Blog

Putting safety first is a central tenet of managing any type of commercial operations. Even if a business’ principal activities are primarily administrative, taking steps to ensure safety in the workplace can have significant advantages. Here are a few key considerations for employers about the value of a workplace safety program.

Maximize Productivity

Accidents that cause injuries with long-term repercussions can force employers to forgo the contributions that employees would have made if they had stayed healthy. Reducing the risk of harm involving occupational hazards which employees encounter in their job roles can make it easier for them to get through their workdays as healthy and productive as possible.

Decrease Benefits Utilization

Occupational injuries can be costly for employers because the utilization of benefits such as health insurance or short-term disability can make those premiums more expensive. Making a workplace safer can spare employees from needing to use benefits.

Build a Positive Company Culture

A strong emphasis on safety has a positive impact on a workforce. When employers take steps to keep people safe, they are showing them that their health and safety is important.

Proactive policies geared towards safeguarding a workforce reflects well on a company. It shows both employees and customers that a company’s leadership is competent, accountable, and has its priorities in order.

one of the top things job seekers look for in a position is the overall benefits package. These can stretch way beyond health insurance, and the options you choose should reflect the needs of employees as well as budgetary restrictions. The following tips can help you design a benefits package that accommodates both. 

Budget for Required Benefits

This is an important first step in designing a benefits package for your employees. State regulations will dictate what benefits are required, and you must offer them. This usually includes unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, and social security benefits. The costs associated with these must be included in your payroll budget.

Choose Components To Meet Needs

Now you can begin to look at voluntary offerings. These must meet the needs of employees, but they also should fit comfortably within your payroll budget. Take time to learn which ones matter most to your employees to support workplace satisfaction and positively impact retention efforts. A few of the most common examples include:

• Paid time off
• Educational assistance programs
• Disability or life insurance
• Health insurance
• Dental and vision coverage

Evaluate Existing Plans for Effectiveness

Your work is not done once a benefits package is immplemented. Monitoring employee enrollment and satisfaction with the program and offerings can help fine-tune details so you can make adjustments in subsequent years.

Employee benefits packages play a large role in job satisfaction and retention. You want to choose programs that meet employee needs while also fitting within your established payroll budget. 

Working as a rideshare driver can be an excellent source of supplemental or full-time income. Here are some tactics for maximizing ridesharing profits.

Fuel Up Affordably

This price of gas has been on the rise, and spikes in this basic operating necessity can undermine profits considerably. Before you head to the pump, look online for the least expensive stations in your area. In some regions, a ten minute drive can save you ten or even twenty percent.

Time Your Hours Strategically

A big perk of working as a rideshare driver is the freedom to set your own working hours. However, you should really try to plan your working hours when there is a high demand in your area. Driving during peak hours enables drivers to command higher fares. The morning and evening commutes in metro areas tend to be particularly busy times of day. Heading to downtown areas after a big event lets out can also be a smart maneuver.

Drive for More Than One Company

Unless you have signed a noncompete agreement, consider working for more than one rideshare company. Companies’ rates can vary at different hours of the day.

Rideshare drivers have to be strategic about controlling your overhead and getting good fares.  With thorough planning and organization, you can be confident that your hard work will produce good earnings.  

When you look at water, sometimes you can see things in it that you don’t want in there and sometimes you can’t. For instance, hard water has mineral ions in it that have a detrimental effect on pipes, but you can’t see them. Wastewater is a potentially dangerous type of water that can cause damage if it is left unprocessed or used in the wrong way.

What Is Wastewater?

Wastewater is the result of fresh water that has been used in a number of applications. It is polluted water that occurs because of human activity and rainwater runoff. Sewage is another term for wastewater and is often characterized as storm sewage, domestic sewage or industrial sewage.

What Risks Are Involved With Wastewater?

When discussing wastewater risk assessment, you’re talking about water than can cause much harm to people, animals and the environment.  It can contain fungal, bacteria, parasitic organisms and viruses. These can cause skin or eye infections, viral infections like hepatitis, giardiasis and gastroenteritis. Odors are not so much a health concern as they are signals that something needs to be investigated to ensure water purity.

Wastewater risk assessment also includes accounting for any kind of toxic materials transported through water from industry, like factories or hospitals. The potential destruction of unleashing torrents of it unto the environment are tantamount to treason against the planet.

Wastewater is not something to fool around with. It contains elements that can be very harmful. When properly treated, it can safely return to the environment with diminished risk to animals and their habitats. 

People who work remotely and travel the globe are an emerging niche insurance market. Here are a few things these digital nomads prefer from their insurance company.

Paperless Documents

Digital nomads by definition do not have a fixed address. Therefore, they have no need for mailed paper documents. Paper documents pose a liability, in fact, should the wrong person intercept mail that is delivered to an address where the customer doesn’t live. Nomads prefer to receive their documents electronically.

24/7 Assistance

Digital nomads inhabit all the time zones, and therefore need to reach customer service agents at all hours. Offering 24/7 customer service ensures that everybody is assisted.

Chat Functionality

Digital nomads tend to prefer more technologically-savvy methods of communication. Offering a real-time chat function to an insurance company website allows customers to reach agents in a way that works for their electronically-connected lifestyles.

Self-Signup

Independence is a hallmark of digital nomads. This cohort tends to prefer to sign up for policies online themselves rather than call to speak with an agent. The more user-friendly your website it, the happier these customers will be.

These are just a few ways to cater to digital nomads as they grow in market share. Offering insurance in a technologically-accessible way will create loyalty with this group.

The coronavirus pandemic is beginning to slow down, but there’s no reason to slow down on prevention. Part of preventing this illness from spreading to others involves quarantining and testing yourself when you believe you’ve been exposed to the virus. Here are a few ways to obtain free COVID tests.

State Government

State government websites often provide a way to receive free COVID-19 tests shipped directly to your door. Check your state government’s official website for instructions on how to submit a request. There are many scams out there, so be sure to research carefully so you submit your information to the correct website.

Federal Government

The federal government has been offering free COVID-19 tests to households shipped via the Postal Service free of charge. Research online to find the official government website and submit an order easily and quickly. Remember to research carefully so you do not fall victim to a scam website.

Local Testing Sites

Free COVID-19 testing is available to people who need to be tested right away or who do not have an address to ship a test to. Free testing is typically held at local community centers, hospitals, urgent care clinics, and homelessness agencies. You can find local testing events by researching online or looking through your local newspaper.

There are many ways to obtain a free COVID test. Take advantage of these opportunities to keep everybody as healthy as possible.

How do you know if you need fiduciary liability insurance?

A fiduciary is anyone, either individual or corporate, who is bound both legally and ethically to act in another person’s best interests. Fiduciary liability refers to that responsibility in relation to providing benefits or retirement plans.

In the event that an employee or outside provider is accused of mismanagement or breach of duty in their fiduciary role, your company can be held responsible. Managing this risk is necessary to protect your company.

Fiduciary insurance claims can include:

• Denial of benefits
• Improper changes in benefits
• Improper counsel
• Mistakes or errors in plan administration
• Failure to follow plan documentation for administration
• Conflicts of interest
• Prohibited financial transactions
• Lack of investment diversity
• Failure to monitor third party providers
• Imprudent investment of assets
• and more

If assuming the costs of legal fees associated with these kinds of claims is not appealing to you, consider buying a fiduciary liability insurance policy.  Whether the people providing your fiduciary services are on your payroll or are outsourced, you can be held liable for any mistakes that they make while implementing your company’s benefit plans. Costs for settling claims as well as any legal fees that are accrued in the defense process are the responsibility of your company. These costs can result in the loss of your business. Protect your future with a fiduciary insurance policy.

Graveyards can be the settings for beautiful memorials that elicit feelings of love and remembrance, but many hazards threaten the tranquility of cemetery grounds. Here are a few scenarios that will necessitate an investment of time and energy to fix.

Vandals

People who are angry at the world or nihilistic might enjoy destroying memorials. They might do so by knocking tombstones over, carving into them, or spray painting them. This kind of mean-spirited destruction can require the use of cleansers and brushes or heavy machinery to hoist the stone back into place.

Shifting Ground

In colder climates, grounds freeze and cause tombstones to shift. A once-straight headstone may require resetting using the help of levers or heavy machinery. Because gravestones can weigh hundreds or thousands of pounds, it won’t likely be possible to reset the stone single-handedly and without the aid of tools.

Lightning

Cemeteries are typical wide-open spaces with relatively short markers scattered across them. For particularly tall memorials, lightning poses a real threat. Similarly, lightning can strike a nearby tree, causing it to fall onto headstones. When this happens, the stone may become cracked or may topple over.

Cemeteries do not require much maintenance, but a few problems can happen which will require loving care (and tools) to remedy.

When you are in charge of a nonprofit organization, there are numerous responsibilities that you must cover. Because such organizations can face a large number of liability charges, it can be a smart move to invest in directors and officers’ insurance, or D&O for nonprofits to avoid unwanted legal or financial troubles in the future.

Understanding D&O for Nonprofits

In many instances, nonprofits have some type of homeowners insurance in place to cover the physical location of the organization; however, that coverage does not protect nonprofits from lawsuits that allege charges of “wrongful acts.” D&O coverage, on the other hand, does cover this broader category of actions that can lead to liability claims against your organization. 

Reasons To Need D&O Coverage

At the end of the day, there is no amount of preparation or training that can control another person’s actions. Sometimes, people will act out of bad intent, and other times, accidents happen that lead to costly consequences. Historically speaking, it has been the leaders of organizations who have made the most expensive errors. As such, it only makes sense to protect your organization against any possible personnel charges.

Although some nonprofit administrators overlook the need for this sort of liability coverage, doing so can be a costly mistake. Why not invest in some peace of mind?

Management consulting comes with its’ rewards. You can watch a client’s leadership flourish under your suggestions. However, the job does not come without its risks. Your solutions may cause a client harm rather than good. In that case, you may be held liable. Being prepared with management consultant liability insurance can help get you through those difficult situations.

Understanding the Basics of Liability Insurance 

In short, liability insurance helps cover you when a client holds you liable. In these cases, there could be costs you owe the company. In some instances, these claims go to court. Then you are responsible for finding an attorney, working on settlements and covering other legal fees.

These expenses can add up. If you aren’t prepared, your business could suffer under these accruing costs. Consultant liability insurance can help cover these costs.

Examples of Liability

You may have inputted an erroneous number when you were calculating company costs. This could lead them to suffer financially. Maybe a client feels your advice leads to losses instead of improvements. There are many situations where a client feels you are at fault.

You may believe you are not responsible. Even if this is the case, it is important to have proper insurance coverage. You will still have to go through the proper legal processes to prove your innocence. Adequate insurance coverage can help you do that without large financial losses.