Rancho Mesa’s Top Podcast Episodes and Articles of 2024

Author, Jadyn Brandt, Client Communications Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Rancho Mesa has always been committed to empowering employers with essential knowledge about insurance, surety, and workplace safety. We kept up this commitment in 2024, producing nearly 100 podcasts and articles covering topics central to the industry. As we look back on the past year, here is some of our most impactful content from 2024.

Top Podcast Episodes of 2024:

1. Ep. 393 Navigating 2024's Contractor Challenges with the Surety Association of San Diego

Andy Roberts, Rancho Mesa's Account Executive for the Surety Department and President of the Surety Association of San Diego (SASD), is joined by fellow SASD board members to delve into the major challenges confronting contractors in 2024 and strategies for optimizing your surety relationships.

2. Ep. 443 Exploring the Current Commercial Surety Climate

Andy Roberts, Rancho Mesa's Surety Account Executive, is joined by Miggs Borromeo, Commercial Surety Underwriter for Merchants Bonding, to discuss the current climate of the commercial surety world in Southern California.

3. Ep. 411 The Prime Contract and Its Impact on Your Rights and Responsibilities

Rancho Mesa’s Surety Relationship Executive Anne Wright talks with Pam Scholefield of Scholefield Law in San Diego, and discusses the factors subcontractors should consider before signing a prime contract.

4. Ep. 447 Exploring Innovation and Problem Solving in the Commercial Construction Industry

Kevin Howard, Partner with Rancho Mesa, interviews Jeremy Dentt of Dentt Properties Inc. and explores a range of topics relating to innovation and problem solving in the commercial construction world.

5. Ep. 403 Return to Work Programs: Best Practices for Handling Workers' Comp Claims

Rancho Mesa's Media Communications & Client Services Manager Alyssa Burley and Account Executive Casey Craig discuss return to work programs as a best practice for handling workers’ compensation claims.

Top Articles of 2024:

1. WCIRB 2024 Construction Dual Wage Threshold Increases Approved

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara approves an increase in hourly wage thresholds for all 16 construction dual-wage classifications. This article outlines the increases for each classification.

2. Employee Spotlight: Rancho Mesa’s Christina Haake Elected President of PWI

Senior Client Manager Christina Haake was elected President of the Professionals within Insurance (PWI) San Diego. Haake shares her thoughts on the organization and what she is looking forward to in her term as President.

3. Most Commonly Reclassified Lawn Care and Landscape Workers Compensation Governing Codes

In states that are under the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) rating bureau (in which there are currently 35), there are two major class codes used by landscape professionals. Each code applies to specific job duties and have different rates. This article explains when each class code should be utilized.

4. New California Employment Laws for 2025

New legislation was implemented across California at the start of 2025. This article highlights some of the most relevant legal changes for California business owners in the new year.

5. How Healthcare Staffing Agencies Can Prevent Claims

Healthcare staffing agencies play a vital role in maintaining patient care standards. This article provides steps healthcare staffing agencies can take to prevent claims and protect their operations.

Rancho Mesa’s entire library of insurance and safety podcast episodes and articles can be found on our website under “Insights.” To get the latest podcast episodes and articles, subscribe to our weekly newsletter

Rancho Mesa Hosts PWI San Diego’s Membership Kick-Off Social & Game Night

Author, Jadyn Brandt, Client Communications Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

On Thursday, January 23, 2025 over 50 insurance professionals and members of PWI San Diego gathered at Rancho Mesa’s Mission Valley office for the PWI 2025 Membership Kick-Off Social & Game Night.

Attendees were invited to enjoy food, drinks, and games, along with a chance to grow and strengthen relationships with other specialists in the insurance industry. The event featured speeches from Rancho Mesa’s Vice President of the Construction Group Sam Clayton, former PWI San Diego President Cheena Malicki and Business Office Technology Coordinator Sosha Thomas from Grossmont College’s OPT Program.

Through all the fun and excitement, Rancho Mesa and PWI San Diego still kept their focus on helping the community by hosting a charity drive to collect over a dozen rolling backpacks for OPT students.

“It was a great start to the new year for PWI,” said this year’s PWI President and Rancho Mesa Senior Client Manager Christina Haake. “I loved seeing everyone gathered together and having a great time.”

If you missed out on this event, there are still plenty more exciting networking opportunities coming up in the rest of the year.

“2025 is going to be a really fun year for PWI,” Haake said. “We have some really exciting events coming including Paint Night in March and our first Pickleball Tournament in June. I'd like to encourage people to come to an event and see what we are all about if they have not done so before. It's always a good time”

To become a PWI member, or for details on upcoming events, visit the PWI San Diego website.

About PWI San Diego
PWI provides people in the insurance industry (and those who support the insurance industry) opportunities for networking, business development, idea exchange, career enhancement, education and giving back to our community. They do so through general membership meetings and through special events like golfing, shopping events, happy hours, and more.

Rancho Mesa Hosts Preparing for a CalOSHA Visit Workshop

Author, Jadyn Brandt, Client Communications Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

On Friday, January 17, attendees gathered at Rancho Mesa’s Mission Valley office for the Preparing for a Cal/OSHA Visit workshop, presented by Carmen Cisneros of the California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) Consultation Services Branch.

Cisneros explained the differences between a Cal/OSHA consultation versus an inspection visit, broke down the basics of enforcement, and gave tips on how to follow proposed regulations.

Attendees were able to ask questions and better familiarize themselves with the Cal/OSHA reporting and inspection process.

For more information on keeping in compliance with OSHA regulations, register for Rancho Mesa’s upcoming OSHA Recordkeeping and Annual Reporting webinar.

Preparing, Posting and Submitting OSHA Log Data

Author, Jadyn Brandt, Client Communications Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Beginning February 1, 2025, U.S. employers are required to post last year’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Form 300A Summary at their worksites. This form serves as a record of the company’s annual work-related injuries and illnesses. OSHA requires covered companies who have employed more than ten (10) employees during the previous calendar year—in this case 2024—to keep a record of work-related injuries and illnesses, and post the summary for employees to see. The form will need to remain posted through April 30, 2025.

There are some partially exempt industries that may not be required to comply with recordkeeping and posting regulations. A list of those industries can be found on the OSHA website.

Preparing OSHA Logs

OSHA logs encompass three forms most employers are responsible for maintaining throughout the year.

The 300 log lists basic details, including employee’s name, job title, date of injury or illness, location and a brief description for any recorded incident. It also includes severity of the injury or illness; number of days the employee was kept away from work or transferred as a result of the injury or illness.

Form 300A is a summary of the data recorded in the 300 log. It does not include any individual data like the employee’s name, but it does show incident totals including the total number of cases with days away from work. This is the form that must be posted at each worksite in an area where employee notices are usually displayed.

Form 301 is used to collect additional information specific to each individual injury or illness. This includes information about the worker who was injured and details about how the injury or illness occurred, and must be kept confidential.

Employers should be documenting incidents and maintaining OSHA Forms 300, 300A and 301 throughout the year.

Rancho Mesa’s SafetyOne™ mobile app and RM365 HRAdvantage™ portal (HR portal) can be used for incident data collection, and the tracking and generating of the forms 300 and 300A, respectively.

Posting OSHA Form 300A Summary

OSHA requires the Form 300A Summary is posted at the worksite in a prominent area and it must not be covered by other material, altered or defaced in any way. Employers must also send a copy of the summary to any remote employees, or those who do not report to the worksite on a regular weekly basis. If a company has no recorded injuries or illnesses in 2024, the OSHA Form 300A Summary reflecting zeros in the data fields must still be completed and posted.

Once all incident information has been recorded for the year in the HR portal, employers can download and print the Form 300A Summary from the portal’s Safety/OSHA Logs screen for each year and worksite. Then, post the summaries at the appropriate worksites.

Submitting Forms 300A, 300 and 301 Data

In addition to posting the Form 300A Summary at the worksite, covered organizations with 20 to 249 employees are also required to submit their 300A data to Federal OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA) by March 2, 2025. The data can be manually entered into the ITA or a .CSV file with this data can be generated through the HR portal, which can then be uploaded into the ITA website.

OSHA also requires, “Establishments with 100 or more employees in designated high-hazard industries [to] electronically submit to OSHA detailed information about each recordable injury and illness entered on their previous calendar year’s OSHA Form 300 Log and Form 301 Incident Report.” This information is manually entered into the ITA.

Individual state OSHA requirements may differ slightly from Federal OSHA requirements. Be sure to check with your state’s OSHA division to ensure compliance.

Rancho Mesa’s OSHA Recordkeeping and Annual Reporting webinar explains how to generate the Form 300A Summary PDF and .CSV file in the HR portal.

Visit the OSHA Injury & Illness Recordkeeping webpage for more information.

Employee Spotlight: Kristi Kamenski Promoted to Assistant Client Manager

Author, Jadyn Brandt, Client Communications Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Rancho Mesa congratulates team member Kristi Kamenski on her promotion to Assistant Client Manager.

Kristi joined Rancho Mesa in 2023 as a Client Coordinator and has been a valuable member of the team, taking on additional responsibilities to train newer members of the Client Coordinator team.

Through her hard work, commitment, and willingness to support others, Kristi has proven herself ready for the next step in her career path.

Rancho Mesa applauds Kristi for her accomplishments, and looks forward to her continued growth within the company.

Keeping Compliance Simple by Updating Employee Counts in the RM365 HRAdvantage™ Portal

Author, Jadyn Brandt, Client Communications Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Businesses are constantly changing and evolving, and that means the staff is too; whether it’s hiring new employees, or transitioning employees into different roles. No matter how the staff of a company fluctuates, Rancho Mesa’s RM365 HRAdvantage Portal™ is an excellent resource to ensure compliance in any state.

Abiding by all federal and state laws is a necessity. But the laws employers are required to follow can change based on how many employees a company has throughout the year. A reliable way to maintain compliance that may fluctuate based on company size is by keeping the employee count up-to-date.

In the HR portal, employers can update their number of employees at any time to ensure compliance when using tools like the smart handbook builder, compliance dashboard, and other features. The smart employee handbook automatically updates depending on the number of people employed at the company in a specific state.

For example, in California there are a number of employment laws that apply to employers based on the company’s number of employees.  California employers with five or more employees must provide at least five days of bereavement leave. Another example would be employers with 25 or more employees must provide school involvement leave.

There are many laws that apply to employers based on employee count. The HR portal’s Compliance Dashboards help employers quickly see what laws apply at each employee count threshold. And, since each state may have different requirements, it’s a best practice to use the HR portal to ensure you are in compliance with your state’s laws.

If a business’s employee count is not updated to reflect the accurate number of workers, the handbook generated by the HR Portal could include information that is not applicable to the employer. Or, it may exclude information that is applicable. As a result, the employer could be out of compliance even though they believed they were adhering to what was in their handbook.

If you do need to update your employee count in the HR portal, follow these steps:

1. Log into the Rancho Mesa RM365 HRAdvantage™ Portal.

2. Hover over the icon shaped like a person on the far right of your screen. This allows you to access your company settings.

3. Under “Company Settings” select “Company.”

4. At the bottom of the “Primary Location Information” section, enter the “Number of employees at this location.” This doesn’t need to always be the exact number, but try to be as accurate as possible, especially when your employee count is close to a threshold that may trigger a law to apply.

5. Be sure to save your changes by clicking the “Save Settings” button on the right side of your screen.

Once you’ve updated your employee count in the HR portal, it’s a best practices to review the employee handbook for any policy changes that require approval. At the beginning of the year it’s also best to review the handbook and address any policies that have changed based on laws that go into effect January 1st. 

Note, there will be an orange number next to each section that requires your attention. Click on the policy alert to review the change and select “Accept Policy Change.” Once the changes to your policy have been accepted, your employee handbook will be updated and compliant. Please make sure to review each update carefully, in order to ensure you are adhering to the changes within your organization.

Now that your employee handbook has been updated, make sure to distribute it to all employees to ensure they have the latest version.

Remember, it is important to update employee counts regularly to ensure HR compliance at every stage. A number of other HR resources are available for businesses of all sizes through the RM365 HRAdvantage™ Portal.

Rancho Mesa Celebrates the 2024 Holidays

Author, Jadyn Brandt, Client Communications Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Rancho Mesa’s high rollers were in even higher spirits, on Saturday, December 7, 2024, as the team celebrated the holiday season with a night at the casino!

Our staff, alongside loved ones and friends, placed their bets at the Brigantine at Portside Pier, and enjoyed a night of festive food, drinks and raffle prizes.

Rancho Mesa wishes you a Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Enhanced Flexibility of SafetyOne™ Observations with New Wildcard Field

Author, Jadyn Brandt, Client Communications Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

New changes have recently been made to the Observation Module in the SafetyOne™ platform.

The Observations user interface has been redesigned in both the SafetyOne™ administrator website and the mobile app. Administrators can now create a custom text field, that Rancho Mesa has named the “Wildcard Field”, that will be added to an observation in the mobile app. This new feature is not a requirement for an observation, and can be set as “active” or “inactive”.

The Wildcard Field will increase flexibility for Rancho Mesa clients using the SafetyOne™ platform, and will provide clients a place to document specific information, unique to their company’s process, while they are performing their safety observations.

The new field differs from preexisting SafetyOne™ features because of its more general use. In the past, safety administrators were only able to make notes on the individual questions and general notes on the entire observation. There previously was not a place to indicate specific identifiers that might be useful when analyzing company data across multiple reports.

For example, when conducting a fall protection observation, users can take advantage of the Wildcard Field to highlight key elements of that particular observation. So far, clients are using it to track phases of work, a specific building on a campus, room numbers, or logging permit numbers.

To set up this new field, first go to the administrator website. On the Observations screen, the new “Settings” tab now includes the Observation Report format options, plus the new wildcard field settings. Using this tab, the administrator can tell SafetyOne™ what the label of the wildcard field should be in the SafetyOne™ mobile app.

If an administrator does not need the Wildcard Field, unchecking the “Active” box will hide it on the Observation screen in the mobile app. If a user does choose to use the wildcard field, it can be made required or optional.

For questions about the use of the new Wildcard Field in SafetyOne™, contact your Client Technology Coordinator.

Employee Spotlight: Rancho Mesa Welcomes Jadyn Brandt to Media Communications Team

Author, Megan Lockhart, Marketing & Media Communications Specialist, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Rancho Mesa is pleased to introduce a new member to our Media Communications department, Jadyn Brandt, as Client Communications Coordinator.

Jadyn graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in Journalism and Media Studies. Through her education and career experience, Jadyn has gained diverse knowledge in writing, media production, and communications, specifically as a producer for a news media group. She uses these well-developed skills to support the Media Communications team.

“I'm excited to be working with the team at Rancho Mesa, and I look forward to learning and growing in this industry,” Brandt said.

Jadyn is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and has lived in San Diego since 2018. In her free time, she enjoys biking, playing soccer, and going to the beach.

We are grateful to have Jadyn’s experience, insight, and positivity on our team, and we are excited for her future at Rancho Mesa.

New Tree Care-Specific Toolbox Talks Added to SafetyOne™ Platform

Author, Jadyn Brandt, Client Communications Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Rancho Mesa recently added 60 new tree care-specific toolbox talks to its SafetyOne™ platform.

The topics were added to support the agency’s growing tree care clients and help improve safety while on the jobsite.

“Part of how we provide the best level of service to our clients is by listening to their suggestions and needs,” said Brenda Khalil, Client Technology Coordinator with Rancho Mesa. “One way we do this is by providing additional resources through our SafetyOne™ Platform. We recently added tree-specific toolbox talks for our clients, and continue to build onto this extensive library of topics. Our goal is to consistently modify and update the resources we provide, to ensure each client is given the necessary tools to maintain a safe work environment.”

Rancho Mesa worked with both clients and subject matter experts to develop a comprehensive library of tree care toolbox talks that includes everything from aerial lift safety to proper use of wood chippers, and everything in between.

The 60 new toolbox talks are available in both English and Spanish, and are designed to offer a full year’s worth of safety meeting topics for tree care companies, plus a few additional options.

“We are excited to continue to support the tree care industry with these toolbox talks,” said Rory Anderson, Partner with Rancho Mesa and risk management expert for the tree care industry. “Safety is a top priority in the tree care industry, and having a strong safety program is essential to reducing risks. Our new tree care-specific toolbox talks are designed to help our clients build a culture of safety within their teams, addressing the unique hazards they face daily. By incorporating this content into their safety practice, clients can improve their risk profile, reduce accidents, and ultimately lower their insurance costs, making their business safer and more successful in the long run.”

The tree care-specific toolbox talks are accessible through the SafetyOne mobile app by supervisors, safety managers and foreman.

To enable access to these tree care-specific toolbox talks via the mobile app, Rancho Mesa recommends the SafetyOne administrator create a Tree Care toolbox talk group specifically for these toolbox talks. Assign these toolbox talks to the new group and set the group as the default. This will automatically enable the entire tree care library for all projects within the SafetyOne mobile app.

To find the tree care-specific toolbox talk topics in the SafetyOne™ administrator website, use the keyword “tree.” All topics in this library will display.

To access step-by-step instructions for assigning the tree care-specific toolbox talks to your team, visit our FAQ page, or contact your Client Technology Coordinator for more information.