If not, you have a problem. For the past several years, more and more states and cities have limited or banned driver use of cell phones. Warns the Web site DrivingLaws.org, “Although employer responsibility isn’t specifically defined in the cell phone legislation, there have been an increasing number of lawsuits relating to employer responsibility regarding mobile cell-phone use [by] employees.”
With motor vehicle accidents the leading cause of work-related injuries, using cell phones behind the wheel ups the ante for litigation in case of death, injury, or other third-party claims. What’s more, drivers injured while phoning on company time will generally be eligible for Workers Compensation.
The first step is to create and implement a cell-phone use policy for employees driving company vehicles. Although this won’t protect you completely from legal responsibility, it demonstrates your forethought and responsibility.
This plan should include guidelines for:
- Training. Provide instruction manuals so employees know the features of their phones.
- Safety. Remind employees not to dial or talk when driving conditions are hazardous, keep conversations short, tell the other person that the employee is calling while driving, and turn off phones whenever they pump gas or use jumper cables.
- Making calls. Discourage cell-phone use behind the wheel and require drivers to pull over and stop when dialing.
- Voice mail/caller ID. Make sure drivers’ phones have these features so they can screen calls behind the wheel.
- Accident/injury reports. Require employees to report any accidents or injuries resulting from cell-phone use while driving.
- Discipline. Punish workers who violate these rules or local or state laws about using cell phones behind the wheel.
We’d be happy to help you develop a comprehensive policy for drivers’ use of cell phones. Just give us a call.
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Unfortunately, many small businesses ignore business continuity planning – perhaps because this seems so simple that they just don’t need to do it. Here are five basic (and cost-effective) steps you need to take before disaster strikes:
- Define who’s in charge. Because you might be unavailable after a disaster – injured, ill, on vacation, etc. – designate an order of succession to avoid confusion and unclear responsibility during the recovery process.
- Avoid a communication breakdown. Normal communication infrastructure might be disabled after a disaster, so make sure you have alternatives for employees, customers, clients, key suppliers, and subcontractors. At a minimum, have phone numbers (landline and cellular), and e-mail addresses. Don’t rely on outdated, unreliable methods such as phone communication trees. Use a voicemail system supported by a vendor with communication equipment offsite. Don’t forget to consider backup power needs.
- Perform data backups. Be sure to make duplicate copies of data regularly, with one copy at a location that’s easy and inexpensive to access.
- Have a Plan B. if your facility is destroyed or access is denied by civil authorities, can you conduct certain business operations from home or a local hotel? For example, what steps can you take to replace computers and retrieve data?
- Make sure you have enough insurance. In a worst-case disaster scenario (major fire, windstorm, civil disorder, etc.), you might well lose your business assets and face a period of downtime – zero cash flow. Insurance can keep you afloat until you’re back on your feet.
We stand ready to help design a comprehensive, cost effective program that can make your business less risky.
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Large corporations often use “alternative risk financing” – assuming some of their own risks, in addition to buying insurance – as a way to improve cash flow and lower their total costs. However, this technique can offer substantial benefits for medium-sized companies that face significant potential risks from one line of insurance, such as Workers Comp, General Liability, or Auto Liability.
Basic alternative risk financing methods include:
- Guaranteed cost insurance – the company pays a premium based either on a rate, such as payroll or property values, or a flat amount.
- Incurred loss retrospective rating plans (“retro) – use a standard premium adjusted after policy expiration based on loss experience.
- Large-deductible plans – the organization assumes a substantial (often $50,000 to $250,000) per-accident or per-occurrence deductible.
- Self-insurance – the firm retains its loss obligations and pays them as they become due.
- Captive insurance – this variation on self-insurance pre-funds risks through an insurance subsidiary (“captive”) usually owned by the parent company.
Because each of these methods has advantages and disadvantages, your choice should depend on the situation and needs of your business. For example, a guaranteed cost plan minimizes the upside risk, but won’t help your cash flow; while a captive usually costs the least to finance, but can be expensive to administer.
Whichever alternative risk financing option you choose, make sure your accounting and human resources departments educate managers on their responsibilities in daily hands-on administration of the program. The more widespread their “buy-in,” the stronger your bottom line.
We’d be happy to help you select and develop an alternative risk financing program that’s tailored to your needs. Just give us a call.
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Given the dramatic impact of social media on the speed and delivery of news and information, it makes sense to make this fast-growing technology part of your risk management program.
More and more reputational crises — such as the recent stranding of the Carnival Triumph cruise ship — are born on social networking platforms and can grow exponentially if mishandled. Consider how Apple Inc. responded to consumer displeasure with the iPhone 4 shortly after its 2010 introduction. Negative comments about the product spread quickly over social media channels, but were largely ignored by Apple executives until mainstream news outlets began reporting on its flaws.
Failing to actively engage social media users in conversations about crisis or business practice of your company means losing an invaluable opportunity to protect your reputation. Otherwise, you risk having other people tell your story.
Social media participation gives you a way to enhance this reputation through regular interaction with customers, business partners and the public. Using this tool to develop relationships and help people, rather than just sell products and services, can create some valuable allies.
Encouraging your employees to participate in social media offers a great way to use them as advocates for your company. A 2012 poll of more than 1,000 registered voters by Hill+Knowlton Strategies found that a corporation’s employees are the second-most trusted source of information about its business practices, second only to friends and family members.
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When it comes to hackers stealing confidential client information, most people think of their primary targets as mega-corporations; banks, credit card providers, online retailers, and so forth. (American Express, MasterCard, and Sony come to mind.)
However, more than half of small and midsize businesses have experienced at least one data breach in the past year, according to a recent nationwide study by the Ponemon Institute. What’s more, only 33% of surveyed companies suffering breaches notified affected individuals that their personal information was ever at risk – despite laws in 46 states that require such notification.
The primary causes of these breaches were employee or contractor error, lost or stolen laptops or smart phones, and procedural mistakes, according to the study commissioned by the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Co.
The survey also found that:
- Nearly nine in 10 respondents (85%) shared their customer and employee records with third parties by providing billing, payroll, employee benefits, web-hosting, or other information technology services.
- Seven in 10 respondents (70%) said that data breaches are more likely to occur if they outsourced data.
- Despite this outsourcing exposure, more than three in five businesses surveyed (62%) did not require third parties to cover costs associated with a data breach in their contracts.
“Smaller companies are targeted by data thieves, but they often don’t know how to respond when sensitive information they keep on customers and employees is lost or stolen,” warns Hartford Steam Boiler Vice President Eric Cernak. “Failing to act in a timely and effective way can harm the reputation of businesses and even risk legal penalties in many states.”
For professional advice on helping you minimize the growing financial and legal threats to your business from data breaches, please feel free to get in touch with our agency at any time.
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A lack of maintenance or poor quality maintenance causes thousands of on-the-job accidents every year. What’s more, maintenance workers face significant risks associated with their jobs.
According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics job fatality report, deaths due to poor maintenance rose 14%, year to year, in 2011, the highest level since 2006. Accidents from maintenance have a variety of causes: everything from falls caused by working heights, confined spaces or harsh environments associated with accessing equipment, and shocks and burns if power is not properly isolated, to injuries from moving machine parts, musculoskeletal problems caused by working in awkward spaces and exposure to asbestos and dangerous chemicals.
There are three types of maintenance:
- Routine or preventive maintenance keeps equipment working – such as a scheduled overhaul or replacement.
- Corrective maintenance gets broken equipment up and running again.
- Predictive maintenance uses tests for maintenance that is or will soon be needed.
To make your maintenance activities safer and more productive, follow these guidelines:
- Emphasize planning and scheduling on every maintenance task.
- Invest in affordable technology such as a thermographic camera (around $1,000) to detect variations of temperature that can reveal when a machine motor is not running properly.
- Make sure that supervisors convey the right message consistently. Employees need to be told that accidents happen as a result of short cuts, such as failing to lock out a piece of equipment before performing maintenance.
- Teach workers to intervene. If an employee walks by a piece of equipment that’s making an unusual noise and doesn’t tell their supervisor, it’s the same as ignoring a co-worker who is working unsafely.
- Get employees engaged and accountable. This can lead to culture change which makes safety the responsibility of everyone – not just of the safety and maintenance department.
For more information on maintaining your safety maintenance program, just get in touch with us.
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