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Monthly Archives

May 2014

RISK MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES TO ‘GOING GREEN’

By Risk Management Bulletin

Recent record-breaking droughts, windstorms, blizzards, and floods reinforce the reality that climate change is transforming the environment. As an environmentally conscious corporate citizen, your company has a responsibility to curb the adverse effects of global warming by conserving your use of natural resources and energy, while minimizing pollution. What’s more, “going green” will reduce your risk of lawsuits for alleged damage to the environment – and can boost your bottom line by saving time and money.

Risk management experts recommend these eco-friendly business processes:

  • Minimize paperwork and digitize files. To reduce the expense and inefficiency of handling paper, have employees scan and route incoming mail; recycle, discard, or retain original documents; send as much correspondence as possible by e-mail; and require double-sided printing.
  • Boost recycling. Despite automation, every company is paper intensive. To reduce costs, facilitate and encourage recycling paper wherever possible. You can also put a dishwasher in the company lunchroom to encourage the use of reusable, washable coffee mugs, rather than styrofoam cups.
  • Promote telecommuting. Fewer workers idling in traffic to and from the job reduces fossil fuel pollutants going into the atmosphere. To help the environment – and eliminate the loss of time and money in commuting – encourage employees to work from home, wherever practical.
  • Reduce power consumption. Shut down computer towers, printers, CRTs, copiers, and other electronic devices at night.
  • Manage used or scrapped IT equipment. Because these devices contain a number of hazardous materials, make sure to recycle or discard them in an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way.

Set up a “go green” committee for management to track the cost savings from these policies and encourage employees to provide examples of how they or coworkers are helping save the environment.

For more information, just give us a call.

MANAGING RISK FOR ‘BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE’ COMPANIES

By Risk Management Bulletin

These days, cyberattacks against businesses are a daily occurrence. This crime poses a significant threat to firms that have a “bring your own device” (BYOD) policy, allowing employees to use their personal mobile devices – such as tablets, smartphones, and laptops – for company business.

This eliminates the cost of providing these devices to employees who are away from the office, raises productivity by streamlining the flow of information, and allows real-time employee response to client needs. On the other hand, a BYOD policy creates serious information security risks.

Companies have significantly less control over employees’ devices than over in-office technology – which makes it easier to hack them. More and more workers are storing data from their devices in ‘the cloud” (one study found that among the 89% of young employees who use personal cloud storage, 70% are storing work-related files, while 33% store customer data there). What’s more, according to the FCC, roughly one in three robberies involve mobile phones, and criminals often target laptops and tablets.

The result: it can be easy for hackers and thieves to target corporate data and confidential client information on your employees’ devices, leaving you open to expensive litigation and negative publicity.

To reduce this exposure, risk management experts recommend that your IT department educate employees on the vulnerabilities of their devices and provide the resources to protect them by: 1) adding auto-locks on all devices that can disable them if stolen; 2) making sure device are stored in a safe place at all times; and 3) recommending passwords that combine letters, numbers and symbols.

We strongly encourage you to purchase cyber liability insurance as a safety net that can help you prevent hacking and minimize its financial and reputational costs to your company.

To learn more, feel free to get in touch with our risk management specialists at any time.

WILL YOUR FIRE EXTINGUISHER BE READY?

By Risk Management Bulletin

Although fire extinguishers are great for putting out small fires – or preventing them from turning into big ones – make sure that yours are ready should the time come. Consider these tips from OSHA:

Be certain the extinguishers are the type required by your fire exposure. The extinguisher to use depends on the type of fire:

  • Class A fires involve materials such as wood, paper, or cloth which produce glowing embers or char
  • Class B fires involve flammable gases, liquids, and greases, including gasoline and most hydrocarbon liquids, which must be vaporized for combustion to occur
  • Class C fires involve fires in live electrical equipment or in materials near electrically powered equipment
  • Class D fires involve combustible metals, such as magnesium, zirconium, potassium, and sodium.

Put extinguishers in proper and easily identifiable locations. Locate them along normal paths of entry and exit and make sure that they’re clearly visible. Where you can’t avoid visual obstruction completely, provide directional arrows to indicate the location of extinguishers and signs marked with the extinguisher classification. If devices intended for different classes of fire are located together, mark them conspicuously to ensure that employees choose the proper extinguisher in case of fire.

Keep portable extinguishers fully charged and operable. They should be kept in their designated locations at all times when not being used. When extinguishers are removed for maintenance or testing, provide a fully charged and operable replacement unit.

These tools are valuable only if they’re available and functioning when needed. For more recommendations on keeping your workplace as safe as possible, talk with our risk management professionals. We’re here to help!

REHAB RESTORES WORKERS’ EARNINGS AND ABILITIES

By Workplace Safety

Nearly all state workers compensation laws provide for rehabilitation programs that help injured workers return to productive employment. However, the terms of these laws vary significantly.

Some states require occupational therapy and re-training. After completing rehab, workers are considered ready for work, although the employer is not required to find another job for them and they won’t necessarily return to productive employment.

In other “defined-benefit” states, rehabilitation is a minor part of the law. The worker is paid for temporary total disability. However, if this disability is defined as a percentage of physical loss, the employer can make a lump-sum payment and close the case, whether or not the worker can return to work.

A third group of states has adopted a “loss of earning power” system that seems to be effective in getting workers back on the job. Once workers are injured, their workers compensation benefits will continue for life unless they’ve fully regained their earning power. For example, Pennsylvania requires that at the time of injury an employer must offer the injured employee a job if one is available within his or her physical restrictions. If this isn’t possible, a rehabilitation program begins, which includes finding positions that the worker is physically able to perform.

Your goal should be to return your injured workers to productive lives as soon as possible after an injury. You’ll benefit from better production, the state and federal government gain from lower long-term costs generated by workers compensation injuries — and your employees will enjoy the dignity of working, along with their earnings.

What’s not to like?

GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 101: CLEAN, ORDERLY – AND SAFE

By Workplace Safety

A clean, neat, and orderly workplace contributes to the health and safety of employees, improves their morale – and can grow your business!

To help the cause, make sure that employees follow these housekeeping guidelines:

  • Keep floors spotless. Clean up spills promptly to prevent slipping accidents and sweep up or vacuum dust or metal fragments that could cause respiratory problems, if inhaled.
  • Eliminate clutter. A pile of oily rags left outside a properly closed container can easily ignite a blaze. Get rid of cartons, discarded parts machinery, or general debris that could block exit routes and doors. To prevent slips and trips, dispose of these items promptly in the appropriate waste containers.
  • Make sure workstations are kept neat. They should be cleared of everything not involved in the immediate project to keep a heavy tool or object from dropping off a workbench onto a worker’s foot.
  • Keep storage areas and cabinets clean and orderly. If workers “tidy up” their stations by sweeping a jumble of tools, materials, and unfinished products into bins, the result might look neat – but it’s neither orderly, nor safe. Separate substances subject to dangerous interactions, and arrange materials so they won’t fall off shelves, creating a tripping or injury hazard.
  • Put items in their proper places out as soon as they’re no longer in use. Supervisors need to make this behavior automatic in all employees by instruction, setting an example, and enforcement.

Clean and pleasant surroundings help maintain morale among workers, while impressing visitors and customers. What’s more, if the condition of your workplace creates an image of pride and efficiency, it can help garner more business, which helps both you and your employees.

For more information, feel free to get in touch with us.

SAFETY TRAINING: REINFORCEMENT PAYS

By Workplace Safety

If workers don’t use what they’ve learned in safety training sessions, they’ve wasted their time – and their employer’s money. In many cases, the reason is a lack of reinforcement when they get back on the job.

The first step in avoiding this problem is to meet with participants beforehand to agree on mutual expectations and objectives for the session. Depending on the type of training, this discussion can take place up to four weeks before the program begins. Don’t wait until the day before the meeting.

After the session, simply asking trainees how they liked the program is not enough – even though that’s where reinforcement often stops. Instead, meet with workers individually and as a group for follow-up to help determine whether the training met everyone’s expectations, the work environment is supportive of the concept(s) taught, and the participants know how to implement what they learned on the job.

To reinforce the effectiveness of training, job safety experts recommend these guidelines:

  1. Be sure that the trainer(s) have a solid understanding of the participants’ jobs and make the content relevant and practical.
  2. Link the training to your company’s goals and objectives so that workers understand the importance and the relevance of the information.
  3. Minimize interference from the job during the session so that trainees can give their full attention to the content.
  4. Allow for reflection and application throughout the training, giving participants a chance to think about how to use this knowledge and skills back on the job.
  5. Provide opportunities for practice and feedback to reinforce the training.

We’re always ready to advise you on implementing an effective follow-up program on your job safety programs.

SMALL BUSINESSES: ONE IN TEN WORKERS LOADED OR STONED

By Workplace Safety

More than 10% of small businesses had employees show up for work last year while under the influence of at least one controlled substance, according to a recent nationwide study. The survey of more than 500 businesses with 100 or fewer employees, commissioned by workers compensation insurer Employers Holdings Inc. (Reno, NV), found that alcohol, marijuana, and prescription painkillers were the most common substances abused.

“Business owners today are rightfully concerned about the use of illegal or judgment-impairing substances in their workplaces,” says Employers Holding Chief Operating Officer Stephen Festa. “It’s a disturbing trend that we’ve seen developing during the past several years with the rise in prescription opioids and the increasing legalization of marijuana.”

According to Festa, employees under the influence of these substances on the job pose a potential danger not only to themselves, but also to their fellow workers. More than three-quarters of small business owners surveyed agreed that it’s dangerous for their employees to be under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, prescription painkillers, and such illicit narcotics as heroin and cocaine while at work. More than half of respondents said that over-the-counter pain medications could also pose a danger to employees.

“To those of us in workers compensation insurance, prescription opioid abuse is of particular concern,” says Festa. The Centers for Disease Control has reported that more people die from prescription painkillers than from heroin or cocaine. Opioid addiction has been linked to decreased worker productivity, as well as making workplaces less safe, prolonging disability claims, and increasing the risk of death from overdoses.

As workers compensation specialists, we’d be happy to work with you in developing and implementing programs to help keep your workers clean and sober on the job. Just give us a call.