ATHENS, Penn. — Agri-Services Agency (ASA) Vice President Jan Klodowski is the head of ASA’s Captives and Alternative Risk Development. Klodowski has worked with ASA for 19 years, and has had a wide ranging impact on the industry as the whole, serving on the board of the Agricultural Safety and Health Council of America (ASHCA) for ten years. Recently, Klodowski was awarded the ASHCA Agribusiness Leader Award for 2020, for “proactively addressing ongoing and emerging occupational safety and health issues affecting U.S. agriculture,” according to ASHCA. “I am humbled to be recognized, I really don’t know what to say,” stated Klodowski. “It’s a great honor to be recognized by my peers all over the country and in the industry. ASHCA draws from people in from agribusinesses, production farming, manufacturing, colleges and universities. We all have a common element, keeping farms workers safe; and working towards the best way possible to reach agricultural safety directors and their employees. The formal presentation of the award has been postponed along with the 2020 ASHCA Agricultural Safety Summit due to concerns over the outbreak of Covid-19.
Klodowski manages an Agricultural Captive, an alternative risk option to initiate protocols and programs specific to addressing life safety issues for members of the agricultural community and agribusinesses. These programs have an additional benefit of reducing overhead costs and workers compensation premiums. Klodowski says, “A little over 25 years ago, dairy farmers couldn’t get consistent insurance so, members of Dairylea approached Rick Smith, then CEO of Dairylea Cooperative for help. Through several discussions and reviewing options, a captive insurance company was formed, focusing on insuring the risks of agribusinesses. Soon after this, ASA initiated its’ workers compensation program.” In addition to workers’ compensation ASA has provided Healthcare for the agricultural industry for over 50 years. Klodowski goes on to say, “Worker safety has always been our number one priority. We work with a diverse group of people, with language barriers and differing cultures affecting the delivery of communicating safety practices. Our job is to work with ASA’s members and partner with them in reducing hazards that can harm them and help Safety Managers with risk management procedures needed to reduce or prevent injuries for their employees.”
Managing Ag businesses with 24/7 shifts, working with animals and machinery means that Klodowski and her staff have a lot of different strings to weave together for the members. “We have to make sure that we have the best vendors with the right culture and attitude to work with us and our Ag businesses, to make sure that we have the right care available for an injury” said Klodowski. She continues, “We want to stand by our farmers, and work with the multitude of issues they face, such as food safety, environmental impact, animal safety, and immigration regulations. Through all this, employee safety is our priority. We have ability and resources to support our farmers because we understand both their operations as well as workers’ comp regulations. This ensures that we are able to work with injured workers to make sure they get the right quality medical care.”
Another area that Klodowski has focused on more recently is language and culture barriers. “We’ve hired more bilingual staff, which has had a tremendous impact on educating employees on farm safety practices. It just makes sense, each farm is a little different and having bilingual safety training really make a difference. We have been asked to use our bilingual skills to interpret for farmer-owners who don’t speak Spanish and help answer their employees’ questions. It all is about preventing hazardous trends and injuries, so all workers go home safely. We will continue to innovate and be at the forefront of the industry to do the best for the interests and safety of our farmers. Because when you do the right thing, you just feel it, regardless of the cost.”
Klodowski is also proud of the fact that ASA has “boots on the ground” with their farmers. “When you’re in the insurance business, you are forced to look at several competing factors; but our focus has always been on our farmers, who are the salt of the earth,” said Klodowski. “When you’re out at the farm, seeing all the amazing work that’s being done, you say ‘my gosh these people are feeding the world.’ That makes my department and staff want to know what we can do to provide our members with peace of mind, that if something happens on the farm, we’ll be there to guide, support and help them through it. It’s the reason why my staff are required to be on the farm at least once or twice a year. Understanding what our farmers do provides us with the opportunity to learn from the ground up, and it’s really been wonderful. We’ve learned a lot from the farmers we work with, they are a truly an amazing group of people.”
— Agri-Services Agency