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Article based on presentation by Kevin Kilcoyne, Director of Staffing Insurance, Barrow Group/Hilb Group.   Kevin can be reached at 800-874-4798.

Heat exposure has quietly become one of the most urgent workplace safety challenges in the United States. As temperatures rise and extreme heat events become more frequent, the U.S. Department of Labor has intensified its focus on protecting workers from heat-related illness. OSHA’s updated Heat-Related Illness National Emphasis Program (NEP)—effective April 8, 2026—marks the most significant expansion of federal heat enforcement to date.

This article breaks down the data, the regulatory landscape, and the practical steps employers must take to stay compliant and protect their workforce.

The Growing Impact Of Occupational Heat Illness

Between 2021 and 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded an average of 3,793 heat-related DART cases per year and 48 fatalities annually. But OSHA and NIOSH agree these numbers significantly understate the true scale of the problem. Many heat-related illnesses are misclassified as dehydration, cardiac events, or “unknown medical emergencies.”

“Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 40+ occupational heat deaths per year, and experts believe the true number is 2–3x higher.” “Nearly half of all heat fatalities occur within the first 3 days in heat.” These early days are especially dangerous for new or returning workers who have not yet acclimatized—a theme OSHA emphasizes repeatedly.

OSHA’s 2026 NEP: What Changed?

The revised NEP strengthens enforcement and expands OSHA’s authority to intervene quickly when heat hazards are present. According to the presentation: “Effective April 8, 2026, OSHA updated its National Emphasis Program to strengthen worker heat protections.”

Key updates include:

• Expanded industry coverage — Warehousing, bakeries, metal manufacturing, auto parts production, and other high-heat sectors are now explicitly targeted.
• Mandatory acclimatization plans — Employers must implement structured 7–14 day ramp-up schedules for new and returning workers.
• Stricter enforcement guidelines — Higher penalties and more aggressive inspections for repeat or serious violations.
• Enhanced water, rest, and shade requirements — Clearer expectations for hydration access, cooling areas, and scheduled rest breaks.

OSHA’s goal is simple: reduce heat-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths through a combination of enforcement, outreach, and compliance assistance.

When OSHA Will Inspect

The NEP prioritizes on-site, in-person inspections for:

• Worker complaints involving heat hazards
  
• Employer-reported hospitalizations
  
• Fatalities or severe injuries related to heat
  

OSHA conducted roughly 2,400 heat-related inspections annually between 2022 and 2025, including about 50 fatality investigations each year. This trend will continue—and likely increase—as the new NEP expands.

Understanding Heat Risk: More Than Just Temperature

The National Weather Service heat index is a key indicator, but OSHA stresses that heat illness can occur below 80°F, especially when:

• Workers are unacclimatized
  
• Humidity is high
  
• Personal protective equipment restricts heat dissipation
  
• Workloads involve heavy exertion
  

“Heat illness risk comes from the combined effect of environmental conditions, work demands, and personal factors.”

OSHA and NIOSH recommend using tools such as the OSHA-NIOSH Heat Safety App and following exposure limits from ACGIH and NIOSH to determine when controls are needed.

The Stages Of Heat Illness: Why Early Action Matters

Heat illness progresses quickly—from cramps to exhaustion to life-threatening heat stroke. “Heat stroke is a medical emergency. Confusion, collapse, or very high body temperature.” Employers must ensure supervisors and workers can recognize symptoms and respond immediately!!

Why Temporary And New Workers Face The Highest Risk

Temporary workers, new hires, and returning employees are disproportionately affected. “The workers most at risk from heat illness are often those in their first days on the job — before employees have had time to adapt.” OSHA’s NEP explicitly calls out the need for acclimatization, training, and close supervision during the first week.

What OSHA Expects: The Heat Illness Prevention Program

During an inspection, OSHA will look for a fully implemented and documented program. The presentation lists required elements, including:

• Written heat illness prevention plan
  
• Water, rest, and shade access
  
• Acclimatization protocols
  
• Employee and supervisor training
  
• Emergency response procedures
  

Missing any of these can lead to General Duty Clause citations—and both host employers and staffing agencies can be cited.

Administrative Controls: The Heart Of Heat Prevention

Engineering controls help, but OSHA stresses that administrative controls are essential. These include:

• Continuous heat monitoring
  
• Adjusted work-rest schedules
  
• Hydration protocols
  
• Buddy systems
  
• Pre-shift safety briefings
  

These measures are especially critical during heat waves or when workers are not yet acclimatized.

Final Takeaways For Employers

The updated NEP makes one thing clear: heat safety is now a year-round compliance priority. To stay ahead:

• Know the NEP requirements
  
• Protect new workers first
  
• Train before Day One
  
• Recognize and respond to symptoms
  

In closing, “When a host employer and staffing agency work together on heat safety, worker outcomes improve dramatically.”

Article based on presentation by Kevin Kilcoyne, Director of Staffing Insurance, Barrow Group/Hilb Group

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In high-risk operations like warehouses and construction sites, workers’ compensation performance isn’t something you “feel out.” You manage it the same way you manage production: with numbers you trust. Tracking a tight set of workers’ compensation KPIs gives you a common scoreboard across sites, shifts, job types, and supervisors—so you can benchmark injury performance, spot outliers fast, and stop guessing. The whole point is simple: measure what’s happening, compare it to what “good” looks like, and intervene before the next claim writes your story for you.

Tracking KPIs in Workers’ Compensation

Start with frequency and severity—they tell you how often injuries happen and how bad they are when they do. An Incident Frequency Rate (IFR) tracks recordable injuries relative to hours worked, making comparisons fair even when one site runs double the overtime. Pair that with a Severity Rate (average claims as a function of cost), and you’ll quickly see whether your problem is “too many small incidents” or “a few incidents that blow up.” That distinction matters because the fixes are different: housekeeping/training/guarding issues tend to drive frequency, while serious events often trace back to exposure control failures, task design, or poor hazard recognition under time pressure. 

Next, track operational impact: Lost-Time Injuries (LTI) and DART (Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred). These metrics pull you out of “paper-safety” and into reality—what injuries are actually removing capacity and disrupting schedules. If your DART is climbing while IFR stays flat, that’s a red flag that injuries are becoming more disruptive (or your return-to-work process is weak). That’s where benchmarking becomes powerful: you can compare departments doing the same work and ask the only question that matters—what’s different here, and why?

Then connect safety to dollars without apology. Claim Costs (direct and indirect—medical, indemnity, admin fees) let you rank injury types by total financial impact, not just count. Add Experience Modification Rate (EMR) because it’s the insurance-world translation of your loss performance—and it directly influences premium and competitiveness. If leadership responds faster to a cost graph than a safety poster (spoiler: they do), these KPIs give you the language to win resources for prevention, training, engineered controls, and staffing levels that actually match the risk. 

Finally, don’t leave money on the table: measure Return-to-Work (RTW) Time / Indemnity Rate—how quickly injured employees get back to full duty and how much wage replacement is accumulating. RTW performance is where strong risk managers quietly crush costs: faster, safer RTW reduces indemnity spend, keeps experienced workers connected to the job, and lowers the chance a claim turns into a long-term disability case. When you benchmark IFR, severity, LTI/DART, claim costs, EMR, and RTW together, you get a clean, defensible story: what’s driving injuries, what it’s costing you, what’s improving, and what’s not. And that’s how KPI tracking turns into fewer injuries and lower workers’ compensation costs—because the numbers force the right conversations, with nowhere for wishful thinking to hide. 

Original source: MCO group
Original post date: Dec 3, 2025

Atlanta and surrounding metro counties concluded their December 2, 2025, runoff elections with incumbents mostly holding or reclaiming seats—Rusty Paul remained mayor of Sandy Springs—while notable upsets occurred in Roswell and South Fulton. Council and education board districts in Fulton also wrapped up closely watched contests. Other county-level runoffs await final certification.

Election Results

Georgia State House District 106 Special Election

• Muhammad Akbar Ali defeated Marqus A. Cole in the special runoff for District 106 with 947 votes (54%) to Cole’s 794 votes (46%).
  

Atlanta City Council

• District 7: Thomas Worthy defeated Thad Flowers for the District 7 council seat
• District 11: Wayne Martin defeated Nate Jester for the District 11 council seat

Atlanta School Board

• District 2: Tony Mitchell defeated Marlissa Crawford for the APS District 3 seat
• District 6: Patreece Hutcherson defeated Tolton Pace for the APS District 6 seat
• District 8: Kaycee Brock prevailed over Royce Mann for the APS At-Large District 8 seat

Mayoral Races

• Roswell: Mary Robichaux defeated incumbent Kurt Wilson to become the new mayor
• Sandy Springs: Incumbent Rusty Paul defeated challenger Dontaye Carter to remain the mayor of Sandy Springs for a 4th term
• South Fulton: City Council member Carmalitha L. Gumbs defeated former Council member Mark Baker
  

More Election Results

Be ready for whatever the future brings. Check out ASA's top staffing trends for 2025.

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Original post date and source: Oct 22, 2024 - Becker LLC 

After the FTC’s recent attempt to ban non-compete agreements was stopped by the courts, the Office of the General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board (the “NLRB”), Jennifer A. Abruzzo, issued Memorandum GC 25-01 affirming her intent not only to “urge the Board not only to find certain non-compete provisions unlawful,” but to also drastically limit “stay or pay” provisions, which require employees to repay certain employer pre-paid benefits in the event of resignation.

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Source: Originally posted on November 22 by MCO Georgia

01. Georgia Election Hand Count Confirms Trump’s Victory

A hand-count audit of Georgia’s presidential election reported minuscule discrepancies from the machine count, confirming President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. The results of the manual review showed 11 more votes for Trump and six fewer for Harris out of nearly 750,000 ballots reviewed by election officials across the state. 

02. Gov. Kemp Elected RGA Chair

Gov. Brian Kemp has been elected the Republican Governors Association (RGA) Chair, with Montana Governor Greg Gianforte as RGA Vice Chair for 2025. The election occurred at the end of RGA’s 2024 Annual Conference, and both governors will assume their positions immediately, serving for a one-year term.  

03. Georgia AG Announces Run for Governor

Georgia Republican attorney general Chris Carr announced he's running for governor in 2026, becoming the first major candidate from either party to announce a bid.  Prominent Republicans and Democrats are eyeing the seat, which will be open in two years after term-limited Republican Gov. Kemp leaves office. Other potential Republican contenders include Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. 

04. Georgia Promise Scholarship Approved for School Voucher Program

The Georgia Education Savings Authority approved the Georgia Promise Scholarship program, which offers $6,500 education savings accounts to students zoned for any public school in Georgia’s bottom 25% for academic achievement. The program will start accepting applications in January 2025. However, Georgia’s General Assembly must determine how many scholarships the state will pay for. The law creating the scholarship program mandates a cap of 1% of the $14.1 billion that Georgia spends on its K-12 school funding formula. As a result, $141 million can be spent on the scholarship program, providing at least 21,000 scholarships.   

05. House Democrats Choose New Leaders

House Democrats elected Rep. Carolyn Hugley of Columbus as minority leader for the next two years, defeating Rep. Derrick Jackson of Tyrone. Second-term Rep. Tanya Miller of Atlanta was elected caucus chair, Rep. Sam Park of Lawrenceville remains Whip, and Rep. Saira Draper of Atlanta was elected Deputy whip. Park Cannon of Atlanta remains caucus secretary and Solomon Adesanya of Marietta remains treasurer.   

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