This is the first article in a five-part series on risk management. Additional articles in this series can be found here: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.
Ask any business owner today how the marketplace has treated them the last few years, and you'll hear several recurring themes: It's a lot harder. Driving results is critical today if you want to survive. Are you trying to raise revenue, while having to do more with less people? Are your profit margins being squeezed? Do you need money in order to purchase or repair needed capital equipment in order to stay competitive?
Read on to learn how some of your competition is learning to improve their bottom line by gaining a better understanding of how to shore up several facets of their business where profit leaks can occur.
As it relates to your Risk Management program, a system known as the "4 P" plan has been created to address this. The main areas of study fall into 4 main categories:
- Pre-Hire: What does your hiring process look like these days?
- Post-Offer: What should you be doing after you've offered someone a job?
- Pre-Claim: What policies & procedures do you have in place before you have your next loss (Auto, Workers' Compensation, etc.)?
- Post-Claim: What systems do you have in place to keep yourself and the insurance carriers from having activities fall through the cracks that cost you money?
This series is designed to teach, or to reinforce for some of you, some "Best Practices" in the "4 P" process in how to lower your operational costs and the cost of your claims, so that you can be more profitable as a company, and subsequently be more competitive in your marketplace.
If you feel like you're being pulled in so many different directions, take comfort in knowing that help is available. But first, as it relates to your hiring practices, training initiatives, and claims management, you've got to be honest with yourself as to whether or not the policies and procedures you have in place are working or if they can be improved.
Do you want to know one of the main reasons why this information will be important to you? It's because your competition is already starting to learn some of the insights that will be taught in this series. In addition, you'll learn of efficiency tools being used by others to help streamline and organize various aspects of their business, such as training and claims management.
Our goal is for you are to take away several insights that could save your company hundreds of thousands of dollars or maybe even millions of dollars in lost profits and revenues. We will challenge you with new insights that will help to improve your bottom line.
In our next article, we'll look at how employee lawsuits dramatically impact your financial statements. In this series, we will ultimately discuss ways to reduce your chances of getting tapped on the shoulder with lawsuits. We will also address the topic of Total Cost of Risk (TCOR) and why it's important that you have a good understanding of this study and how it affects your company.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Dalrymple is one of the owners of Insurance Office of America and has been in the business for over 30 years. In just three short years with a leading national insurance carrier, Rick was recognized nationally for his outstanding achievements and is considered by his peers to be in the top five percent of his field. He was named partner of the year in 2005. Read all articles by this author ...
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Insurance Thought Leadership aggregates best practices from highly respected experts in their field. Insurance Thought Leadership provides knowledge and experience at a time when its needed most, times of sweeping change and market uncertainty.
Whether it’s Healthcare, Worker’s Compensation, Property & Casualty, Auto, Sophisticated Life Insurance designs, Directors & Officer’s, Safety, Risk Control or other Claims Management, Insurance Thought Leadership promises to deliver the most relevant mind share the industry has to offer.
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