Seven principles lay the foundation for effective wellness. The principles are think, breathe, drink, eat, sleep, exercise, detox and environmental. Within these principles are the keys to a well-balanced wellness program. Here are just ten tips to get you started.
- Pay attention to your thoughts. It’s real easy to get caught up in the negativity with this world today. Don’t let that happen to you. Stay positive. Positive thoughts include gratitude, forgiveness, courage, happiness and there’s so much more I haven’t even touched on.
- Learn to breathe. Breathing exercises have been proven to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, heart rate, circulation, digestion and many more!
- Drink lots of water. Water helps maintain the body’s fluid levels, helps control calories, energizes muscles, water helps your skin maintain a good look and many more! Water is essential to your overall healthy lifestyle.
- Get in touch with your spiritual side. Pray, meditate, and go for a walk in the labyrinth.
- Eat organically. Fresh fruit, vegetables, little starch and carbohydrates. Blueberries, beans, broccoli, oats, oranges, salmon, pumpkin, soy, spinach, tomatoes, turkey, walnuts, tea (green and black) and yogurt are just a few of the super foods. Olive oil is another favorite of mine. I use it exclusively for everything.
- Get plenty of sleep. Sleep helps improve your memory, sleep can help you live longer, spurs creativity, sharpens attention span and helps you maintain a healthy weight.
- Get out and move. Yoga is great for stretching the tired muscles, going for a brisk walk benefits your heart, running helps your relieve stress and even can eliminate depression, do a high impact cardio workout. Twenty minutes a day three days a week and you’ll be seeing a change in yourself.
- Get rid of all the junk. Throw out the processed macaroni and chesses boxes, pass by McDonald’s and see how differently your body will react. It’s a known fact that the fast and processed foods that we eat everyday drag us down. Get rid of it and feel more energized.
- Get away from it all. Go up the mountains and surround yourself with peace or go to the beach and soak up the sun. The concrete jungle is not going to cut it. Make a monthly effort to get away from it, even if it’s for a nice long day hike.
- Have fun. Anything and everything that you do, make sure that you have fun doing it.
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There are often benefits to middle-market companies emulating their larger counterparts’ risk management examples.
“There is a basic risk management process, methodology that has been around for years,” said Patrick Donnelly, co-leader of U.S. broking at Aon Risk Solutions in Chicago. “But only larger companies have been able to make the investment to create the framework to go through those steps.”
Carol Fox, director of strategic and enterprise risk practice for the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. in New York, said it’s critical for midsize firms to focus on how they’re embedding risk management in the organization.
Here are 10 risk management lessons middle-market companies should heed in 2014:
1. Business continuity planning
One of the steps many larger companies have taken that middle-market companies could benefit from is business continuity planning.
“In order to have a good business continuity plan, you really need to understand your business — and that’s inside and out,” said Jim Hedrick, area vice president of business continuity planning at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in Cincinnati. “A middle-market company may not have the bandwidth to do that,” he said.
2. Establishing a crisis plan
Hand in hand with the business continuity process is establishing a crisis management plan. A crisis management plan helps drive decision-making when a crisis occurs and helps ensure that information gets to the right people.
3. Testing the crisis plan
A crisis management plan alone isn’t enough; it needs to be regularly tested. “To me, if you don’t test your plans you might as well not have them,” Mr. Hedrick said. “Not only does it test the validity of the plan, but also it’s a terrific training mechanism.”
Testing the plan also helps identify “who should be in your plan and shouldn’t be in your plan,” he said. “Sometimes you have people in these events who just melt down because they can’t handle the stress.”
4. Managing supply chain risks
While the effort can be challenging, large companies have increasingly recognized the need to identify and address supply chain risks. Middle-market companies that haven’t should do so as well, experts say.
Supply chain risk is “the one exposure that I believe has changed significantly since the credit crisis,” said Mark Moreland, executive vice president for strategic consulting at Lockton Cos. L.L.C. in Kansas City, Mo. In trying to squeeze costs out of their supply chains some companies have taken steps to narrow their supply chains, reduce the number of suppliers and change their risk profile in the process, something that must be addressed, he said.
5. Defining a risk appetite
Mid-market companies should develop a clearly defined risk appetite. “This is the one thing that we are trying to do with all our clients and prospects: establishing a very clear risk appetite,” Mr. Moreland said.
“What may happen in a middle-market organization is they believe, “We know what our risk appetite is because we aren’t that large an organization,’” Ms. Fox said. But middle-market companies can find value in having that conversation, clarifying their risks and specifying how much risk they’re willing to assume and how much insurance to buy.
6. Benchmarking risk management performance
The process of defining a risk appetite also could help middle-market companies recognize how they might differ from companies they’re benchmarking their risk management efforts against.
“It allows them to benchmark on areas that are different from just insurance buying,” RIMS’ Ms. Fox said. “It gives them more data points.”
“Benchmarking is always something that clients are interested in. I think the real challenge is to get benchmarking that you can draw clear conclusions from,” Mr. Moreland said.
“Benchmarking is one of those underrated tools that I think midsize companies can use in understanding their risk,” said Mark Moitoso, executive vice president and general manager national accounts casualty at Liberty Mutual Holding Co. Inc. in Boston. “What’s really nirvana in this is it helps them establish goals.”
7. Using captives to self-insure risks
As middle-market companies become more familiar with their risks and their risk appetites, they may choose to retain more risk or find risk financing alternatives and captives can be a useful tool. Middle-market companies are increasingly embracing alternative risk transfer.
“The big growth is with the middle-market companies,” said Karl Huish, president of the Captive Services Division of Artex Risk Solutions Inc. in Mesa, Ariz. “These businesses are recognizing they have exactly the same sorts of risks that the larger companies have, they’re just smaller in size.”
Middle-market companies are starting to use captives both for risks they didn’t previously insure and in financing large-deductible workers compensation, automobile liability, general liability and property programs. And the larger middle-market companies are often doing that through stand-alone captives, while smaller middle-market firms frequently opt for group captives.
8. Addressing cyber risks
With cyber threats cutting across companies of all sizes, middle-market companies also are increasingly aware of the need to address those risks.
When insurers first introduced cyber risk policies, many buyers questioned their value, recognizing the number of incidents that were occurring but not sure about the extent of potential damage, said Patrick Donnelly, co-leader of U.S. broking at Aon Risk Solutions in Chicago. Now nearly every company is recognizing that they have some sort of exposure.
“That’s extended into the middle markets more in the past 18 months or so,” Mr. Donnelly said.
9. Return-to-work efforts
Middle-market companies can also benefit by following larger companies’ example in adopting return-to-work programs. Such programs can produce significant workers compensation savings while allowing injured workers to participate in modified work assignments while they recover from injuries.
10. Continuing education
Middle market companies always can benefit from following many large company risk managers’ lead in looking for continuing education and networking opportunities through organizations like RIMS.
“It’s not just the courses, the workshops, the online webinars, they can benefit from but the conferences and the networking by belonging to an organization,” Ms. Fox explained.
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Commercial insurance is a must-have for every business. Some businesses have specialty needs for additional commercial insurance that are not covered under the standard policy.
Maybe you have had some changes in your business. You have recently purchased delivery vehicles, you have expanded your business and purchased more property. There are any number of possible changes that have occurred to your business that would require an analysis of your commercial insurance policies.
Your cash flow has changed
You have two forms of payment for your insurance, a regular monthly payment and a deductible that you will need to cover for damages and/or injuries before your provider will start to cover anymore. The monthly payment you can factor into your standard business finances. You will need to be diligent in planning for the unknown.
The more cash you have readily available, you should think about increasing your deductible. Higher deductibles will decrease your monthly premiums, and you will be able to save money. Make sure the deductible will be affordable, just in case.
Lower your deductible so that you can pay as needed if you are short on cash. Contact our office so that we can shop around for the best deal possible and discuss bundling options.
Congratulations! Your business is thriving!
Your business has increased since the last time you sat down with your agent. You’ve hired more people, added a delivery service and more! That means that your insurance will need to change also.
Start with your workers compensation and disability insurance policies. Make sure that your employees are covered, and your policies are up to date.
You’ve added a fleet! You will need to get your vehicles insured under a commercial auto policy.
You are remodeling or moving
Commercial property insurance comprises an important part of your overall insurance needs. If you are expanding or moving, you will need to contact our office to do a review of your new /improved digs and the policies. Please remember that any changes you make, will affect your coverage and costs.
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Your kids are off for winter break, however you’re not. What are you going to do with the kiddos?
What about taking them to the Winter Break Day Camp at Ramsay Park?
The Ramsay Park Family Center is operating the day camp at Ramsay Park. Children from 5-12 years old are welcome to attend, and we will have a ton of fun filled activities! We are open from 7:45 a.m.-6:00 p.m. January 6th-10th.
You only need 3 days from 12:00-4:00? We can do that too! We also offer a variety of enrollment options to suit your specific needs for child’s daycare.
Call PCS at 768-3240 today to find out more information.
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Seven principles lay the foundation for effective wellness. The principles are think, breathe, drink, eat, sleep, exercise, detox and environmental. Within these principles are the keys to a well-balanced wellness program. Here are just ten tips to get you started.
