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Digital Edition2025 Theo Award Winner: Overhead Door Corporation
When Andrew Shay joined Overhead Door Corporation in 2017 as risk manager, the leading manufacturer of commercial and residential door systems faced a complex safety management challenge.
With more than 5,000 employees across 15 manufacturing facilities, 78 regional service centers, and construction operations handling 5,000 door installations annually, the company’s safety initiatives lacked central coordination.
“I see the challenges and the growth with the organization over the last nine years in two steps,” said Shay, who recently left the company. “The first being when I first arrived, there was just a complete lack of knowledge of our own information across the organization, and it was very segmented across different divisions and different departments.”
Critical safety data resided in spreadsheets and paper files at individual locations. Employee information sat in HR systems while claims data was retained by the legal department. This fragmentation meant incident reporting could take anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours to complete. Workers faced lengthy paperwork processes before receiving treatment, creating delays that translated to poor data quality and underreporting of incidents.
The scattered approach left leadership without visibility into enterprise-wide safety operations. More concerning, it resulted in communication breakdowns with injured employees and hundreds of lost workdays annually. Overhead Door needed a comprehensive solution to standardize and streamline its safety processes while improving worker care.
Tackling the Problem
Overhead Door embraced an integrated risk management approach that brought together previously siloed functions. The company recognized that effective safety management required close collaboration between risk management, human resources, safety, and operations teams.
“We had safety data that rested in HR. We had employee data that was also in HR, we had general liability and product liability that sat in legal, we had employment claims that sat in legal,” Shay said. “It was a big step for us to try to bring that all together and really see what that information and the trends across all divisions, across all departments was really telling us.”
The company implemented a comprehensive risk management information system that could capture, analyze and present data across all functions. Overhead Door engaged safety team members in designing dashboards for audit and incident reporting, ensuring buy-in from the start. The new system automated manual processes, eliminating the need to rekey information or upload employee demographic data separately.
The transformation reduced incident reporting time from up to two hours to just 10 minutes. This increased efficiency proved crucial in gaining acceptance from operations workers who were initially resistant to change.
Andrew Shay, former risk manager, Overhead Door Corporation
“Ultimately, operations all embraced the RMIS for reporting, given that the entire process was reduced from what could be two hours to only 10 minutes,” Shay said.
To drive accountability, Overhead Door developed a cost allocation system that assigns workers’ compensation premium costs to specific locations based on payroll, injury frequency, and severity. Better-performing locations receive lower premium allocations, creating financial incentives for improved safety performance.
The company’s commitment to worker care extended beyond system improvements. Overhead Door created a worker injury advocate position to serve as the primary contact for all injured employees. This role handles both occupational and non-occupational injuries, ensuring consistent communication and support regardless of the injury type.
“One of the values was that our team members are our greatest strength,” Shay said. “So I thought, if I consider that value, what do I need to do within risk management that really proves that our team members are our greatest strength?”
The advocate coordinates with third-party administrators and adjusters to facilitate care while helping arrange return-to-work programs. In one case involving a hospitalized worker, the advocate arranged hotel accommodations for the employee’s spouse near the hospital, demonstrating the company’s holistic approach to employee support.
Overhead Door also enhanced transparency by making incident reports readily accessible to senior leadership. Following incidents, executives actively engage with the risk team to ensure comprehensive corrective actions prevent recurrence.
Success to Build On
Overhead Door’s integrated approach has delivered substantial improvements across multiple safety metrics. The company achieved a 65% reduction in recordable incident rates and a 50% decrease in lost-time incidents. Retained claims costs dropped by 30%, allowing more resources to be reinvested in capital projects and safety improvements.
Organization: Overhead Door Corporation * Location: Lewisville, Texas * Number of Employees: 5,000 * Category: Manufacturing & Heavy Industry
The enhanced reporting capabilities have dramatically improved incident investigation quality. Previously, incidents typically resulted in one or two corrective actions. Now, each incident, near miss or hazard report generates five to six corrective actions, reflecting more thorough analysis and prevention efforts.
“In our collaboration with Overhead Door Corporation, it’s been clear that safety is ingrained in every aspect of their culture, from leadership’s steadfast commitment to keeping workers safe, to the risk and safety team’s development and implementation of an integrated risk management approach,” said Mike Kaplan, chief client officer at Origami Risk.
“Overhead Door has advanced an impressive culture of empowering workers through dedicated injury advocacy and effective communication. We’re delighted to congratulate everyone at Overhead Door on this outstanding recognition.”
Leadership engagement has increased significantly, with executives conducting an average of 300 audits monthly using the new system. Each audit includes 40 questions and provides real-time insights into safety performance. Safety dashboards featuring key performance indicators are now shared in weekly CEO meetings, giving leadership faster visibility into enterprise-wide safety trends.
The company has expanded its proactive safety measures by installing two-way cameras on all 700 vehicles. This technology enables immediate identification of unsafe practices like distracted driving and provides instant notification of impacts exceeding specified thresholds. Leadership teams also conduct regular GEMBA walks to gather direct feedback from workers about safety concerns and improvement opportunities.
Overhead Door continues leveraging data analytics to identify improvement opportunities. The company now examines retained claims costs as a percentage of revenue by location, helping identify facilities that need additional safety resources. This granular analysis extends to product lines, states, and employee populations, enabling targeted interventions.
Looking ahead, Overhead Door plans to expand its use of technology for risk assessment, particularly in quantifying contractual risks across its diverse operations. The company’s growth through six mergers and acquisitions over the past five years has created new opportunities to apply its proven safety management approach across expanding operations.
The transformation reflects Overhead Door’s fundamental belief in putting workers first. As Shay said, this approach benefits everyone involved: “What’s best for the injured worker in almost every situation is what’s best for the organization as well.” &
The Theo Award celebrates its sophomore year, honoring 32 workers’ compensation programs for their excellence and service to workers across the nation. To learn more about the award and amazing qualities each winner possesses, visit here.
