In earlier blogposts, we’ve talked at length about risk assessment and management, along with loss control. Now let’s get down to brass tacks: How can you help your clients control tribal risks with their risk management plan – and maintain it?
“When we talk about ways to control tribal risks, we’re not doing a drive-by guilting, although it can seem that way,” says Brett Barnsley, business development director for Arrowhead Tribal. “You can’t possibly eliminate all risk. Our goal is not just to provide insurance to tribal governments and businesses – it’s to make sure they have the protection they need in every area of their business.
“Often that’s with an insurance policy,” he added. “But there will also be risks that your client decides to manage on their own, because their potential cost is not high, or the possibility of them happening is just too slim. In both instances, though, they need to be fully aware of those potential losses and have a risk management plan in place.”
Below are some obvious and not-so-obvious examples. Click on a bullet to view the pertinent article.
Commercial auto risks
If your client has company vehicles, or their employees use their own vehicles to conduct business, then commercial auto coverage is needed. At the same time, there are steps they can take to lessen the likelihood of a driving accident and control tribal risks, using the tactics and tips outlined in the blogposts below:
- Lower your commercial auto insurance rates with these 7 tips
- How to combat spiking commercial auto claims
- Deer and car collisions
- Distracted driving prevention: How NOT to be a statistic
- Hiring safe drivers for your tribal business
- Safe driving management tips to reduce your risk
- Should your tribal business have an employee cell phone policy?
- Distracted driving and your employees
Assessing cyber risks in a risk management plan
Does your client have computers that are networked and store their clients’ and employees’ private information on file? Here are a few ways to lessen those risks:
- Cyber security and data breach prevention
- Cyber security: The threat from within
- How retailers can fight holiday cybercrime
- How to protect your tribal business from cyber threats, part 1
- How to beef up your tribal entity’s cyber protection, part 2
- How to safeguard your customers’ privacy
- ‘Tis the season to prevent identity theft
- How to protect your company’s online security
- Retail data breaches: How you can learn from others’ mistakes
- How to protect yourself against mobile ransomware
- How to protect against, detect and act on a data breach at your business
Planning for workers’ benefits risks
Focusing on their employees, your clients can learn ways to control tribal risks, lower their workers’ benefits claims and insurance costs by adding these suggestions to their risk management plan:
- How you can prevent tribal workers’ benefits fraud
- 7 Reasons why a Tribal Worker Benefits Code is important
- Tribal workers: employees vs. contractors
- Tribal workplace substance abuse
- Tips for working with an aging workforce while growing your tribal business
- How effective is your tribal return-to-work program?
- Leading by Example: Building a Culture of Safety Leadership
- Access this safety training solution to hone your team
- Foot safety in the workplace: Safety from the ground up
- Basic Ladder Safety in the Workplace
- Safety Leadership: The Ultimate Risk Management Strategy
- A workplace safety incentive program helps stop accidents before they start
- Tribal workplace safety: give the boot to slips, trips and falls
- Tribal workers and heat illness: Steps to prevention
How to control tribal risks regarding COVID-19
- Minimize COVID restaurant risks
- Reopening guidance for your business: Consider these safety steps
- Returning to work after COVID-19
- Offer the safety of employer contact tracing to your tribal clients
- Food safety during COVID-19
Property risks
If your client has a brick-and-mortar location, here are ways they can influence insurance rates in their favor here too, by:
- Fire prevention and safety tips for your tribal business
- Tribal restaurant and bar insurance: 6 factors to consider
- Holiday retail risks for tribal businesses
- 17 Steps for Preventing Employee Crime and Dishonesty
- Top ways you can reduce tribal government risk
- Tribal restaurant and bar insurance: 6 factors to consider
- Wildfire safety tips for businesses
- Electrical safety in the office
- Safety tips for business recovery after a hurricane or other disaster
- Help clients douse construction fire hazards
- How you can minimize earthquake damage and injury
- 31 restaurant fire prevention tips for tribal business owners
- Wildfire safety tips for businesses
Winter risks
Depending on your tribe’s location, winter temperatures may hold a significant risk for you. If so, check out these articles:
- Prevent winter water damage
- Essential winter weather preparation
- The hard, cold facts of winter loss prevention
- Tribal Risk Management: Winter Loss Control Tips
- Protect boilers in cold weather
- How to keep employees safe from winter weather work hazards
- How to protect the outdoor winter safety of your workers
More helps to control tribal risks by creating a risk management plan
Developing a risk management plan may seem overwhelming to your client. How and where do they start? How comprehensive should it be? Should they try to plan for every possible risk? Here are a few more articles to help them get started: Scenarios to think about, checklists and suggestions on where to begin.
- How to get started creating your risk management plan
- 5 areas where tribal business risk management can help
- How to insure tribal risks for your growing business
- How to maximize tribal restaurant insurance and minimize risks
- How to reduce your business risk exposures by planning ahead
- Be prepared with a natural disaster emergency response plan
Brett recommends helping your client make a list of every potential scenario and loss you can think of, and then discussing these possible losses to ascertain
- How great is the likelihood and the cost of each risk?
- Is it a risk that needs insuring?
- Are there ways you can minimize their possibility right now and in the future?
- What are the most cost-effective ways to mitigate those risks?
Unless your client is a mom-and-pop shop, their risk management plan and loss control efforts shouldn’t be “owned” by one or two people in the company. Instead, planning should span all groups, from front desk, customer service, manufacturing lines, janitorial, etc., and all levels of management. Their employees are more hands-on in their areas of labor than are your client or their managers. No doubt they have good ideas as to ways to improve safety and lower risk.
Moreover, risks change continually, as your client goes through cycles. Staff changes that result in less seniority and experience will influence risks and their probability. Environmental factors, from the obvious fires and storms, to roadwork and detours or neighboring businesses opening or closing, will also impact risks.
All that to say – they’ll need to assess risks on at least an annual basis. The best time to do this is when their insurance is about to renew. Remind them of their organization’s claims profile. Help them identify possible hazards and suggest solutions. As their trusted tribal risk and insurance consultant, you can help them navigate the murky waters of potential risks so they can focus on growing their business.