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Fitting The Job To The Worker People work best, most productively and most safely, in a proper physical environment. Throughout history, however, people have learned to adapt most remarkably to [...]

Risk management professionals usually have to plan carefully and work hard to secure risk financing funds from a variety of sources to pay for all the accidental losses their organizations [...]

Disabilities Act Spurs Safety For all Some business executives assert that complying with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act will be as troublesome for them as complying with the Civil [...]

The Value Of Integrity As your organization's CEO, it has been brought to your attention that one of your middle managers is periodically violating your concept of fair play. This [...]

ON RISK MANAGEMENT Risk Management: Our Stake In Its Future Most of us consider ourselves professionals serving the interests of our employers, insureds, clients, and the general public by working [...]

Reading, Writing And Ergonomics Those who study the variety of disabling physical stresses under which we work - the ergonomists who strive to adapt the job to the person rather [...]

Risk management' used to be an insurance and safety term, meaning preventing or paying for accidental losses. In recent years, it has also become a financial term, denoting making decisions [...]

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) are being encouraged to discontinue their publicly-aired bickering over the petty issue of classification and concentrate on mutual goals. NAIC recently changed RIMS' classification from insurance purchaser to insurance provider but did not reclassify other risk management associations. The argument might be settled if NAIC postponed the change until a total reclassification review was made and if risk management groups created a central organization to represent them., Some of our good friends at the Risk and Insurance Management Society have been quarreling in the trade press with some of our equally good friends at the National Association [...]

The most crucial part of a well-conceived sexual harassment investigation is the naming of an inside investigator. Sexual harassment investigators must have broad backgrounds, and should have experience in workplace investigation methods, human behavior research, and employee counseling. Further, the investigator must possess some authority within the organization, and should have a reputation for trustworthiness. An investigator who has these qualities will likely be able to gather accurate information from both parties in the investigation., When sexual harassment occurs, the most important person the organization can have during this crisis is the investigator. For this reason the organization must be very selective in its choice [...]

Company practices to prevent sexual harassment and risk financing to cover costs of sexual harassment claims are two areas wherein risk managers can prevent severe organizational income losses. Management and employee support in implementing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Guidelines can reduce or prevent sexual harassment incidents that decrease productivity and sometimes result in catastrophic claim awards. Claim settlement costs can be cut through mediation, arbitration or alternative dispute resolution and the use of annuities or other structured settlements for awards., There are two areas of concern which need to be addressed in preventing sexual harassment: the skills needed by the organization and the risk financing needed to restore money lost [...]

Risk managers should familiarize themselves with legal decisions and the most common factors that define the term sexual harassment. The demand for professionalism in the workplace has brought media attention to sexual harassment incidents which often result in costly lawsuits. Sexual harassment can occur under a number of circumstances and victims do not have to be the sexual opposites of harassers. A single incident does not constitute harassment. Harassment is defined as unwelcome, implicit or explicit behavior that interferes with the victim's job performance., The work force today is demanding a particular attitude adjustment - absolute professionalism by all parties in the workplace. Any significant deviations that occur are being openly challenged in legal [...]

Shopping List For Beginning Risk Managers Many articles advise the practicing risk manager how to improve his or her daily work and how to elevate the sophistication of an ongoing [...]

The Values Of Compassion The compensation person is 'co-passionate' - that is, shares passions or feelings - with his or her fellow humans. He or she reveres human values, and [...]

Pulling Health Risk Mgrs. Out Of The Basement Every manager knows, or soon learns, that his or her success largely depends on just two things: * Where the manager ranks [...]

Miscommunication: Greatest Workplace Hazard Everyone who has ever misunderstood a request or an account of the day's activities from a family member knows firsthand the hazards of miscommunication. Much greater [...]

When safety concerns become linked with political issues, safety is likely to encompass many new and broader concerns. An example is the U.S. Supreme Court's March 20 decision in International [...]

Risk Management Ethics: Two Key Questions We have written many times before about 'risk management professionals.' In our minds this term blankets everyone who uses his or her personal skills [...]

Some Ethics Of Entertaining A professional colleague, on whose risk management expertise I would rely above my own, recently asked in print a question seemingly so simple there should be [...]

Grandpa's Bridge And The Value Of Information Gathering information needed for good managerial decisions - in risk management as elsewhere - can be costly. So, before spending a lot to [...]

Should An Agent-Broker Ask? Should producers ask whether their errors and omissions insurance covers risk management activities that arguably go beyond the marketing of insurance for a commission? Please note [...]

ON RISK MANAGEMENT `Truth' In Insurance Contracts The only thing any insurance policy, or any contract, ultimately ever means is what the highest court that interprets it says it means. [...]

ON RISK MANAGEMENT Money Now Vs. Coverage Later Suppose the CEO of a profit-seeking, publicly-held corporation asks its risk manager to pursue a claim under one of the corporation's insurance [...]

I Think, Therefore I Give Thanks Two days ago my wheelchair and I waited strapped in my van, stalled by an electrical system failure at night, still partially in the [...]

Managing an organization's risks effectively involves every department and employee in the organization. The risk management professional must be able to demonstrate that everyone creates loss exposures and must help control or finance such losses.

Tax laws concerning the payment of premiums from parent to captive companies are not clear. The Internal Revenue Code should be amended to define the conditions under which an organization can take a tax deduction for contributions to reserves for future losses it plans to retain.

Insurance companies and agents speak of 'first-dollar' coverage, but virtually every policy has some deductible component, either hidden or overt. Self-insuring firms need to be aware of the potential costs of 'hidden deductibles' to figure reasonable amounts of retention.