Workplace safety agency taps local tech talent for innovation
Provincial agency searches for better ways to help those hurt on the job
KITCHENER — A provincial agency that sees thousands of compensation claims from injured workers every year is tapping Waterloo Region’s tech sector for better ways to help those hurt on the job.
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board will open an innovation lab in the Communitech Hub on Friday. The lab will focus on improving the way the board processes claims from injured workers for compensation, and oversees their rehabilitation and return to work.
“We are committed to change,” said Rohan Nandakumar, the lab’s director.
The agency, which is 103 years old, joins about 15 other public and private organizations with research labs inside the Tannery building on Charles Street.
“I think if you look at the temperament of the people we serve, everyone is asking us to change and improve,” said Nandakumar.
Directly and indirectly, the board touches the lives of millions of Ontario workers and their families. The board says it provides coverage for workplace accidents for some 5.3 million workers at 330,000
employers. The board processed about 213,000 claims from injured workers last year. It paid $2.25 billion in claims in 2107.
Nandakumar brings a strong tech background to the innovation lab.
After graduating from Conestoga College’s electronic systems engineering program, he worked at BlackBerry until 2014. Then he worked for Apple in California, where he was heavily involved in the screen design for the iPhone 6. He came back to Waterloo Region to lead the safety and insurance board’s innovation lab.
“This was such a unique opportunity. I thought if I passed this up I would regret it,” he said.
At the board, “the idea is we can help you in your darkest time. You are injured, you are scared, you are going through what is probably the most stressful event of your life. We are enabled to help you,” said Nandakumar.
“I think right now our processes and procedures get in the way of that,” he said. “I like the core idea. I just think we can do it in different ways.”
Nandakumar wants to develop technology to prevent on-the-job injuries in the first place, better monitor the progress of treatment, and help injured workers get back to work.
Most of all, he wants new technology to increase the empathy for injured workers, and improve the experience of going through the system.
“I am looking at the complete experience. Right now, we engage with our customer when they are injured. That process can take too long.” The board knows it has to change. “We know we need to become more innovative to become a more modern organization and to catch up and keep up with the pace of change,” Samantha Liscio, the board’s chief technology officer, said in an email. “The WSIB Innovation Lab will help us do this.”
The lab will help the board figure out what the future looks like, she said.
“And what we need to do to achieve better outcomes for people and improve our services,” she added.
Because the workplace safety and insurance system can be intimidating, the Ontario government established the Office of the Worker Adviser to help injured workers navigate the bureaucracy. The Office of the Worker Adviser helps about 10,000 injured workers every year with their claims for compensations, and appeals when those claims are denied.
“So we would welcome the use of technology to improve service to injured workers and employers,” Alex Farquhar, director for the Office of the Worker Adviser, said in an email.
“My understanding is that the Innovation Lab is meant to explore a whole range of digital services to WSIB’s clients, to develop a vision for WSIB’s future,” he said. “We at OWA are working actively with WSIB on improving services and are excited about this latest development.”