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According to risk management experts, workplace violence is a growing problem in the U.S, accounting for more than 5,400 victims a day and up to 2% of all non-fatal lost-time injuries on the job. The multibillion dollar annual cost to employers includes not only the financial impact of injury and death to workers or customers, but reduced profits from lost productivity – not to mention the unwanted publicity that violent acts create.

What’s more, a business might be held liable for damage from workplace violence if an assault occurs in the scope of employment and the employer might have been reasonably expected to have foreseen the threat.

“Although there were pre-incident indicators in nearly every case of workplace violence,” says Rick Shaw, CEO of Awareity Inc. (Lincoln, NE), “a failure to recognize and deal with these indicators made it impossible to prevent them.” Your business needs to develop an “early warning system” for employees to report potential signs of violence (anonymously) to managers so they can investigate them, share assessments, and forestall possible threats.

For example, according to Jeffrey Natterman, risk manager and associate senior counsel at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, a 2010 shooting incident at the facility involved the distraught son of a woman whose surgery resulted in complications. Although there had been signs pointing to the risks of violence, staff who saw these indicators failed to share their concerns. After the shooting, the hospital instituted a number of policies and security measures to make patients, visitors, and staff aware of behavior that might lead to violence and how to respond these acts. Natterman’s advice to employers: “Training your staff on how to piece this together is something that’s critically important.”

In the words of the Roman proverb, Praemonitus, praemunitus (“Forewarned is forearmed.”)

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.

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.

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!