The end of the year is almost here, making now the ideal time to update your risk management strategy. Every business must prioritize the safety and security of their staff, clients, company, and shareholders—as well as maintain industry compliance. Risk management doesn’t eliminate risk but is a proactive approach to the most common risk factors and areas of opportunity. This might mean adding new protocols or upgrading current strategies, such as transitioning to light engineered displays for escape routes and safety posters, and signs in warehouses displaying updated safety protocols.

Third-Party Safety Assessment

An excellent place to begin is to bring in an unbiased outside party to provide a third-party assessment. This will minimize blind spots and keep your team on their toes. Your assessment should be performed by someone with an in-depth understanding of industry compliance or your specialized areas of risk. Depending on your individual needs, you may need more than one risk assessment.

A few options to consider include:

• IT security and risk assessment
• Financial risk assessment
• Operational safety systems assessment
• Fleet and machine maintenance and safety

Upgrade Your Technology

Technology plays a vital role in maintaining compliance, automating safety systems, and identifying problems before they become larger risk factors. After your third-party assessment, you will be provided with a list of suggestions, including technology upgrades. But keep an eye on technology advances all year long to see how you can improve safety. A personal example here at MEGA was updating the PHP on our website to eliminate safety breaches and hackers.

For example:

• Upgrading your hardware and data storage to improve IT security.
• Upgrading to smart sensors that are connected to software that generates reports, automated updates, and real-time safety alerts.
• Upgrading to wireless power transfer technology so that you don’t have to hardwire or swap out the batteries on safety sensors.
• Installing UV-C lights or machines to sanitize the air.
• Installing a mix of LED signs to improve communication.
• Upgrading to light engineered displays for exit routes, safety posters, switch boxes, and emergency displays that maintain function even when the power is out.

Create Safety Checklists

Now that you’ve determined your areas of opportunity, it’s time to create a system of checks and balances. If you don’t already have safety checklists, it’s time to create a few and designate who is responsible for what. For example, different departments may be responsible for ensuring compliance with industry and company safety, security, and risk management policies.

In addition to assigning compliance to different departments, you must also assign someone to oversee and ensure compliance is being met. Technology will minimize things falling through the cracks, but you’ll still need to put in place daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly checklists. Maybe even have a second set of checklists for how to adjust procedures when technology goes down.

Train Your Team

Now that your new risk management strategy has been developed, it’s time to train your team. Some of this training will need to be hands-on but leverage online and at-your-own pace training when you can.

This should include any combination of group or solo training such as:

• Initial training
• Annual recurrent training
• Post-incident training
• Training after a compliance change

In many cases, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, as there are a variety of professional training organizations you can hire to perform the training for you. For example, online training to ensure your IT team’s security training is up to date. Or sending your restaurant employees to food safety training. Or a company that can integrate company-specific protocols into their existing training courses.

Internal Audits

You’ve assigned compliance, created checklists, and trained your team, now you must verify compliance. You can achieve this by performing internal audits. These audits should include reviewing checklists, but also ensuring all systems, technology, and tools are working properly. Again, upgrade to smart devices when you can, but even smart devices need to be calibrated. Or they need software updates, maintenance, and to be tested to ensure they are fully functioning.

Internal audits can be performed by your third-party team, an internal team member with exceptional attention to detail, or a combination of both.

Staying On Top Of Changing Protocols

Industry, company, and local ordinances, rules, and laws can change at any time. This means that you must have a system in place for identifying external protocol changes. COVID is a shining example of frequent protocol changes, as many cities, counties, and states have changed their mandates multiple times since the pandemic began. Even your internal protocols have changed a few times.

Assign someone to stay on top of these changes. This might be your HR team, department manager, or an assigned person in each department. If multiple people are assigned to manage different areas of risk, there should be a central location where all changes are stored.

Ongoing Communications

Whether it’s a protocol change that comes in before your next scheduled recurrent training, or periodic reminders to improve retention—your risk management strategy must include a plan for ongoing communication. Company-wide emails and bulletins are great, but not everyone reads or retains them, so think outside of the box.

For example:

• A short 5 to 20 question digital quiz that team members must complete ensuring retention of a new or frequently changing protocol.
• Adding an LED sign to your employee break room that alternates between a variety of messages. For example, employee of the month, birthdays, work anniversaries, upcoming company events, and protocol change reminders.
• Strategically placed light engineered displays placed throughout the chain of operations to serve as a friendly reminder.
• Light engineered displays layered above or below a scrolling LED sign to provide directions and reminders.
• Light engineered displays in a warehouse showing upcoming birthdays, safety protocols, and days since any workplace injuries could help boost morale.

Looking For LED Displays To Support Your Risk Management Strategy?

If you are in the market for custom-built light engineered displays or LED displays, Mega LED Technology has you covered! We personalize your signs to your individual specs and can build your sign in any square or rectangular shape. Our signs can be placed both inside and outside, in any temperature you can find in North America. Reach out today to discuss your signage options!