mosyohin: Risk Management Procedure: Setting Usage Policies

Saturday, 1 December 2012

Risk Management Procedure: Setting Usage Policies | Business 2 ...

Insurance agents are often referred to as risk management professionals, because they focus on risk first. The modern insurance agent does so much more than sell insurance. Most agents get involved in staff training, look at procedures and advise on equipment. The role of the modern insurance agent is to implement risk management procedure.

One of the most common and most effective procedures your agent will help with is the instigation of usage policies. These policies, usually attributed to things like commercial vehicles and mobile devices, outline the safety requirements and responsibilities on each member of staff. Each policy will be unique, but there is a basic structure that most will follow. Let?s look at the structure and how it works as an effective risk management procedure.

Set parameters

The first step in any policy is to set the parameters for that policy. It?s important that you make clear exactly what is covered under the policy. Any ambiguity here can lead to abuse of the policy by staff who think they?ve spotted a loophole. In order for risk management procedures to work, they need to be specific. The same goes for usage policy.

Business Usage

The meat of the policy will be defining what constitutes business use. It will define which functions are allowed and indeed expected to be used and which are forbidden. The most effective risk management procedures acknowledge the risk and define how it?s avoided. This section essentially does the same thing, acknowledging prohibited usage and defining proper usage.

Personal Usage

Whether it covers email, mobile devices, cars, there should be some allowance for personal use in every usage policy. In most cases you are providing a function that your employee would like to use in their personal life. If you ban it outright, you encourage abuse, which creates risk. Since this is supposed to be a risk management procedure, that?s counter productive.

Management Responsibility

The key to every risk management procedure is implementation and enforcement. Once you put policy in place, you need to ensure it is followed. The policy itself should outline the responsibilities of management and any related disciplinary procedures for breach of the policy. That breach should extend to negligence on behalf of management in upholding the policy.

Setting usage policy and enforcing risk management procedure follow very similar guidelines. To get the most out of either, you should contact your local insurance agent.

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