There are numerous actions for municipal risk management staff to take throughout the year as part of a consistent and proactive effort to reduce liability for the local government.
Here are some key things for risk managers to address in the final quarter of the year:
October
- Implement a workplace substance abuse program.
- Establish a written substance abuse program to address the safety, health and liability exposures resulting from employee substance abuse in the workplace.
- Five standard components of a comprehensive workplace substance abuse program are these:
- A written policy statement
- Periodic supervisor training every three years
- Periodic employee education and awareness
- Employee assistance for providing help
- Drug and alcohol testing
- Consult an attorney to ensure the program is fair, accurate and legally defensible.
November
- Review certificates of insurance.
- Certificates of insurance establish that there is an active insurance policy in force at a particular moment in time, lines of insurance coverage and the limits of those coverages.
- Review certificates frequently, depending on the situation and scope of the work performed. - Review safety policies and procedures. Examples include safety policy, accident reporting procedures and seat belt policy.
- Make sure that policies and procedure are written and evidence of enforcement is documented.
December
- Establish a safety and wellness committee.
- The committee should develop, implement and maintain the risk management and wellness program.
- There should be written duties and responsibilities of the committee. - Complete a schedule for the upcoming year's safety and wellness meetings.
- The committee should meet at least quarterly and document the attendance and meeting minutes. - Review loss information and identify trends.
- Use the prior loss history to identify risk exposures.
- Implement loss prevention techniques to reduce the frequency of losses identified by the loss information or trends, and loss reduction techniques should be implemented to reduce the severity of losses that have occurred.