with as well as those we serve. It is also important that our people are equipped with the necessary skills and competencies to continue to meet the needs and expectations of our customers. Supporting our people in these ways will drive the achievement of our business objectives and ultimately improve customer satisfaction.
We have a responsibility to Ontarians and that responsibility includes ensuring the sustainability of our financial health, especially through uncertain times. Financial health is important to ensure that our resources are directed at what matters most – supporting the people who depend on us.
To ensure the organization is managed efficiently and effectively we will:
- ensure sustainability of our financial health
- improve the use of data and analytics
- develop a stronger IT foundation that enables our organization
- improve employee engagement and foster equity, diversity and inclusion
- develop employee skills and competencies in line with our target future-state operating model
| Measure | Baseline | By 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Sufficiency Ratio | 117.3%2 | Maintain |
| Employee engagement | 79% | Maintain |
| Inclusive culture | 70% | Increase |
Note: The metrics and the methods we use to measure our public value may evolve over the course of this strategic plan. Refinements may also be made to reflect new data or changes in data availability.
2 Baseline is a target state rather than the actual result. The Sufficiency Ratio at year-end 2017 was 95.8 percent. This metric is also subject to government regulation.
How we’re measuring public value: glossary
This glossary defines the metrics identified.
Helping to make Ontario a safer place to work
Health and Safety Index
Single number measuring the overall change in the health and safety of Ontario workplaces each year.
Lost-time injury rate
The year-to-date number of allowed lost-time injury and illness claims for every 100 Full-Time Equivalents (FTE) for the year specified. The calculation uses derived FTE, which is based on a business’s insurable earnings and average hourly wages defined by the WSIB (Schedule 1).
Improve return-to-work and recovery outcomes
Duration of full and partial loss-of-earnings benefits
The year-to-date percentage of people with work-related injuries or illnesses who continue to receive full or partial loss-of-earnings benefits on the specified anniversary (Schedule 1).
Return to work at 100 per cent pre-injury or illness earnings within 12 months
The percentage of people with lost-time claims who have returned to work with no wage loss within 12 months of their injury date (Schedule 1).
Meet our customers’ needs and expectations
Overall satisfaction
- People returning to work
- Businesses supporting their employee returning to work
- Businesses with account-related inquiries
- Health and safety program
Percentage of respondents who said they were somewhat or very satisfied with their experience with the area of WSIB service specified.
Time to first decision
The percentage of eligibility decisions made within ten business days of the claim registration date.
Time to first payment
The percentage of claims for which the time between the initial lost-time decision and the initial payment processing is less than or equal to five business days.
Sustaining our organization through efficient and effective management
Sufficiency Ratio
This measure tracks our progress toward sustainable funding. The Sufficiency Ratio is calculated by considering our assets, divided by liabilities calculated on a going concern basis (this is an actuarial valuation that uses long-term assumptions).
Employee engagement
A composite measure based on questions from our annual employee experience survey.
Inclusive culture
The average score from the diversity and inclusion questions in our annual employee experience survey.