Look for one team that prices your comp on the wages you paid this pay cycle, runs a written safety program your customers will accept, and handles every claim from the first report of injury through return to work. Your workers’ comp costs come down to three things: what you pay for the policy, how often people get hurt, and how long it takes an injured employee to get back to work. Sometimes, three different people handle those. The insurance company sells the policy and checks your payroll after the year ends. A safety consultant or a manager runs safety. And whoever’s in the front office deals with the paperwork. Nobody is in charge of the whole thing.
Questco handles all three with one team that knows your company. That same team also handles your HR, payroll, benefits, and compliance. If something goes wrong, you make one call.
Request a Proposal →Questco prices your comp on the wages you actually pay, each pay cycle, and collects it with payroll. Coverage comes through Questco's large group policy, which pools risk across its clients and can reduce rates for industries that would pay more on their own.
A standalone policy works from an estimate. The carrier sets the premium on the payroll you projected in January and trues it up in an audit after the year closes. Add a second shift in March, and the bill for it arrives the following spring as a lump sum. On a pay-as-you-go basis, the second shift is billed with the March payroll that paid it.
The comp premium still follows payroll, because workers' comp is rated on payroll. Questco's own fee does not. It is flat, per employee per month, so a raise for a machinist changes the paycheck and leaves Questco's fee where it was.
Pay-as-you-go workers' comp follows actual payroll. Questco's service fee is flat per employee per month.
It works on the claim from both sides: a written safety program lowers how often people get hurt, and claims handling shortens how long each claim stays open. Both feed the experience modification factor that sets next year's premium. Under the experience rating plan most states use, your actual losses over roughly three of the last four policy years are measured against the losses expected for your payroll in each job classification, and the result raises or lowers what you pay. A machine-guarding injury from two years ago is still in that number. So is every claim that stayed open because nobody followed up with the clinic.
Manufacturing gives that number more to work with. In 2024, manufacturing recorded 2.7 nonfatal injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers. Construction recorded 2.2.
Manufacturing nonfatal injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers, 2024
Construction nonfatal injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers, 2024
Questco provides safety manuals and handbook language written for the hazards in your plant, audits a program you already have, conducts on-site safety surveys and hazard assessments, and supports OSHA compliance, with training modules online and in person. At Master Machine, a parts manufacturer that came to Questco without a formal program, that meant forms, inspection information, materials for shop meetings, and a suggested safety topic for each month.
"Questco helped us formalize a safety program. We received all the forms we needed, the information for inspections, materials to use in our shop meetings, and they suggested monthly safety topics to cover in our meetings."
A plant answers to more auditors than its carrier. Manufacturing is not on OSHA's list of partially exempt industries, so a plant with more than 10 employees keeps the OSHA 300 log, the 301 incident reports, and the 300A summary. An establishment with 20 to 249 employees in manufacturing also submits its 300A to OSHA electronically every year. The deadline is March 2.
Your customers add their own layer. When a larger account asks for proof of a safety program in its bid documents, the monthly safety meeting needs a sign-in sheet, a topic, and a date on file. Questco's program produces those records as part of running it.
When an injury happens, Questco's team handles the claim from the first report through final resolution, coordinates with the carrier and the medical providers, and runs return-to-work coordination. An employee on modified duty is an open claim getting smaller. An employee at home is an open claim getting larger.
The difference is who answers for the connection between the policy, the program, and the claim. A carrier is accountable for the policy and many carriers offer loss-control visits to the accounts they insure. A consultant is accountable for the program in the contract, and a good one writes a better safety manual than most plants would write on their own.
A carrier, a consultant, and your front office can each do their part well and still leave a claim open for six months.
| Comparison | Insurer-only | Consultant-only | Questco program |
|---|---|---|---|
| How the premium is priced | On an estimate of annual payroll, trued up in an audit after year end | Same carrier policy and year-end audit | On actual wages each pay cycle, through Questco's group policy |
| Who runs the safety program | Your staff, with the loss-control help the carrier offers | The consultant, for the scope of the contract | Questco's risk management team, with on-site surveys and hazard assessments |
| Who handles the claim | Your office, with the carrier's adjuster | Your office, with the carrier's adjuster | Questco's team, from first report through final resolution |
| Who answers when something falls between them | Your office | Your office | Your dedicated service team |
| What you pay | The premium | The premium plus the consultant's fee | The premium plus Questco's flat per-employee, per-month fee |
A standalone setup is the right answer for some plants. If your mod is well under 1.0, your broker has placed you well, and someone in the office genuinely owns the OSHA log and the return-to-work calls, a PEO program adds coordination you already have. With fewer than five employees, a standalone policy through a broker is usually enough.
The PEO structure pays off when the three numbers are drifting apart: a premium that keeps climbing, a safety binder that exists because a customer asked for it once, and claims nobody works between the injury and the settlement.
The comp program sits inside one co-employment relationship. Questco is an IRS-Certified CPEO, which shifts specific federal employment tax liabilities to Questco under federal law. The same dedicated service team that handles your comp handles HR, payroll, benefits, and compliance, on one invoice. One team. One bill. One number to call.
Benefits run on the same pooling logic as the comp policy. Questco negotiates with carriers for more than 30,000 worksite employees as one large group, so even a 15-person plant gets plan options usually reserved for much larger employers. You keep every business decision, from who you hire to how the floor runs.
Questco fits manufacturers with roughly 10 to 500 employees, including multi-site manufacturers with plants in more than one state, and it helps support compliance requirements in all 50 states. If you already have a broker you trust for comp, Questco can often work alongside that relationship, depending on the setup. If you run a small shop with a low mod and someone who already owns the log and the claims, keep what you have and check back when you add a shift or a second site.
Request a proposal and get real numbers back: the comp premium on your actual payroll, Questco's flat per-employee fee, and the safety program scope, with no obligation to sign anything. To build it, Questco asks for an employee census, your current workers' comp policy and recent claims history, your medical renewal and a recent invoice, and a short company questionnaire. Your Business Development Manager sends the checklist.
Request a Proposal →A safety and workers' compensation program provider combines workers' comp coverage, a safety and loss control program, and claims management under one accountable team. A PEO like Questco is one form of it: the coverage runs through the PEO's group policy, and the same team runs the safety program and handles the claim.
Each pay cycle, the premium is calculated on the wages actually paid that period and collected alongside payroll. The premium moves with headcount and hours instead of sitting on an estimate set at the start of the year.
Yes, if the establishment had 20 to 249 employees at its peak during the prior calendar year. Manufacturing (NAICS 31 through 33) is on OSHA's designated list, so the establishment submits its Form 300A summary electronically by March 2 each year. The requirement applies per establishment, not per company.
Questco's team files the first report of injury, coordinates with the insurance carrier and medical providers, and handles the claim through final resolution, including return-to-work coordination.
Fewer and smaller claims lower the experience modification factor applied to your premium. The mod looks back over several policy years, so the effect builds over time. No provider can promise a specific reduction; the mechanism is the claims history.
Yes. Questco works with manufacturers that operate plants in more than one state, and it helps support compliance requirements in all 50 states, including registration when you open a plant outside your home state.