business Archives - World Risk Management

Fight workers compensation fraud with facts

Mar 6, 2019 | Informative

Employers are on the front lines of nipping one particular sort of workers compensation fraud in the bud: the incident that never happened or one that is being exaggerated, according to panelists on a session on fraud at the 38th annual International Risk Management Institute Construction Risk Conference.

Weighing in on what employers can do to prevent fraud at the onset of a claim, especially on a construction site where the landscape alters daily and the workers — witnesses — on the site can change from day to day, the first step is to gather facts with an effective reporting system and immediate documentation, the presenters said Monday at the conference in Houston.

“It’s important when these claims occur to collect information, because it might not be there when you go back to get it,” said Melissa Schultz, co-founder of Chicago-based SitePatterns LLC, which markets incident-reporting software for the commercial construction industry.

Simplified and immediate incident reporting is a must, said Ms. Schultz, who spent several years on construction sites in risk management and workers compensation.

“You want to make sure (your system) is asking the right questions … You don’t want (the form) to be 15 pages long. You want something they can complete, easily fill out and is easy to understand,” she said. “It’s important that you get those reports early and review them.”

Witness statements are just as important, as subcontractors who witnessed the incident might not be working on-site later on when an employer needs more facts on a claim that is likely being inflated, according to presenters.

“Pay attention to the witness statements,” said Patrick Duggan, Chicago-based vice president of risk for Power Construction Co. LLC. Mr. Duggan said employers sometimes go back to investigate when a simple claim becomes more complex — with a surgery looming or a plaintiff’s attorney asked for a large lump sum — and it’s sometimes too late to gather facts.

Ms. Schultz said to make sure witnesses are separated and provide accounts individually — as stories start to sound “more similar” the closer the witnesses are before reporting.

Making it routine for site safety coordinators and other supervisors to take photographs of scenes is another step, she said. “Job sites changes quickly … if you go back days later to take photos, chances are it will not look the same,” she said.

She recalled one claim where a subcontractor reported that he fell down a staircase. A supervisor was able to take video of the stairwell with his phone immediately after the incident. Weeks later the injured worker’s attorney called with a claim that the stairwell was full of “gushing” water, she said.

“I gladly shared that video with that attorney,” Ms. Schultz added.

Incident-reporting culture on-site is another factor in preventing fraudulent claims, she said. “You want to make sure you communicate the process regularly,” she said. “You want to make sure that you remind the field how to fill out that report.”

Supervisors can become more used to the incident-reporting process and can think of it as “more than just checking the boxes,” she said. “They start anticipating the things you will need,” she added. The supervisor who took video of the stairwell, for example, did so immediately without having been asked to do so, she said.

Brian Koch, Chicago-based partner/shareholder with Wiedner & McAuliffe Ltd., said early documentation, including photographs, can also work in reverse: helping to prove a legitimate claim that an employer deemed possibly fraudulent, thus cutting down on legal costs.

He told the story of a subcontractor who was injured within his first few hours on a job site — sometimes a telltale sign of fraud, but not in this case, he said. A photograph of a tear in some anti-slip skids on the floor helped show how the worker did, in fact, trip. Attorneys saved the company “a lot of energy and expense” in seeing what happened immediately with photos taken of the site as evidence — part of a claim that the worker would have likely fought if the employer had denied it, according to Mr. Koch.

Author: Louise Esola
Source: Business Insurance

Why Data Literacy Is Your First Step to Business Intelligence

Oct 10, 2018 | Informative

In college, I had a short-lived and hilarious dream that I could learn to play lacrosse. I suppose I was attracted to the glamour of running wind sprints for two hours while being hit with titanium poles.

Alas, the dream was not to be. When I showed up to my first pick-up game, I had no idea what a “slide” was, didn’t realize “clamping” had anything to do with face-offs and had no idea where “the box” was.

I lacked lacrosse literacy.

The problem’s the same with business intelligence software. Except, data literacy is the key factor.

If you want your employees to use the $3,000-per-license business intelligence software you bought, they need to be data literate first. Otherwise, that BI tool will be as useless as a lacrosse stick was in my hands.

Fortunately, Gartner research can help you and your team get data literate. They’ve come up with multiple strategic suggestions that you can implement at your business.

What Is Data Literacy?

Data literacy means you “speak” data the way you might speak any other foreign language.

“Gartner defines data literacy as the ability to read, write, and communicate data in context, including an understanding of data sources and constructs, analytical methods and techniques applied, and the ability to describe the use case application and resulting value.”

(Full research available to Gartner clients.)

In plain English, data literacy means you know what data you’re tracking, why you’re tracking it, how to read that data, and how to use that data to save or make money.

Data Literacy Is the Gateway to Business Intelligence

At its heart, business intelligence software is a data-wrangling program.

BI software programs organize all your data sources (website data, CRM data, email data, financial and POS data) and let you see how those data sources interact (for example, did sales increase when you changed the colors on your website?).

So, until your employees are literate with the data your business intelligence tool wrangles, they won’t know how to wrangle their business intelligence tool.

The data literate person knows what data they’re tracking, where it’s stored, and how it fits together. That’s not all they know, though.

Data literacy is also a way of thinking in terms of data. The data literate person doesn’t just think in generic terms—such as did sales increase? They think in terms of data—did Q1 website conversions among women ages 18 to 34 increase as a result of that email campaign?

It’s like learning a foreign language: You haven’t really learned that new language until you start thinking in it, as well as speaking it.

How To Teach Your Employees Data Literacy

Most employees, however, probably don’t think in terms of data, which presents you with another challenge: How do you get your employees to start thinking in terms of data?

1. Employees need to know what data literacy is

Becoming literate in any new lingo is challenging … especially when people don’t know that lingo even exists.

Chances are, most of your employees aren’t even aware that data literacy is a concept. So if you want your employees to use your BI software, you’ll have to introduce data literacy first and explain why it matters.

And don’t just introduce the concept of data literacy once. Introduce it repeatedly.

No, “introduce repeatedly” is not an oxymoron. Since learning how to speak (and think) data is a major change, a single introduction probably won’t stick. They may forget at first, and that’s natural.

Case in point: As a one-time substitute teacher, I got several classes to make a major change by introducing that change gradually.

The English teacher I subbed for allowed cell phone use in her classes. Predictably, the students were learning next to nothing, though their Candy Crush scores were amazing, and they Snapchatted all their paper cuts. About a month into the gig, I decided to ban cell phones.

The change only worked because I introduced it gradually—I announced I would start the policy on a set date, explained why I was doing it, and reminded students to leave phones in their lockers.

If students brought their phones with them, they could put it in a plastic box at the front of the room when class started. If their phone rang while in the box, I’d leave it alone. If it rang while on them, I’d answer it in a loud and public fashion, and they’d go to the principal’s office.

Though the notion of spending even 45 minutes without their phones was horrifying for most of them, the policy worked well because I gradually introduced the concept of class without phones.

How to put this into practice:

There are multiple ways to introduce data literacy to your employees over a period of time.

At Capterra, our employees volunteer to lead “lunch and learn” sessions: brief, hourlong intros to topics that interest them. You could encourage data-savvy employees at your company to do the same.

You could also spend time at all-company or department meetings translating basic activities, or concepts, into data. Anything that breaks the data-ice is a good idea.

2. Employees need to speak data

Once employees know what data literacy is, they need to learn to “speak” data.

Gartner analyst Valerie Logan suggests you approach learning to speak data the same way you would any foreign language and even refers to the process as ISL or information as a second language. (Full Gartner research is available to clients.)

How to put this into practice:

Figure out which employees already speak data, and also who can translate data into plain English. These “data translators” can help employees who struggle to speak data.

Figure out what the language barriers are to speaking data: If business and IT folks don’t speak the same language, that’s a language barrier (or “interpretation gap,” as it’s also called).

There are multiple ways to break language barriers:

Keep a glossary of common terms.
Make sure C-level executives speak data so they can set an example.
Make sure your business goals are expressed in actionable language.

3. Employees need to speak data to each other

Practice makes perfect, so speak data regularly until it becomes a habit.

As Gartner analysts Alan Duncan and Lydia Clougherty Jones suggest, the best data-driven companies focus consciously on this goal. They don’t just speak data, they interact in terms of data. They use data as a way to build inter-team trust, presenting evidence and keeping an eye open for problems such as confirmation bias. (Full Gartner research is available to clients.)

At the same time, you’re learning terms such as “confirmation bias” and “cognitive filtering,” you can think about examples of this in your own work, and be on guard against these bad habits.

How to put this into practice:

Follow the example of foreign language conversation clubs. In the same way those clubs meet once a week to practice German or Amharic, get a group together for weekly or monthly coffee meet-ups where you talk data: what data you’re working with, how it interacts with other departments’ data, and what data you wish you had.

For instance, how does your website’s load time impact visitors and conversions? If sales and tech aren’t discussing how those data sets interact, you could be missing out on a possibly lucrative correlation. (Hint: shorter load time almost always means more visitors and conversions).

Discussion groups like this also help with another important goal: becoming data-driven. This is where business intelligence as a way of thinking comes into play. As you’re learning to speak data, treat it as an opportunity to learn how to think differently.

4. Employees need to speak data frequently

Ideally, brown bags and discussion groups will be your first step on the way to data literacy immersion.

Immersion’s the best way to learn to speak a foreign language, and speaking data is no different.

How to put this into practice:

Gartner analyst Valerie Logan recommends you speak data in everyday conversations, “from board meetings to team meetings.” If speaking data becomes a regular behavior, it’s more likely to stick. And when it sticks, you’ll be on your way to being data-driven.

As Gartner analyst Alan Duncan notes, becoming data-driven has more to do with behavior than technical know-how. That’s why HR should also be involved in your attempts to become data literate.

Duncan recommends having the HR department be a core stakeholder in business intelligence change management. Primarily, they can “adjust hiring practices to emphasize analytic literacy.” (Full Gartner research available to clients.)

Expect the Unexpected: Mitigating the Risks of Natural Disasters

Sep 26, 2018 | Events

As we’ve seen with the recent Kilauea volcanic eruption and last year’s catastrophic hurricane season, natural disasters are becoming more frequent and dramatically more powerful. In fact, NOAA recently reported that weather and climate disasters reached an all-time high in damage costs within the United States, exceeding $300 billion in 2017.

In the face of these increases, companies have a social responsibility to maintain a strong disaster recovery strategy. How can your company prepare to combat the risks from these seemingly unpredictable events? Implementing a proactive risk management approach can help companies better prepare themselves, their employees and their communities to minimize damage and loss in the face of these destructive events. But these strategies cannot simply be created when a natural disaster strikes. As with anything, careful planning before a catastrophe happens is vital to the continued health and success of a business.

When developing these strategies, it is imperative that both pre- and post-disaster planning is included in the mix, as each plays a critical role in ensuring your ongoing operations.

Maintain a pre-event strategy
It’s important to remember that when a natural disaster strikes, there are both direct and indirect costs to a company. How you plan and address these costs can either save or destroy your business.

With today’s technology, we have the ability to monitor most natural disasters and maintain a better idea of when and how hard they will hit. This isn’t always the case, however. While hurricanes can take time to form before making landfall, oftentimes tornadoes and wildfires happen overnight, making it critical to have disaster plans in place before a disaster strikes.

There are three main areas companies should consider when creating a preemptive disaster strategy: 1) supply chain, 2) employees and 3) business infrastructure.

Maintaining a timely and accurate risk strategy for your company and your employees is incredibly important to protect all of these assets. First, it can help protect your supply chain by providing time to divert your supply chain operations from problem areas.

Additionally, it is imperative to be mindful of conditions affecting your various suppliers and how their potential risks can affect your operations. Armed with this knowledge, you can proactively develop supply chain diversion strategies to maintain efficiency and production. While you may not have the threat of a natural disaster, one of your largest suppliers might. So think ahead, make a backup plan and monitor both your own operations and those of your supply chain.

As we all know, employees are central to each and every business. An established risk mitigation strategy will include notifying employees so they have time to protect themselves and their family. It can also help management decide if and when to send employees home to help keep them safe.

Finally, a preemptive strategy needs to consider the effects of a disaster on business infrastructure. How will you prepare your building and operations for the threat of a flood or tornado? Do you have access to the proper reinforcements and equipment to accomplish these preparations? A well-established pre-event risk management strategy can help with these issues and also minimize damage so that you are not left picking up the pieces of what could have been a protected building or warehouse.

Implement a proactive post-event strategy
When developing a post-event disaster plan, the best strategy is to think long-term, as short fixes are just that—short fixes.

Consider the upstream impact of the disaster. Damage to raw materials and supplier areas can amount to huge indirect costs. So how can you avoid this? One way is by ensuring your pre-event plan is efficiently put into effect and is able to redirect any necessary supplies. It is also imperative to have a successful remediation strategy in place to recover from the effects of a disaster for both your operations and those of your supply chain. Be prepared to re-establish your supply chain and be sure it is completely intact post-disaster.

Many disasters also have long-lasting impacts that cause companies to have a lengthy rebuilding process. Have a plan for secondary supply chain options to ensure ongoing operations in case a supplier is out of service for a longer period of time. The problems don’t end when the disaster ends, so be sure to build out contingency plans for your operations through the potential recovery months.

Your post-event remediation strategies must also consider your physical office environment. Ensure there is a plan to check that equipment is operational and know how to repair or find replacement equipment to get operations up and running as soon as possible. Focus on rebuilding the business ecosystem from the supply chain, to operations, to your employees.

Finally, consider how you will get your employees back to work, and not just for the immediate future. Invest in your employees, and they will invest in you. After natural disasters, your employees could be facing damaged or destroyed homes, the loss of loved ones and even personal injuries. Look at what the company can do to help ensure their well-being so that they are willing and able to return to work.

Inevitability doesn’t have to mean susceptibility
Regardless of location, natural disasters are going to occur that affect you and your business to some extent. That is a fact of life. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that your company is susceptible to the significant damages and costs associated with these disasters.

Maintaining open lines of communication with your leadership and employees will help you develop and implement a strategic plan before and after nature takes its course. As we face the upcoming hurricane season and other inevitable disasters, it is better to mitigate the risks and susceptibility so that your “in case” plan doesn’t become “we should have.”

Source: Risk Management Monitor

Author: Quin Rodriguez