Planning for Safety in 2025
By: Lindsey DiGangi, AVP- Marketing
As the year winds down, you’re likely getting deeper into your 2025 planning. As you consider your next strategic initiatives, don’t forget about planning for safety as well! Here are a few items we suggest adding to your 2025 plans:
- Scheduling Preventative Maintenance: Spending time now to schedule out your 2025 preventative maintenance for your buildings, equipment, and vehicles can help you save time and money in the future. Preventative maintenance can help reduce wear and tear that can lead to more costly reactive maintenance or worse, losses that can impact your productivity. We regularly see losses that come from older equipment and buildings issues that could have been caught with regularly scheduled maintenance.
By scheduling these things early, you can also create your employee schedules to ensure you have the right people working during these times. For example, are you scheduling equipment maintenance that requires hot works? Scheduling a person for an extended watch can help ensure that fire risks are mitigated following the maintenance.
Don’t forget about your electrical system! These hidden risks can cause devastating losses. Consider an annual infrared survey to ensure there are no electrical concerns hiding under the surface. Did you know that many of PLM’s Loss Control Representatives are certified Thermographers? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us to discuss this topic further.
- Schedule Regular Safety Meetings: If you don’t already have staff safety meetings or required annual training on your calendar, consider setting up your 2025 schedule now. Setting the schedule now not only helps your leadership team commit to the time for these meetings, but it also shows your employees that you’re serious about safety.
There are also ways to make this a fun part of your culture. Earlier this year, I spoke to one of our insureds who had a great idea for their regular safety meetings. They made a trivia game out of safety training. Teams of employees would compete on different safety topic trivia questions. Not only did this build camaraderie and create some friendly competition, it also helped educate employees in the process.
Wondering what topics to cover in regular safety meetings? We have an extensive list of guides on our loss control center that can provide a perfect backdrop for your meetings. You can also contact your local Loss Control Representative to discuss any ideas.
- Schedule Annual Contract Reviews: Planning for safety doesn’t stop at your physical risks. It also includes scheduling back-end office reviews for things like risk transfer agreements. How often are you reviewing the contracts you have in place for vendors or subcontractors? An annual review of these contracts can help protect you and your organization in the event of a loss. Creating a process now will ensure that no vendors are overlooked in 2025 or beyond. Here are some items to consider for your review:
- Do you have executed contracts with all vendors?
- Do you have hold harmless agreements in place?
- Do you request and have organized certificates of Insurance for all subcontractors?
- Do your vendors hold adequate insurance limits?
Talk to your broker about what you should expect and request from vendors. You can also contact your local Business Development Representative to discuss further. Need to start with creating a standard contract? Consider working with a lawyer to ensure that your contracts are drafted with adequate risk transfer in mind.
Adding safety to your annual planning process can help ensure a successful year ahead. A loss in any of the areas above can derail your strategic initiatives and jeopardize more than that.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at custserv@plmins.com or 800-752-1895, where we can direct you to the correct resource. You can also contact me directly at ldigangi@plmins.com or 267-825-9034.
Lumber Memo: Issue 5 – 2024
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