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Owning and operating your business is risky. Outside parties file claims and lawsuits alleging injuries and property damage. Disgruntled employees file workplace discrimination claims, and every contract you sign contains complex insurance requirements.
You buy insurance to reduce some of these risks. But insurance coverages are complicated, and definitely not a top priority. At least, that is, until you have a claim.
Risk management is a way to avoid incidents in the first place. It is not just about using safety gear and machinery guards. Risk management is much broader, and affects all levels of your business, and all of your employees.
There are three main challenges: training your employees to get the best possible outcomes for your operations, managing your workforce, and negotiating the insurance requirements in contracts.
Helping your operations employees
Operations employees are typically directly involved in worker’s compensation, general liability and automobile liability claims. The best risk control is to investigate the causes of an incident, and then implement changes to avoid these incidents from happening again.
The first step is a quick, thorough, and objective investigation of an incident. Investigations should be seen as opportunities to learn, not to place blame. Every incident should be investigated to determine not only how best to handle the claim legally, but also as a lesson in improving your operations.
Investigations are not easy, and good investigators need some training and experience.
The following webinars are meant to give your employees the tools necessary to investigate an incident, preserve evidence, to better protect the business, themselves and make your operations stronger.
- Vehicle Accident Investigations
- Slip, Trip, and Fall: The Aftermath – Investigating Premises Liability Claims
- Underground Utility Hit Investigations: Best Practices to Defend Yourself
Helping manage your workforce
Employment discrimination and harassment claims have increased dramatically over the last 10 years. These issues exploded last year after the tidal wave of stories, starting with Harvey Weinstein. Allegations, true or otherwise, will likely affect nearly every business at some point.
Businesses handle this legal risk by purchasing Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI). EPLI policies are relatively new in the insurance industry, and many small and medium-sized businesses are not familiar with them. These policies are different than the more familiar worker’s compensation, general liability, and automobile liability policies.
Because these policies are misunderstood, mistakes happen. The biggest problem is not reporting a situation to your EPLI carrier in violation of its strict reporting requirements. Such failure results in a coverage denial. The following webinars detail late reporting and other issues involving EPLI policies.
- Employment Practices Liability Insurance – Common Problems
- Hiring Practices and Post-offer Employment Testing
Helping your management employees with contracts
Some of the most-feared language in a contract involves insurance and the intimidating-sounding names:
- Indemnification Requirements
- Additional Insured Requirements
“What exactly are we agreeing to?” is always the worry. These contractual requirements mean that your business may pay to defend a claim made against the other party to the contract.
These requirements impact your insurance and can easily impact your bottom line. Your business may be asked to comply with these requirements, or you may ask other businesses to do the same.
The insurance coverage issues that surround these requirements are complex and ever-changing. Understanding how these requirements work and how your insurance responds is crucial. Failure to appreciate what these terms mean and how insurance may respond can lead to large uninsured losses.
This webinar discusses the basics of contractual indemnification, additional insured requirements, and how insurance responds.
Understanding how to manage insurance risks is vital for the long-term success and growth of a business. Investing time in employee training today will pay back with more satisfactory claim outcomes, and hopefully, fewer incidents and claims in the future.
Learn more with R&R Insurance’s educational series of Risk Management Seminars & Webinars.
