SECRETARY OF LABOR
WASHINGTON

OCT ~ 2 2006
MEMORANDUM FOR: THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE BRANCH DEPARTMENTS

AND AGENCIES

FROM: ELAINE L. cura Chaa

SUBJECT: Extension of the Safety, Health, and Return-to-Employment
(SHARE) Initiative with Revised Goals 3 & 4

Iam pleased that President Bush has announced the extension of the Safety, Health, and
Return-to-Employment (SHARE) Initiative for Federal Executive Branch agencies
through Fiscal Year 2009. Extending SHARE reaffirms the Administration’s
commitment to improving workplace safety and health conditions for Federal workers,
while also reducing the financial costs to America’s taxpayers. As you know SHARE
establishes four goals that focus attention on the critical areas of a safety, health, and
injury case management program:

¢ To reduce the total case rates for injuries and illness by at least 3% per year;

¢ To reduce the case rates for lost time injuries and illnesses by at least 3% per year;

¢ To increase the timely filing of injury and illness notices by at least 5% per year; and

¢ To reduce the rates of lost production days due to injuries and illnesses by at least
1% per year.

After struggling during the first year of the Initiative, several departments and agencies
have made great strides in reducing their injury and illness case and lost production
day rates, and many have substantially improved the timely reporting of incidents as
they do occur. At the close of FY 2005, the Initiative’s second year, the Federal
Government as a whole (less the U.S. Postal Service) had achieved a Total Case Rate of
3.96 injuries and illnesses per 100 employees (down 5.5% from the FY 2003 baseline of
4.19), and a Lost Time Case Rate of 1.88 (down 2.6% from FY 2003’s baseline of 1.93). It
also managed to increase timely claim submissions to 70.9% from FY 2003's baseline of
49.6%. The government's Lost Production Day Rate increased to 56.1 from the FY 2003
Base Year rate of 56.0.

Under the SHARE extension, the goals and the goal setting methodology will
essentially remain the same and continue use of FY 2003 agency performance data as
the baseline for future goal-setting purposes. However, all agencies are now required
to achieve at least a 50% timely filing rate under Goal 3. Agencies for which a 5% per



year improvement from their FY 2003 baseline results in a FY 2007 goal higher than
50%, will have their performance tracked against that formula-driven target, except that
no agency’s goal is required to exceed 95%. In FY 2008 and FY 2009, the minimum
thresholds will rise to 55% and 60%, respectively; for each year all agencies must meet
the minimum level or their formula-driven goal, whichever is higher, up to a maximum
of 95%.

Goal 4 targets also have been slightly modified. Agencies with FY 2003 baseline Lost
Production Days (LPDs) at or below 15 days are charged with maintaining an LPD rate
of 15 or less. All other agencies will have their progress measured against the formula-
driven targets of reducing LPDs by 1% per year, except that no such target is required
to be fewer than 15 days.

We believe that these modifications will recognize and reward consistent and superior
agency performance and, at the same time, will hold poor or low-end performers to
much more significant and progressively challenging performance levels, something
that SHARE’s original goal-setting construct did not ensure. With these revised goals,
we believe agencies will achieve even greater success in the remaining years of the
Initiative.

The President has directed all Executive Branch departments and agencies to continue
participating in the SHARE Initiative, and has encouraged you to work with the
Department of Labor, which will continue leading the Initiative, to identify strategies
for improving workplace safety and health. As did the President, I encourage you to
consider establishing targets more challenging than the minimum goals. If you should
accept this challenge, I ask that you notify Edwin G. Foulke, Jr., Assistant Secretary for
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), by December 1, 2006 of
your agency’s planned improvements for the three years of the Initiative in each of the
four measures.

The Department of Labor will continue to measure and report agencies’ progress in
these four areas of emphasis. We look forward to fulfilling our continued leadership
role in administering the SHARE Initiative by assisting you in building on your already
impressive achievements, and helping to facilitate the accomplishment of an even
healthier and more safety conscious Federal workforce.