Everest Reinsurance has partnered with industry veterans Glen and Todd Welch to form Salus Systems, a strategic alliance between the two firms that focuses on cutting sown workplace injuries.

The new entity, Salus Systems will further develop and market ZERO, the insurance industry’s first collaborative risk management platform. ZERO is named for its creators’ desire to help companies and workers drive insurance claims down to “zero” by improving communications amongst employees and empowering them to reduce and eliminate workplace safety issues.

ZERO includes:

  • A revolutionary, real-time mobile platform that engages and empowers all employees of participating companies to be active and contributing members of the company’s safety program
  • A new channel for workers to communicate instantly with their management to report potential safety issues and risk mitigation best practices
  • A peer to peer inter-company sharing platform for safety-minded company leaders to create a community with others to share information and improve overall safety practices.

The ZERO platform is currently in use at several partner companies. It will soon be available for use by businesses across the country at TeamZero.com. In this new partnership, Salus Systems will market the ZERO system directly to safety conscious companies and to Everest Insurance insureds across the Everest Specialty P&C portfolio.

North American Insurance Operations president Jonathan Zaffino said: “ZERO engages businesses with key features of the sharing economy by empowering individuals linked via a mobile device. A company using this system, working independently – or together with other like-minded companies – can impact the number of incidents and lower overall insurance costs.”

Bill Thygeson, chief administrative officer, whose responsibilities include oversight of Loss Control, said: “US employers spend more than $1bn each week on nonfatal workplace injuries. Eight of the top ten causes of these injuries can be mitigated using this technology.

“ZERO will help smaller companies attain the safety and protection status of the largest companies at a fraction of the cost. And larger companies can more effectively and efficiently establish, improve, and sustain a strong safety culture and improved workplace performance.”

Todd Welch and Glen Welch, co-founders of Charter Partners, created ZERO as a safety and risk management tool for business owners such as those in the Charter Partners community of privately owned businesses.

Todd Welch said: “Workers and owners share a mutual interest: keeping employees safe in the workplace.

“We created ZERO to bring transparency to risk management and safety. This technology platform can provide awareness, instant communication, and access to knowledge for workers and management.”

Glen Welch will serve as the joint venture CEO and President. "This is an exciting time with unprecedented change ahead for the insurance industry. Today's technology is creating new opportunities for safety collaboration and engagement and we believe there is no better place to apply this than to the safety of employees,” said Glen.

“Todd and I are delighted to be associated with the team at Everest who bring a strong reputation of integrity, quality and commitment to this partnership."