Are you looking for ways to boost risk management for your business? Whether you realize it or not, there are several threats to your business throughout each day.
Even something as simple as not having a wet floor sign can be a huge detriment to your company. It can lead to fines so severe that your business will never be able to financially recover.
That’s why it’s important to identify any potential risks and come up with actionable solutions for them. Here are several risk management steps that you can take to ensure safety for your company, yourself, and your workers.
1. Contact Information
Having up-to-date contact information is one of the most overlooked portions of today’s corporate world. When an emergency strikes, it’s of the utmost importance.
There are several types of contact information that are important for everyone to have their hands on during an emergency. For example, your entire workforce needs to know the address of your workplace.
If they don’t know the street address while they’re calling 911 for an emergency, it can take precious time for them to figure it out. Knowing the address right away can be the difference between life or death in an emergency.
You’ll also want to make sure and have relevant emergency contact information for each of your workers. That way, the information is readily available for local authorities and medical personnel to use/
2. Walk Around Your Workplace
When’s the last time you honestly took a walk around your workplace to identify any potential threats? Many business owners would answer “never”.
Taking the time to walk around and notice the current layout of your workplace might be eye-opening. Even something as little as a box on the floor can become a workplace injury very quickly.
Anticipation is key for identifying physical hazards and threats. Be sure to take notice of what risks are currently in place and how you can prevent them from happening.
You can also use this as a way to develop training sessions for your employees or create signage to instruct them. For example, a simple “please do not place boxes on the floor” sign can prevent anyone from ever tripping on one and injuring themselves.
3. Educate Your Staff on Hazardous Materials
Unless your staff is filled with chemical engineers, it’s unlikely that they’re knowledgeable on the hazardous materials in your workplace. Every workplace is different.
Some include hazardous waste, toxic gases, acid, or harmful liquids that your staff should handle with care. It’s up to you to train them on how to do that properly.
Be sure to take the time every month to educate your staff on the hazardous risks that surround them. You can ask the local fire department to come by and discuss how to properly dispose of the materials.
Then, ask that same fire department to give you advice on how to prevent an accident from happening in your facilities. The more you can learn from them, the better you can gameplan for any situation.
4. Invest in Proper Insurance
No matter how much you prepare and educate your staff for potential risks, accidents are going to happen. It’s human nature, something always goes wrong. That shouldn’t keep you awake at night unless you’re uninsured.
Every business is different. Some workplaces have a lot more risk involved, and thus need different types of insurance to cover those potential accidents.
Odds are that you aren’t very knowledgeable about your insurance needs. Leave your insurance needs up to trusted insurance professionals. Finding a team with integrity will help your business overcome any risks or accidents that occur.
The biggest challenge is learning all that you can. Insurance professionals can help you better understand the insurance side of things and how you’re protected even in the most tragic of circumstances.
5. Promote Mental Health
In times like this, promoting strong mental health in your employees has never been more important. Often they can drag problems from their personal life into their work-life without meaning to.
You must have an actionable plan in place for how to get employees the help that they need. The first part is educating them on the signs that they’re dealing with a mental health disorder.
The next step is offering them an open ear to listen and help them find the support and professional help that they need. Every case is different, so be sure to create a plan based on each employee that comes to you for help.
6. Document Each Risk
Every risk that you find needs to be jotted down. They need to be gathered in a place where you and your staff can actively plan against them and prepare for any outcome.
You can also use this list to assign different “risk owners” among your staff. The more you delegate supervisory over potential risks, the better your company can prevent such risks from ever happening.
Make sure to have frequent meetings updating the conditions of each risk and whether or not more action is needed for certain risks in the workplace.
Take These Risk Management Steps to Heart!
Now that you’ve seen several actionable risk management steps, it’s time to incorporate them into your workplace today!
Start by reading this article on what workers’ compensation is and what every small business owner needs to know about it.
For more inquiries, please be sure to reach out via our contact us page and we’ll be happy to assist you further!