What is Risk Management?
Risk management and loss control are critical mechanisms for business owners, across all industries, who want to protect themselves, their employees, and their businesses from harm.
A risk management process can play a huge role in how many businesses conduct themselves and how they go about choosing a commercial insurance policy. Undergoing a full risk assessment can help you understand your potential risks and ultimately help you determine the type and scope of insurance plans that are best suited for your business.
Insurance plans, in and of themselves, fall under the umbrella of risk management services, but there’s so much more to it than that, as not all insurance plans are created equally. Simply choosing an insurance plan that looks good on paper and then calling it a day is not an effective risk management strategy.
Rather, by making a targeted effort to understand your specific business risks, you will better position yourself to make a more informed decision regarding the types of policies that will provide the most appropriate coverage and protections for your business.
Identifying Risks
For risk management, insurance companies must begin, first and foremost, by identifying the specific risks faced by your business in your day-to-day operations. There are many different types of risks, including the following:
Physical Risks
Physical risks include anything that could happen to your business’s physical location, including fires, flooding, and explosions.
Hazardous Material Risks
Hazardous material risk is most prevalent in businesses that deal regularly with hazardous materials such as acid, gas, toxic fumes, toxic dust or filings, and poisonous liquids or waste, These risks are also frequently associated with places where these materials may pose a risk for spills or other accidents.
Location Risks
Are you located in an area that is prone to nearby fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, or other natural disasters? If so, you could certainly find yourself and your property, whether it be a residential or commercial space, at risk.
Human Risks
Human risks apply s to a fairly wide array of risks, including employees who may come to work intoxicated and pose a threat to themselves or others, as well as individuals who may seek to embezzle or defraud you; As inevitable as it may be, employees who get ill or injured and have to take time off from work, ultimately affecting your productivity, also qualify as human risks. No matter your specific industry, there is likely many human risks to prepare against.
Technology Risks
How will you be affected if the power goes out? What if it comes back on and surges? Are your devices protected? What if your company’s website crashes? These are just some of the many examples of the risks modern technology can cause within a professional workplace setting.
Unfortunately, these different types of insurance risks cannot be fully avoided. You need your employees, technology is no longer a suggestion, but a requirement, and no matter your business’s physical location, there are likely to always be some level of risk. So what can you, as the business leader, do to protect yourself against these risks?
Hanson & Ryan Offers Risk Management Plans!
At Hanson & Ryan, we can help you build the foundation for your business’s risk management solutions by working alongside you to identify any of the risk factors mentioned above, and then setting you up with the appropriate insurance options to protect you in the case of a disaster. Our insurance offerings include liability insurance, property insurance, auto insurance, worker’s compensation insurance, and more.
If you’d like some additional information, or to begin building out the foundation of your business’s risk mitigation plan, reach out to an insurance agent at Hanson & Ryan today. With over 140 years of continued service within the insurance industry, our team has been handling risk management plans for decades, and we’re confident we’ll be able to help you too! Give us a call today to get your business’s risk management plan started!
