Risk & Business

Ergonomics comes from the Greek words "ergon" and "nomy" which are "work" and "laws" respectively. The term means the laws of work. It also means important issues if you are a business owner. Making sure the working environments for your employees are fitted to the person and not the job is vital in today's workplaces. The reason?  Reduced injuries and accidents will mean more productivity and profit. Recent studies show that inappropriate designed workplaces can average up to $30,000 per injury, and this is just medicals. If you add lost time and lost productivity,  the number can be staggering for small business. Every small business owner needs to know the "ergo" risk factors. Here are some of them: 1) Repetitive tasks, 2) Excessive force, 3) Awkward posture, 4) Static Loading, and  5)Vibrations. As a small business owner, understanding how to risk manage these ergonomic risk factors can be vital to the success of your business

There are 2 theories on what causes accidents. The first theory is people cause accidents. Social and personal ancestry affect a workers personality (e.g., stubbornness and recklessness) that lead to faults which leads to unsafe conditions , which lead to accidents, and finally to injuries. The other theory is physics causes accidents. Energy builds up in certain conditions and is suddenly released causing accidents and injuries.  Which one do you subscribe to?  In my experience I can point to both theories and see truth. Take the example of the hot head foreman on a construction crew who gets so frustrated with his guys he decides to do the job himself. So he grabs the tools he needs and begins to lift and work to complete the job. Unfortunately he injures his back because as the foreman he is not use to the rigors of the job. His personality trait caused the accident. Now lets look at physics. Here is an example.  A loaded delivery truck is driving extremely slow down a road on a co

Every small business owner needs to know about insurance modeling.  What you pay for insurance rates will most likely be directly related to it. Insurance models  are algorithms which tell the insurance companies how much to charge you. They base these calculations on data obtained from various sources about your business. A lot of this information may not even seem related to business insurance. Here are some examples,  how do you pay your vendors?,  what is your credit score? , has your company lost money in the last few years? , how does your business compare to other businesses in your peer group?  These are just examples of  data insurance companies may use. There is a lot more but much of it is proprietary.  Understand that everything you do in your business is fair game to the insurance company modelers.  It is a new world !  Until next time be careful out there and know your risks G. Kevin Nemith,  President CNC Insurance Assoc. & The Small Business Insurance Center Serv

Small business owners guess what?  The Delaware Insurance Department has just approved a 11% reduction in work comp rates for 2015. Many of you reading this blog will be getting premium relief  for 2015. What does this mean for the future of the Delaware work comp market. Well lets hope we do not have a repeat of a few years ago. If you recall the work comp rates were rolled back and reduced dramatically on the back of Senate Bill 1 in 2007, which was betting on updated fee schedules to reduce work comp claim costs. Unfortunately this did not work too well and the State was forced to increase rates back up in order to preserve the insurance market. Not only did the rates go up but they went up so quickly that many small business owners were hit really hard with increased premium costs at a time when they could not afford it (during the Great Recession). Now this is round 2. The State legislature passed a law that will force medical costs down 30% over the next 3 years. On this "pr