Fix Your Risk

I subscribe to a daily email from UrbanDictionary (www.urbandictionary.com.  Still working on how to correctly insert links.), today’s “word of the day” is:
Land it in the Hudson. An expression used to encourage yourself or someone else when it appears an endeavor is headed for a disastrous outcome (due mostly to external conditions). Based on when Sully averted tragedy by successfully landing US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. See also, “Land it like Sully.”

We are in historic times right now.  The path of the US economy is on the same course as Flight 1549, minus the geese of course.  If our government does everything right from this point forward, good luck Mr. Geithner, we won’t get as close to averting disaster as Captain “Sully” Sullenberger did.

But suppose for a second that miraculously, we do Land it in the Hudson.  How would our way life be?  Would anything change?  Would we go back to doing things just like we did in 2007 with rose colored glasses on?  Would more government sanctions be put in place on financial institutions?  Will closer monitoring on people like Bernie Madoff be the norm?  If somehow the stock market rebounded this afternoon to previous highs, and banks started issuing credit/loans tomorrow, how would you proceed?  What would you do the same? What would you do differently?

If you’ve read the paper or watched the news in the last 24 hours, you have probably heard about the boondoggle that took place at the White House yesterday over the available technology or lack thereof. If you missed it, here’s a link from the Washington Post that a good friend of mine sent me yesterday http://tinyurl.com/cdb6c2

It basically says that the Obama Administration had a myriad of issues revolving around antiquated technology that was very sub-par to what they used for campaigning. Some examples were 6 year old Microsoft operating systems, high level staffers without phones or email, and only a limited number of laptops available for the West Wing. It’s unfortunate when the TV show equivalent has better technology than the actual West Wing!
Obviously, the Obama administration will be overhauling their technology over the coming weeks and months to be prepared and up to date with running the country.
If they are overhauling their systems to run more effectively and efficiently, what has your company done to embrace the inevitable change that is nipping at your heels?
I can hear you thinking to yourself, “what the hell would I need facebook for? I’m a business owner and I don’t have time for that nonsense.” And you’d be wrong. Social media is the direction marketing is going in. It’s the direction where leads will be generated from and where conversations will take place over anything and everything. If you are a company still in the dark ages, AKA communicating solely via snail mail, faxes, and telephone; there is a good chance the new way of communicating will pass you by around the same time you are closing your doors for the last time. Social media is not a fad. It is not going away. Business will be done on computers. Design work for projects will be completed and shared on the internet between the various parties working on it. If the White House(regardless of who’s running it) is getting on board with the new technologies to run the country, it probably couldn’t hurt to embrace them as well as a business owner that wants to stay relevant after the economy rebounds.

Odds are, I will use this title again sometime in the life of this blog but I had this post on my mind all morning and now I have a public forum to blah-g about it! For the last two weeks, I have been on a search for the uber-popular wii game MarioKart. I had been to several well known, national retail chains looking for it. I accepted everyone being sold out of this game the week after Christmas since the weather had been lousy and it is an extremely popular game. However, earlier this week after work, I visited five retailers in search of MarioKart. I got home that night with a large dose of cynicism but no MarioKart. At 3 of the “big box” stores I went to, I stood in front of the videogame area for between 10-15 minutes, and had zero interaction with an employee of the store. Typically, if a customer is staring at a locked display that houses video games, it is prudent to ask them if they need any help, since they are unable to help themselves without the use of a crowbar or Louisville slugger. Anyways, I didn’t see any of the game I was looking for in the case at any of the “big 3″ I visited, but had high hopes of an associate finding one for me in the “back room”. I left without any interaction with a salesperson. Plenty walked passed me and none asked to assist. If the employees of a store are too lazy or poorly trained to open a case for a customer, I buy from someone else.
Right now you’re probably thinking why didn’t I stop being a whiny moron and just order it online? And you’d be correct. The only thing I buy online are clothes that are on sale, and music from Itunes. As far as clothes are concerned, the internet always has my size and itunes offers me the instant gratification that physically having a product in hand immediately after purchasing offers. Otherwise, I prefer to support the local economy.
So my next stop was at a small video game boutique. I strolled in, with the frustration of horrible service still on my mind and the salesperson greeted me and asked if he could help me find anything. I responded with “I’m looking for MarioKart for wii”. He responded by laughing at my request. I then inquired as to when they would be restocked. He said “whenever they get here”.
Congratulations on earning all 7$ that hour pal. And I mean that in the least demeaning way possible. All through high school, college, and immediately following college, I worked at various outdoor sporting goods retailers and would have lost my job if I had ever interacted with a customer like that.
So what’s the point of this post?
For one, it changed my attitude towards online shopping. Why deal with a-hole salespeople when I could just as easily gotten the same item shipped to my house at the same price?
And for 2, it got me thinking on what that final salesperson could have done differently.
1. Written down my phone number and called me when the item was back in stock.
2. Gotten my email address so his company could alert me to sales/special events.
3. Checked his store’s online warehouse and had a copy of the game shipped to his store for me.

If local retailers want to ever compete and stay relevant and stay in business, they need to focus less on restocking and concentrate more on actually training their employees how to interact with their customers.
What did this have to do with insurance or construction? Nothing, but I hope it made you think about some ways you could interact with your customers in a more positive way at every juncture.

This is the % of worker’s comp claims that the insurance industry accepts as fraudulent every year. 20-35%! No employer wants to admit that he or she has hired an employee with less than ideal morals, but the fact remains that claim fraud is out there and in these trying economic times, industry experts are expecting more and more claims. The percentage of claims is expected to rise, not because of worker’s being unsafe, but because the future of their jobs are uncertain, whereas getting a check when they are out on Worker’s Comp is not.
I am in no way implying that all comp injuries are fraud or that all workers are trying to “milk the system”; but when more and more contractors are laying off employees and their backlogs are shrinking dramatically, business owners need to be extremely vigilant about this.
So what can you, the business owner, do to prevent these fraudulent claims?
-Report the claim immediately.
-Get witness statements ASAP.
-Ask the other workers who were on-site how this injury could have been prevented, and what could have been done differently.
-Stay on top of the claim. Insurance claim adjusters have a lot on their plate at all times and if someone, either you or your insurance broker, isn’t keeping the adjuster updated to the status of the claim, reserve dollars can be kept at unneeded levels, which at renewal, will have a HUGE bearing on your insurance rates.
-Above all, if the injured employee is out on Comp, keep in contact with them regularly, make them still feel like they are part of the company.
-Get the injured employee back to work in a light-duty capacity as fast as they are physically able to. Being among their co-workers and having to get up and go to work everyday does miraculous things for morale/recovery time.

In about 45 minutes, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. In the wake of the financial meltdown of 2008 and the backlash of the events that led to it, President Obama has quite a bit on his plate as of noon today. The phrase “Rome wasn’t built in a day” comes to mind in regard to the sweeping change most of the nation, myself included, is expecting to happen in the coming months and years. How much of the promises of rebuilding the infrastructure of this country do you think is realistic and feasible? This will be the only/last post I make with a direct connection to politics, but figured in the spirit of this historical day, it deserved mention.

“Now is the time”. Being as today is Martin Luther King Day, and this is the first post of this blog, I thought that quote by the Doctor is fitting. Not 100% sure about what direction the format/content is going to be, but it will have a focus on Risk Management, Insurance, Construction, and Green Building. Anyone who reads this is encouraged to comment on and add to any and all discussions taking place. Here we go…