Kaplansky Insurance

I know what it feels like to have vacation plans disrupted by unforeseen circumstances. Every time I see those TV reports of people camped out at airport gates and passenger lounges, I cringe with sympathy. Been there, done that, as they say. You too? And even though travel insurance reduces the sting of such misfortunes, it’s still a painful experience to miss out on part of a vacation.

But of course, travel insurance is about muc more than simple delay or cancelation of your transport. It can cover a whole range of risks including medical treatment (generally not covered in health insurance policies), repatriation, evacuation, and cancelation for a whole other range of reasons.

When it comes to business travel, these risks and needs are magnified, so the value of adequate insurance, especially for medical coverage, can be even more significant. The natural hazards of travel, particularly overseas, can be potentially far more disruptive to your business than the loss of a recuperative week in the sun.

This is certainly the case when you or one of your senior team is threatened with the possibility of being away from the workplace for an extenedd period. You may already have key person insurance in place for this coverage, but travel insurance provides another layer of coverage, including high-level accidental death (beyond what might be contained in your existing policies), missed connection insurance and special coverage for valuable commercial baggage and business equipment.

It’s also possible to obtain insurance that covers other specific needs – like war risks in certain parts of the world, or extended medical policies for when an employee has to spend some time overseas. Policies might cover individuals or an entire team, depending on your needs and, as with regular travel insurance, deductibles can be used to reduce premiums and both one-off and annual policies are available.

Other add-ons top a business travel policy might include bereavement counseling for victims and rehabilitation expenses, plus travel assistance services if passports, money or other personal items are stolen, along with legal support in the event that an employee is detailed while traveling on your behalf. In other words, a policy can be precisely tailored to meet your business needs.

Do you have troublemakers at your workplace? I’ve come across my fair share of them in my time, both in my own business and through clients. And even if things are peaceful right now, you never know when they’ll show up because troublemakers are masters of disguise.

In my experience, they fall into two categories:

• The bullies – people who victimize one or more of their colleagues or subordinates. Sometimes this takes form of sexual or racial harassment and may include humiliation, isolation or ridicule.
• The difficult-to-manage – employees who seem incapable or obstinately unwilling to do what you want them to do; those characters drive me nuts.

One good thing though – the more experience you have of these difficult types, the better you should become at dealing with them effectively in the future.

Workplace bullying is a huge issue and, as in the schoolyard, often goes unnoticed or at least unreported. According to a survey by the National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health, about a quarter of all firms report instances of bullying in a single year.

The end result, of course, is stress, loss of productivity, low morale – all bad news for your business, to say nothing of the poor victim. You might also add in the costs both of replacing them when they quit and dealing with investigations or even legal action.

What can you do? First, you need to keep your eyes and ears open. You can usually detect bullying when there’s low morale within a group and one or more people seem to be afraid to speak their minds.

A couple years back the Washington State Department of Labor published a great guide that suggests, first, that you institute a well-publicized zero tolerance anti-bullying policy, and that you should encourage reporting of incidents, dealing with them immediately.

You may need to reassign those involved, while you investigate. When your investigation is complete, if you have a bully on your hands give them a warning, invoke whatever disciplinary procedures you have in place and be prepared to issue a pink slip.

More broadly, you can conduct attitude surveys that help to identify the possible flashpoints.

The Washington document includes a model Workplace Bullying Policy. Download it from: www.lni.wa.gov/safety/research/files/bullying.pdf. Another useful source of information is the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) at http://www.workplacebullying.org/.

You need to take equally decisive action against those difficult-to-manage people who can hold your business to ransom by not only lowering morale but also damaging perceptions of you as an effective owner/manager.

You could fill a whole library shelf with the books on this subject but the problem usually boils down to some ornery character who just doesn’t like being told what to do and often thinks he or she knows better than you.

These people delight in undermining your authority and, of course, protest their innocence if you tackle them. When cornered, they’re particularly adept at blaming others – or even you! Here are some of the techniques I and some of my clients have found effective in putting them in their place:

• Keep records of their behavior so you can be specific when tackling them. Don’t just tell them they’re “difficult” or they’ll claim they don’t know what you’re talking about.
• Fix a meeting as soon as possible to discuss these specifics. Allocate a reasonable amount of time and arrange not to be interrupted.
• Present your case, and then listen to what they have to say. Leave empty pauses that they will feel obliged to fill.
• Remain calm. Lose your cool and you’ll lose the issue. Breathe slowly and deeply.
• Keep your opinions out of any discussions – don’t tell them how you feel, which is subjective; just stick to the facts. Present them with the unacceptable outcome of an action they took.
• Keep your mind open – they may actually have a valid point or two to make; try to see things from their perspective.
• At the end of any discussion, set clear rules and objectives for performance and agree a review date.

The only certainty about workplace troublemakers is that if you don’t confront the issue, it won’t go away – and nor will they. There’s plenty of advice and support available online but if assertiveness is an issue for you – and it does take guts sometimes to face up to these people – get training. You won’t regret it.

Ever had to face the challenge of replacing one of your key people who suddenly quit or took sickness leave right at a critical time?

I went to see a well-reviewed play in another city once, only to discover that the star performer, one of my favorite actresses, had lost her voice. The theater called in an understudy for the role and, to be honest, I would have taken a refund and rebooked if I hadn’t been just passing through town. I’m glad I didn’t though because the understudy turned out to be brilliant and won a standing ovation. She was a smash hit!

Isn’t that how you’d like things to be if you had to call on someone to fill a gap after losing a good employee or even to keep tabs on everything and make the right decisions for you when you’re not around.

In management speak, they call it succession planning, but I prefer that theatrical term. So, have you got your understudies lined up?

I know, I know. You’re too busy thinking about today to worry about tomorrow but if they’d done that in the theater I visited there’d have been no show. In business, that doesn’t bear thinking about does it?

Well, the good news is that finding and preparing your understudies doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming. After all, if they’re any good, like a pro actor, they’ll take on the responsibility for learning the lines themselves.

So how do you go about the process? Here are a few simple tips to set the scene:

• First, you need to identify the key jobs. This is a pencil and paper task. Just work out whose absence would hit the business hardest. (Don’t forget you can get Key Person insurance for these individuals, but I’m thinking a little longer term here).
• Second, make a list of what you might call the core skills and competencies required for the job.
• Next, identify your up and coming bright sparks. You can spot them a mile off by their attitude towards work, their willingness to take “ownership” of problems, their energy and their ideas.
• Assess their potential suitability for your key roles plus their strengths and weaknesses, and arrange to address the latter through training and mentoring.
• Move them around the business a little so they get a broader insight of the operation.
• If they’re not already there, move them into the understudy position – but only after reassuring the current “star” their role is not threatened (unless it is!)

Follow these rules, and they’ll be ready to earn a standing ovation!

Taking the idea a little further, I wonder if you’ve come across a great, recently-published book by Tony Hsieh, the co-founder of the billion-dollar online shoes retailer Zappos.com.

Called Delivering Happiness, it’s worth a read on many fronts, especially in dealing with customer service. But what’s particularly relevant for this note is a succession planning program Hsieh (pronounced “Shea” by the way) calls The Pipeline.

The basic rule is that every person is trained to do the job of the individual above him or her in the pecking order. When someone leaves, both the individual above and below can fill-in temporarily before, under most circumstances, the “understudy” takes over.

Worth thinking about isn’t it?

There’s a more vital succession planning issue to consider in a small or family-owned business – who’s going to run it when you decide it’s time to move on?

This isn’t just about who’s waiting in the wings to take over. There are also important financial/tax issues you need to take advice on. A good starting point for info on this is the US Small Business Administration (www.sba.gov) and, of course, your financial professional.

That apart though, the mechanics of preparing your “understudy” are pretty much the same as I’ve outlined above. You’ll find some useful advice on the website of the independent entrepreneurial advisory group Score, at http://www.score.org/article_succession_plan.html.

The key is to give your understudy the widest possible experience within the business, plus the opportunity to do a few “live rehearsals” – like getting them to run the business while you’re away.

Sure, once you decide to move on, you want to hear that applause as you exit stage-left … but you also want the assurance of knowing the show will go on to enjoy continuing rave reviews!

Have you ever told a lie? Of course you have! Even the most pious of us has done that – maybe to get out of a corner we’ve been backed into, or even just to tell someone, who asks your opinion, that they look great even when they don’t.

But what about telling a lie to get a job? I’m sure you haven’t. But plenty of people do. A friend of mine in the retailing business was lamenting recently about having to fire a relatively new employee when he turned out not to have the skills or qualifications he needed – which he’d claimed he did have. Even worse, my pal had the sneaking suspicion this con-merchant had helped himself to some merchandise.

It underlines the importance of seeking and following through on references for recruits. After all, if you unknowingly hire a crook who then commits a crime or screws up the job, you could end up with a liability suit if one of your customers suffers as a result.

I know, when you have a thousand other things on your plate, it’s easy to skip the references and other checks, especially if your potential new hire seems such a plausible, nice guy. No matter, you should always ask him/her to list some references, making it clear t hat you will not only follow them up but also that, as a matter of policy, that you check the authenticity of the individuals supplying them.

You may already do this, but I’ve found that one way to simplify the task and save time is to have a standard form that’s quickly mailed off. This should have a brief but polite introduction naming the individual and the job they’re being considered for. If you have one, include a written job description, and then seek the following information:

• Period of employment, job title and final salary
• Brief interview of the job, responsibilities and number of direct reports
• The individual’s career path within the company
• Timekeeping and absence record
• Commentary on their performance to job requirements; would the company rehire them?
• Examples of any initiatives or improvements the individual introduced
• Was interaction with management, peers and subordinates satisfactory? Any altercations?
• An opinion on the suitability of the candidate for the job

Depending on the job, you may also want to consider character references from someone reliable who knows them well. This could be a club president or a professional, like a bank manager, who is also a friend. Other background checks might include a credit report or a formal Consumer Report. This process is governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and you need the candidate’s permission to get one. See this FTC reference for more info: http://tinyurl.com/FTC-FCRA.

You’ll probably know this from hard experience already but if you make a mistake by employing the wrong person for a job, it can be so costly in terms of money, time and lost productivity. On those counts alone, it makes sense to check things out as thoroughly as possible at the outset. And that’s the truth!

Burnout- that state of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion – causes all kinds of problems. Seen and unseen. With the economics of employment teetering between a sigh of relief and big questions, you need to take positive steps to keep yourself in the best condition possible. Here are some suggestions:

1. Lean on others. Don’t fall into the rut that the world will end if you don’t do it yourself.
2. Learn to say no. Pick what is really important and what you can do well. Delegate with a smile.
3. Take a daily technology break. Turn off all your electronic gadgets – cell phone, Blackberry, laptop, pager – even if for just 10 minutes. Take a walk around the block, close your office door and put up a sign asking for no interruptions.
4. Set a schedule. Make wise use of your time. Use a kitchen timer to see how long it takes you to do a task. Try to NOT take work home. If you telecommute, follow that schedule. Working at home should not take your time away from home.
5. Take vacations. Once again, the world is not going to end if you take a long weekend or a whole week or two weeks of vacation. You need this to regenerate and be much more productive.
6. Reward yourself. Remember why you are working. You are working to live, be able to afford a treat now and then, you are NOT living to work.
7. Don’t isolate yourself. If something is bothering you, share it with you family and friends. If your work environment is not job cross-training, then suggest it to a supervisor. If you ARE the supervisor, then start doing it. Oart of that feeling that no one else can do your job comes from ‘hoarding’ how and what you do.
8. Take care of yourself. Eat healthy, exercise, sleep well. If you don’t feel well, you won’t work well.

Flicking through the Sunday newspaper recently I noticed a small ad from one of the big-name retailers pointing out that the bargain price they listed in one of the million-or-so inserts weighing my paper down wasn’t quite as good as they made out.

They goofed and they were trying to save themselves a collective red face if a whole stack of customers turned up demanding they make good on that advertised price.

We all make mistakes, don’t we? But some can be quite costly – I read a few months back that a big online retailer lost $1.6 million through a pricing error. Some mistakes have even been known to put companies out of business.

In fact you might have noticed now how many organizations put a sort of disclaimer in ads and other documents absolving themselves from blame for “Errors and Omissions”, or E&O’s. In fact, they’re potentially so costly that E&O insurance is becoming increasingly common especially in professional practices.

The term is also sometimes used to refer to professional liability and malpractice insurance; the aim is to protect policyholders against legal actions seeking compensation for negligence- that’s the key word.

And the fact is that just about any company could theoretically be open to this type of lawsuit. Certainly, pretty much any type of consultancy, media or marketing business, and service provider (for example recruitment agencies or website designing and hosting companies) are potential targets.

Or how about a wedding planner who screws up and books the wrong venue or the wrong date, a frieght agent who sends a consignment to the wrong place, a home inspector who overlooks an important defect, or a gardener who plows through your rare orchids with a lawnmower?

Basically, if you provide a service to a client for a fee, you have an E&O risk. Think about it.

And, if so, the time to take out your policy is as soon as possible, not least because it probably won’t cover errors that pre-date the policy, even if the lawsuit arises after the policy is activated. Also, some business contracts with clients may actually stipulate that E&O insurance is in place, while in other cases, knowing that you do have coverage in place is a good customer service point.

Looked at from the other end of the telescope, even if your business is unlikely to require this type of coverage, it’s worth checking that the professionals and service providers with whom you deal do. Otherwise, in the unfortunate event that they let you down, you may find them unable to compensate you for any loss you suffer.

They may prefer just to shut up shop and leave you whistling for your money. So, don’t be afraid to ask. It’s in your interest.

If you do need this kind of coverage, or know someone who might, it’s important to stress that a business owner’s policy (BOP) or general business liability policy usually do not include coverage for professional liability.

The policies themselves differ widely in their structure and terms according to the types of risks being covered. As I said earlier, some impose time restrictions, while others may put a cap on the damages they will pay or exclude certain defense costs.

I think we’re going to be hearing a lot more about professional liability claims in the coming years.

Why? Recovery from the recent Great Recession has seen a significant growth in the number of service oriented businesses. Thrown out of work, many individuals have launched their own Consultancys, while the surging growth of the Internet has sparked a big increase of web-related service companies.

Every one of those, even the work-from-home outfits, is a professional liability risk.

Added to that, we live in a litigious society where many stand ready to point the finger off blame for errors and to claim, as a result, they’ve suffered astronomical losses they want someone else to pay for.

It’s not about someone getting the price of a bargain wrong in the local paper (which incidentally, is not strictly an E&O insurance issue unless the printer made the mistake); it could be about protecting the survival of your business.

Did you see that TV news report the other day about a guy who was jailed for sending out billions of email messages – better known as spam – trying to sell stuff for his “clients”? Everyone’s looking for new business these days, but it got me thinking about what’s acceptable and what’s not when it comes to marketing your products and services by mail or email.

I mean, is it okay to mail out to all your existing customers? Or to buy a mailing list for marketing purposes? And is there a difference between sending out email and “snail mail”? Well, if you’re thinking of using any of these approaches to drum up new business here are a few things you ought to know:

• It’s not illegal to send a message by mail or electronically to someone you know but ideally you should get permission from all of your customers to send them marketing messages from time to time.
• If you want to send a mailshot, you can either buy a mailing list or get a fulfillment company to mail out for you, but it’s important to choose a reputable supplier that uses the national Do Not Mail List (a privately-run register) and the National Do Not Call Registry to filter out those who’ve registered with these organizations. (There’s no official Do Not Email registry, by the way.). Good companies also regularly “clean” their lists – that is, removing dud addresses.
• Bulk mailing of printed marketing materials is expensive, so you should also work with a fulfillment house that uses lists that specifically target the audience profile you want to address.
• You don’t need permission to send a bulk email message either, provided it is neither selling illegal goods not perpetrating a fraud. However, the message must contain an “unsubscribe” or opt-out option that must be honored within 10 days. It should also be accurate and contain a bona-fide mailing address.
• You might also want to consider using one of the social networks like Twitter or Facebook to promote your company and make contact with potential customers. But don’t pester them. Just “friend” or “follow” and let them decide if they want to reciprocate.

“Spam”, in the sense of in the sense of unsolicited bulk email and instant messages, is not illegal per se. You can learn more about the dos and don’ts of spamming at this useful Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of2003. This explains the principle requirements of the main anti-spam legislation in the US.

Most importantly, if you do spam people with your marketing messages, there’s a high chance your reputation will pretty soon be in tatters, so my advice is not to do it! In fact, statistics show that it’s cheaper and more effective to work with existing customers when you embark on an expansion plan.

So, when you’re planning to grow your business, talk first to the people you know!

Riffling through an old filing cabinet the other day I came across a strange piece of bendy cardboard about five inches square. Then it all came back to me. It was what we called a “floppy disk” and, in their day, they were the leading edge of technology.

Goodness knows if I could ever find a drive that could even read it now, and it made me realize just how much has changed in the way we store data and move it around in our businesses.

Of course, prior to the floppy disk, we wrote everything down in ledgers, typed up acres of paper files, or stored masses of continuous-stationery computer print-outs and, later, computer tape drives. They were hefty, unwieldy items but the great t hing was that, compared with today’s data storage media, they were easy to keep an eye on.

Nowadays, you could cram all that information onto a thumb drive a person could tuck under their belt. So, here’s the alarming thing: the thumb drive – a digit-sized piece of hardware you plug into the USB socket on a PC – represents one of the biggest risks to data security in your business.

This is on two counts: One, it’s easy to steal and smuggle out information from your systems; and, two, they can introduce computer viruses on to your PCs when someone brings in one from outside. And who might do that? Well, just about anyone – from a disgruntled employee you just fired to a well-intentioned colleague who decided to take a couple of spreadsheets home to work during the weekend, then either lost the information or inadvertently transferred a virus onto the drive.

In theory, these risks were with us back in the floppy disk days but then most people didn’t have PCs at home or enough computer savvy on how to move data around. Now everybody’s doing it. Fortunately, a few simple safety measures can reduce or eliminate the risk:

• If you know what you’re doing, you can physically disable the USB ports on your machines, but that might be a bit drastic since there likely will be times you need them.
• You can manually disable them by either entering the computer’s operating system (BIOS) when the machine starts up or, simpler, use software that does the job for you.
• Buy a physical lock – a device that either covers the USB slots or fits into them and can’t be removed without a key. This is effective but expensive if you have lots of USB ports to protect.
• Then, if someone does need access to the USB, this can be done under a controlled situation, where a port is unlocked and security software checks the integrity of the drive.

Of course, this doesn’t stop potential data theft or virus infection if employees have access to the Internet, so any actions you take will have to be in tandem with Internet access restrictions and monitoring.

How do you feel about seeing one of your employees using their cell phones on your dime? Does it ever make you wonder how much time they spend doing this when you can’t see them? And how about using their cells when they’re driving on business – did you know that you could be held liable for any accidents they cause? Some employers have already paid out millions of dollars for such incidents.

Ten years ago you hardly saw anyone using mobile phones. Now, it seems, most people can’t survive without them, or without being connected, by voice or text, every waking minute!

As a customer, I find it so frustrating waiting for someone, who should be looking after me, to finish what is clearly a personal call. And i’m amazed that their employers seem to tolerate this.

Well, cell phones aren’t going to disappear any time soon – maybe not till we get brain SIM card implants! – but I do think there are a few things you can do to control their use during working hours. In fact, there’s no law that gives individuals a legal right to bring their personal cell phones to work, although it’s difficult to ban them altogether since, these days, cell phones often are lifelines for potential family emergencies.

Instead, you should have a policy on restricting personal cell calls. This might include insisting:

• Phones are in silent/vibrating mode and answered, briefly, away from where calls will distract others.
• If the call is not an emergency, the employee should explain they are unable to take personal calls at work and hang up; if this rule is ignored, it becomes a disciplinary matter.
• Employees must not only obey the law with regard to using phones while driving, they should not use them at all when behind the wheel; there’s no evidence that hands-free systems are any safer than hand-held phones but, if they’re essential for business purposes, the employee should answer briefly, then pull-off the road to call back.
• Cell phones are not permitted in a work area where their use would cause safety hazard through distraction.
• They switch off their phones when they’re with a customer; even answering an incoming business call is rude and disruptive.

All of these things are commonsense, and, by explaining the thinking behind them to your employees, you should be able to gain buy-in (avoid them using their cells when your back is turned). In fact, if you don’t have a policy, you could find yourself accused of negligence if employee cell phone usage is a factor in any accident.

And by reducing or eliminating personal phone use during working times you’ll likely see an improvement in productivity: the “offending” employee(s) is more focused and creates fewer distractions for colleagues. If they’re on the road on your behalf, they’ll be less of a risk. If they’re customer-facing, there’ll be fewer frustrations for your clients.

Of course, there’s also the problem of how to deal with customers who insist on taking cell phone calls when you’re in the middle of doing business with them. i’ll leave that for another time…

One of the lessons I guess nearly all of us can remember from our school days is the Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare. The basic message is: slow and steady beats fast and furious.

Well, okay, maybe that isn’t always true, but I often think of it when some tail-gater pulls out and zooms past me on the highway only to meet up again at the next traffic signal. They never seem to learn the lesson or realize the unnecessary risks they take.

Winter driving adds to those risks by throwing all sorts of extra hazards at us – earlier darkness in most places, rain, snow and ice, plus road surfaces pitted and pot-holed either by the weather or studded/chained tires.

This calls for extra caution when you’re driving and though I’m not urging you to travel at tortoise speed, it is important that you allow extra time for your journey and ease off the gas, no matter how rushed you feel.

I thought it might be helpful to pass on a few more winter safety driving tips. Even if you already know them – most are commonsense anyway – sometimes rereading them helps fix the, in your mind before your next road trip.

This is especially important if you happen to be traveling to an area, for the Holidays or a vacation say, where the roads will be unfamiliar and perhaps the driving conditions tougher than those you’re used to. Here are my Top 10 rules:

1. Put your headlights on, even during daytime. Many vehicles now do this automatically but if yours isn’t one of them, get into the habit of switching on.
2. Leave more space between you and the vehicle in front. If it’s wet, you need at least twice the normal stopping distance. In snow and ice it can take 10-times, yes 10 times, the distance!
3. Following on from the above point, always brake slowly when roads are slippery; slamming on the brakes leads to skids.
4. Keep your eyes peeled for cyclists and walkers who will not be as visible during rain or darkness, especially if they don’t wear reflective gear.
5. Don’t try to drive through a flooded area. You may see others driving through deep water; before following them, just think of the consequences of breaking down there.
6. Take a cellphone and an emergency breakdown kit that includes a lighted warning triangle; if your car breaks down erect the triangle use your car’s flashing warning lights.
7. Take weatherproof clothing. Even if you don’t intend to get out of the car, you may not have a choice.
8. If you’re planning a long journey or driving through an isolated area, take extra clothing, food supplies and water.
9. If weather conditions are severe, or there’s a storm warning, think twice about whether the journey is really necessary. If you do go, take chains if there’s ice or snow.
10. Winter driving demands extra concentration. Turn the music (and the cellphone) off and limit potential distractions, from children, even noisy adults, and pets.

Plus, of course, leave early and take your time. Meeting hurriers at the traffic signal is one thing. Seeing them in the aftermath of an accident is another. I don’t want you to be one of them.