Risk Management For Your Small Business:

One of the best ways to keep your risks low as a small business is to enact written procedures for your employees. These procedures can be designed to limit the risks inherent with your work space and cut down on possible problems. If you don't have the time to run for a mop every time an employee or customer spills something, you can definitely benefit from a written procedure list.

Risk management is exactly what it sounds like. It is intended to reduce your liability and provide you with a way to avoid negligence claims. Since you cannot be all places at once, you will need to utilize your employee's help in maintaining a safe environment.

Here are some ideas on what you can include on your written procedure list.

1. Create a spill policy. Instead of nicely asking employees to clean up spills, you can create a spill policy that is intended to deal with spills before they become a hazard to your customers and employees. A sample spill policy can contain wording such as "Employees are required to immediately clean up a spill to avoid accidents. If you cannot clean up the area, a warning sign must be placed over the spill immediately."

Spills are a common occurrence and one of the most frequent causes of employee and customer injuries. By including the statement to place a warning sign over the spill if clean up is not immediately possible, you are reducing your liability.

2. Do not allow drinks in customer areas. If spills are a frequent problem, you can prohibit your employees from having drinks near cash registers or near where customers will be walking. This is a great way to avoid future problems. If your employees are refusing to follow your written procedure, you will then be able to take individual action against the guilty party. You can also post a sign prohibiting customers from bringing in beverages to your establishment to further reduce the risk of spills.

3. Create a specific time for cleaning floors. Wet floors are a common culprit in employee and customer falls. If your employees are cleaning the floors during business hours in an attempt to leave early, it is important to create a written statement prohibiting them from doing this. Instead, you can require that cleaning must take place after business hours, when no customers are present, except in the event of a spill.

4. Require immediate notification of problems. If your employees notice a broken tile or other hazard, they should be required to immediately notify you of this problem. As a business owner, you can be found negligent if an obvious hazard has no warning sign posted and/or no steps were taken to fix the problem.

These are just a few samples to assist you in creating your own written procedure list. Each business is different and may have different risk management needs. It is a good idea to go over all potential problems or hazardous areas before finalizing your procedure list. Make sure that all of your employees are aware of the new procedures to ensure that they will be carried out promptly.

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