Risk & Business

According to an article on the BBC news website, Munich RE states that natural catastrophes caused less damage and claimed fewer human lives than the previous year. As compared to 2008 when there were an estimated $200bn in paid losses, 2009 saw a significant decline to approximately $50bn in paid losses for the year. The reinsurance giant stated that this was due to a significant decline in hurricanes this year. Of course, the company being based in Europe, a board member couldn't resist commenting on the lack of significant progress on climate change policy at the Copenhagen summit this past year. Interesting, there were fewer natural catastrophes, such as hurricanes, yet many still cling to the "climate change" canard. I know I spent allot of time pondering it as I was digging out from the recent snowstorm.

As a conquence from the Democratic administration, the EEOC ( Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ) has been empowered to investigate and litigate employment claims more than ever. The agency has now a bigger budget and increase staffing to follow up on claims. As a small business owner it is important to realize that you may not be under their radar just because you are a small business. The EEOC is looking at systemic policies and behavior which could target even the smallest of companies. This could mean that a discrimination claim against your business by one employee could result in the EEOC looking at your business for a broad or systemic problem for all your employees. In other words the one employees claim is looked at as the "smoke" consealing a "fire". The best risk strategy is to have sound employment procedures and manuals that every employee has signed off on. Also to make sure you document all actions and issues. Finally look into purchasing

In previous posts I discussed  Enterprise Risk Management and having to apply a process to determine risk in all phases of your business . What is this process? It is a 5 step approach to help businesses keep risk under wraps. The risk management process is 1) Identification  2) Analysis  3) Control   4)Finance  5) Administration. I will go over each step in future posts. In the meantime become familair with the steps by doing some research on the web. There is tons of information out there. Until next time be careful out there and know your risks. K