November 2013

You want your disaster plan, also known as a “business continuity” plan, to be complete, accurate, functional, up to date, and able to meet your recovery objectives. To ensure that you meet these goals, there’s no better way than a “live test.”

You can create buy-in among managers and staff by providing a test scenario that’s specific, realistic, detailed, and comprehensive.

Consider this real-world example: A television communication company in Miami was completing its disaster plan when it learned that a powerful hurricane was headed straight toward Southeastern Florida. Fortunately, because the business had several days’ warning, it was able to implement the plan rapidly and communicate it to employees. Although the company was prepared for the worst, the storm struck to the south and west, near Key West.

Although there was no significant damage in the Miami area, the exercise tested important components of the plan, such as the ability of the business to:

• protect equipment and strengthen the building in a timely and orderly manner
• activate and maintain an alternate transmission site
• test backup electrical generation and other equipment under adverse weather conditions
• communicate emergency technical instructions to affiliate stations throughout the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world
• sponsor a shelter for emergency storm personnel
• release and recall staff in an orderly basis

A post-disaster meeting led to a number of refinements in the plan. Most important, the exercise confirmed the ability of the company to maintain important business activities at a pre-established acceptable level, with minimal impact to its customers and revenue stream.

If you’d like advice on testing your company’s business continuity plan before disaster strikes, just give us a call.

As your business grows, the risks you face become more complex, potential losses grow, along with your insurance premiums. At some point, you’ll need to decide whether it makes sense to turn over the responsibility for risk management to a full-time professional.

Before making this decision, experts recommend that you weigh two key factors: 1) the cost of paying a full-time risk manager, and 2) the potential savings that this manager can generate.

The first element is relatively easy to determine, it’s the salary and overhead of the manager, plus whatever clerical support that he or she needs.

The second item requires you to analyze the extent which a full-time risk manager can:

• Centralize and compartmentalize responsibility for risk management in a single department. This improvement in efficiency should more than offset the increase in administrative costs.
• reduce losses by providing analysis of loss control needs, careful scrutiny of reports, and knowledge of whom to contact for specialized help. Careful attention to loss reserves and adjusting practices can help cut costs dramatically. For example, adjusting liability and workers compensation claims requires special expertise. Insurance companies generally provide adjusters, it’s always helpful to have someone on your team who can evaluate their conclusions.
• help lower your premiums by paying closer attention to coverage criteria, negotiating with agents, brokers, and insurance companies, and using familiarity with industry terminology.

If you’d like our input on making this key decision, feel free to get in touch with the risk management professionals at our agency at any time. We’re here to serve you.

That’s how much the federal government estimates that drug and alcohol abuse costs American businesses. Nearly three in four adult abusers are employed, some of them perhaps by you! You might know these people by their absenteeism rate: they’re off the job at 2.5 times the rate of the average employee. There is no federal drug-free workplace law for private employees, however some states have implemented their own statutes. There is the voluntary approach as well, you can reduce workers comp premiums for businesses that ban drugs on the job.

A drug-free workplace program should follow these guidelines:

1. Set a strict ban on abuse of alcohol and use of illegal drugs. Outline how you will reinforce the policy and the consequences for violating it.
2. Develop a testing program. Decide whom to test, when to test (e.g. pre-employment, random, regular, reasonable suspicion, or incident-related), who will do the testing (preferably a certified independent lab), and what will happen after a positive finding.
3. Decide what to with violators. Some businesses discipline or terminate drug abusers. Others, who see these workers as worth rehabilitating, set up employee assistance programs (EAPs) to deal with drug and alcohol issues off site.
4. Define the role of supervisors. Because line managers will probably be the first to notice the signs of abuse, educate them on what to look for, how to document what they witness and how to properly deal with the situation. However, they should not diagnose what are essentially medical issues, or counsel abusers.
5. Communicate with employees. Make sure they know the details of your program, the effects of abuse, and the importance of understanding the problem and dealing with it.

We’d be happy to advise you on creating and implementing a comprehensive workplace substance abuse plan.

Demographic changes in today’s workplace are impacting the way risk managers handle lost Productivity, the cost of wage replacement, and skyrocketing workers comp premiums that are created by the health problems their employees face. Chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, arthritis, back problems, respiratory disease, and diabetes are far more prevalent among workers aged 55 and above. These workers account for an ever-greater share of the labor force, than among younger employees.

Employers who promote healthy life style choices offer an effective way to reduce health related costs. Experts recommend taking these steps:

• Encourage workers to educate themselves about their health problems.
• Offer health risk appraisals to employees.
• Introduce disease management programs to promote healthy behavior.
• Make healthy food options available.
• Encourage exercise.
• Discourage unhealthy habits. For example, make the workplace tobacco free.
• If you have a fairly large workforce, provide on-site medical facilities.
• Use employee assistance programs (EAPs) to help with family and home issues that often emerge when managing long term chronic conditions.
• Create mobility throughout the day. Being sedentary or standing for long periods can create problems for employee with health conditions.
• Conduct periodic ergonomic assessments.
• Encourage breaks in concentration and focus by dividing tasks into shorter cognitive units.
• Establish a safety committee that recognizes and rewards valuable safety suggestions.
• Build in accountability for the workplace health and safety committee at the supervisory level.

Of course, these guidelines apply equally to all of your employees.

To learn more, feel free to give a call.