What does risk management look like?

Your Empty contemporary office interiorcompany can face risks from just about any area, from employee and client information to building security to fraudulent handling of funds. Here’s how to successfully identify and manage risk at your organization to prevent loss of personnel and revenue.

  • Risk identification: Risk management starts by identifying and defining potential risks that can negatively influence the company at any level. An example is a data leak that would lead to the company exposing customer data, such as credit card information or addresses.
  • Risk analysis: When a specific risk is identified, the company assesses the odds of the risk occurring and what the consequences of it occurring are. When a risk is appropriately assessed, a company can better understand how to prepare for its possibility.
  • Risk evaluation: Is the risk acceptable? Is the risk dangerous to the foundation of the company or success of its projects? A company can evaluate the consequences of a risk and work to better understand the answers to these questions.
  • Risk mitigation: Companies look at the risks most likely to occur and most dangerous to the business and then work on a plan to both prevent the risk and manage it should it come to pass. This is an important step of the process that often involves consulting with leadership and even an outside risk consultant. Having a smart contingency plan is one of the most important parts of a risk management strategy.
  • Risk monitoring: Follow-up is crucial. As a business grows and changes, the risks associated with running it change too. It’s important to never assume that once you’ve planned for something that you can go on auto-pilot and never revisit it. It’s important to track existing risks and account for new ones. The risk management plan should be adjusted and updated accordingly.

Risks can be a huge disruption to your business and make it much harder to meet your goals. Business insurance absolutely helps to protect you against risks that can’t always be prevented. But risk management is important in ensuring that you can file fewer claims and overall deal with less hassle. Our Work Smart program includes best practices information in areas from hiring to pre-incident planning to help your company be better prepared. Give us a call to discuss your insurance options and risk management planning today.

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Can you tell if you have enough commercial insurance?

Insurance is one of those products that’s easy to ignore. We don’t use it often, and it can be hard to understand what we’re getting for the premiums we pay. It’s not like laundry detergent or your tax accountant, where you are aware of the quality of the product or service from time to time. When people buy insurance, they’re typically focused on price or simply trying to satisfy the minimum legal requirement.

The cost of insurance is important and should be considered when choosing your insurance policy, and you definitely want to make sure your coverage allows you to operate legally. But affordability and minimum legal obligations shouldn’t be the only driving force behind what insurance you buy. Plenty of businesses have found out too late that an inexpensive policy did not offer enough coverage to really protect their business. So how can you tell if you have enough insurance?

  • Did your agent take the time to go over your coverage with you so you truly understand what is covered? And possibly even more importantly, did they review with you what is NOT covered in your insurance program? Insurance is your first line of defense, and it’s important to understand what the insurance company is insuring and what you are choosing to self-insure.
  • Have you changed your operations, moved, or purchased new equipment? Do you have employees that work from home? If you answered yes to any of these, your current insurance program may not be accurately covering the assets of your business.

And a tip, do you quote your insurance out with multiple brokers? Quoting your policies is not the same as reviewing your policies for accuracy. While quoting may lead to lower pricing, it also typically leads to more errors that you may be completely unaware of until it’s too late.

Insurance is an investment. Not only can you not legally operate your business without it, it could cost you if you don’t have enough. Make sure you’re prepared if the worst should happen. We can help ensure that you’re accurately covered so you can get back to focusing on your business. Call us today to review your insurance program, you might be surprised as what we find.

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