Say "Risk." And the first thought that comes to many of us might well be gaming in Las Vegas or (heaven forbid) playing the stock market.
But risk is something we face each day, because we never really do know what tomorrow might bring: from lightning strikes to trips and falls, from accidents to lawsuits, at home or at play, in the office or at a jobsite – just to mention some negative possibilities.
That reality makes every one of us, and anyone who works for us, a manager of risk – out of sheer necessity. Risk management, they tell us, means minimizing the adverse effects of risk (preferably at minimum cost) through its identification, evaluation and control. And being a landscape contractor or lawn care operator is a risky business, wouldn't you say?
Just in the ordinary course of operations, you can easily identify dozens of sources of potential risk – equipment misuse, spills, personnel nightmares, theft, regulatory infractions, paperwork mismanagement, third party liability, you name it. On the business side, too, each area poses its own types of risk.
Which means every member of your employment team must bring his or her own level of risk management to the table. And it's your job to make that very clear to your entire staff, through example, posted procedures and, most important of all, a continuous training cycle.
Each employee, each day, makes decisions that involve risk to your business in some way or another. If each of your employees screws up badly only once a week, how many potential lawsuits is that you'll have to face
over the course of a year?
And yet, life goes on. Your people have to drive, come to work, handle equipment, use strong chemicals, deal with customers, pets and property. So once you've identified the more obvious risks, you've got to evaluate their potential to do you harm and take the appropriate steps.
The textbooks say you can control, or manage, risk in a variety of ways – avoidance, prevention, reduction, segregating it, combining it with other risks and transferring it elsewhere (like buying insurance).
But maybe the best way to approach handling risk is to imagine that you're NOT protected by insurance – and then do what you think will help minimize the risks that put you in the most jeopardy. Because insurance is no cure-all. It's designed to protect you from financial disaster, not be a safety net for everyday mishaps that common sense precautions – and training – could help
avoid.
Managing risk is more than just promoting job safety. It touches every aspect of ALL your operations. So I urge you to:
- Think ahead
- Try to foresee the hazards inherent in typical
situations - Develop procedures for avoiding or handling each
potential hazard - Train your personnel to respond accordingly
There's a lot of work involved in managing risk. But it's part of being in business. And, in the long run, you'll find it's well worth it.
The author is president of Weisburger Insurance in White Plains, N.Y.