Every new business potentially faces lots of risks including potential property damage, or the likelihood for employees and non-employees to be injured in their ordinary course of work at company premises.
Every business risk carry not only monetary costs, but also the cost of time and effort for management to deal with the issue, and implement strategies to prevent them from re-occurring.
Business risk control involves evaluating potential business losses and taking appropriate and strategic actions to reduce or eliminate every known threat. It involves the implementation of new polices and standards, physical changes and procedural changes that can reduce or eliminate certain risks within a business.
These are a few things your company can do to find and control risks you may face on daily basis.
For most small businesses and low-risk businesses controlling risks is pretty straightforward. But most high-growth businesses rely on health and safety services to asses internal business risks. They then provide reports or implementation guide on how to manage risks identified.
Not every new business can reply on outside help to identify and manage unknown risks. For every small business with little or no resources, there are still few simple things you can do keep your business safe for work.
A good starting point for management is to walk around your workplace and look for any hazards, (things that may cause harm). Think about how accidents could happen and who might be harmed.
Ask your employees what they think the hazards are, as they may notice things that are not obvious to you and may have some good ideas on how to control the risks. Rely on your team to help you protect them and control risks that could happen.
Once you have identified the risks and what you need to do to control them, you can then put the appropriate measures in place to prevent any foreseen risk from happening.
Building risks are the most common types of physical risk. The best thing any business can do is inform your employees about what they can do in an event of an emergency that threatens their personal safety. It’s important that they abandon all work-associated documents, equipment and or products in an event of fire or explosions.
Hazardous materials most frequently spilled or released into the atmosphere of a workplace including acid, gas, toxic fumes, toxic dust or filings, and poisonous liquids or waste. Employees who work with or are likely to come into contact with any of them should be educated on what to do and equipped with the necessary materials to handle them.
Other forms or risks your business should can manage include embezzlement, theft and fraud, power surges which could affect your computers etc.
Insurance is a principal safeguard in managing risk, and many risks are insurable. But the best insurance has always been prevention. Preventing the many risks from occurring in your business can be achieved through proper employee training, background checks, safety checks, business equipment maintenance, and maintenance of the physical premises.
Every business need protection against threats to property, people, assets, business continuity, public image and to the business itself. Your business depends on it.
It is important that your business responds to the physical and financial risks of running a business in a similar way that other business functions are managed.
