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COVID-19 Vaccines: Should You Mandate, Motivate or Educate Employees?

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For the past year, employers have grappled with unprecedented workplace safety and human resources challenges, forced to address safety measures that were unfamiliar for many industries. Employees have become accustomed to daily health screening and masks, and human resources has added COVID safety training and enforcement to its job duties. As vaccines are becoming more prevalent, employers have to now decide whether they should vaccinate their workforces. Making this decision can seem daunting and the applicable employment laws can seem overwhelming. However, there are some baseline considerations that may help.

As a threshold matter, employers are obligated under the OSHA General Duty Clause to provide a safe working environment to their employees. At the direction of President Joe Biden, OSHA released new comprehensive guidance regarding COVID workplace safety, including a 16-point list of essential components of a workplace safety program. OSHA recommended that employers make the vaccine available to eligible employees at no cost, and made clear that employers must continue to enforce COVID safety protocols regardless of an employee’s vaccination status “because at this time, there is not evidence that COVID-19 vaccines prevent transmission of the virus from person-to-person.”

Employers now must determine whether they will mandate, motivate, or educate employees to receive the vaccine. They will first have to determine whether the vaccine will provide a safer working environment. While it seems clear that the vaccine will minimize or eliminate the vaccinated individual’s COVID symptoms, it remains unclear whether a vaccinated worker may spread the virus to others. Therefore, a vaccinated workforce may still be a contagious one.   

Businesses that serve in-person customers may benefit from mandating the vaccine. A local restaurant or retailer may be able to advertise that its staff is vaccinated encouraging patrons to return. While a mandatory vaccine program may be complex, the benefit of returning customers may outweigh the pain of a program. Conversely, in an organization where most employees have remained remote and business has continued at normal levels, the complexity of a mandatory program may not be worth it. In the latter scenario, it may be better to implement a voluntary program, which is easier to administer and has less compliance complexity. Employers will have to weigh the return on investment for each approach.

Employers will also have to determine their appetite for risk. Many initially lean toward a mandatory vaccine approach in an effort to protect employees from becoming seriously ill. However, even mandatory programs pose liability risks for employers. Essentially, there are two schools of thought regarding mandatory vaccine programs:

  1. A vaccinated workforce is essential to safety. A vaccinated workforce will reduce community spread and bring the workforce closer to herd immunity. The fewer employees that become symptomatic or sick, the sooner we may reduce COVID-19’s spread. Likewise, it would be negligent, or a violation of the employer’s General Duty obligations, to not mandate eligible employees to receive the vaccine.
  2. The vaccine is too new to mandate. On the other hand, some believe that it would be negligent, or a violation of an employer’s General Duty to require employees to receive the vaccine, noting that the vaccine is merely under emergency authorization. Consequently, mandating that eligible employees receive the vaccine would create employer liability for any possible harm the vaccine could cause to employees.  

It is also important to note that mandatory programs will likely trigger workers compensation coverage for any medical services and/or lost time associated with employee reactions to the vaccine. Workers compensation coverage is not always a bad thing. Employers should remember that the workers compensation exclusive remedy provision protects employers from negligence and tort claims (but not gross negligence). 

Employers should also consider the practical and operational complexities associated with a vaccination program. Employers who implement a mandatory program must be prepared to enforce the rules. They may be faced with difficult decisions regarding candidates and eligible employees who refuse to receive the vaccine (without any legal protections). Can the employer continue to recruit and retain talent under a mandatory program?

Regardless of where an employer lands on the vaccine program spectrum, they must take their employee complaints and concerns seriously. Likewise, employers must not take adverse action against a complaining employee. Employee OSHA whistleblower cases have reached unprecedented numbers. As of February 5, there have been 4,738 COVID OSHA whistleblower complaints filed in the previous 12-months. Before 2020 (and COVID-19), the largest number of complaints received by OSHA in a 12-month period was 3,355 in 2016.

The good news, if there is any, is that employers that provide safe working environments, are open to employee concerns, and communicate with workers are already taking positive and proactive steps to avoiding liability and litigation. The following best practices may be helpful: 

  • Review your COVID safety program to ensure it comports with OSHA’s 16-point COVID prevention program guidance, and continue to review and update as guidance and regulations change.
  • Provide managers and employees regular safety training, and provide managers with training to enforce safety programs, hold employees accountable, and document all safety incidents and violations.
  • Stay up to date with regulations. OSHA has updated emergency temporary standards, and local and state laws continue to change rapidly.
  • Update anti-retaliation policies to include COVID safety protocols. Also consider a whistleblower hotline and ensure that managers are trained and understand how to take seriously and address employee concerns and complaints.
  • Be sure your workforce has the most current information regarding COVID-19, its symptoms and transmission, and the vaccine. Also be sure to provide all communication in multiple languages for a multilingual workforce.

Ultimately, COVID workplace safety is at the core of any employer’s operations. Whether an employer mandates, motivates or educates its employees to receive the vaccine, they must continue to evolve and enforce their COVID safety protocols.

8 Steps to Create Strong Disaster Management Plans

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A core responsibility of any risk professional is planning for any possible disasters your business might face. These could be man-made, such as a data breach or accidents involving machinery, or natural, like a tornado or flood.

Disasters and crises affect different organizations in different ways—one company might consider something a catastrophe, while another may not even notice a change in its workflow. It is important to look at your own business operations and evaluate what you would consider a crisis. Generally, business crises fall into one of three categories:

  1. A danger to the physical safety of employees or customers
  2. Loss of income or means of making income
  3. Events or people negatively affecting your business reputation

In many cases, the crisis may fall into more than one of these categories. An accident in the workplace that is hazardous to employees can impact the company’s income because the factory has to shut down. This can also negatively affect the company’s reputation if it turns out that the company did not provide a safe working environment.

With even the best risk management programs, no organization can avoid all disasters completely. Risk mitigation often comes down to crafting the best plans possible for the moment disaster inevitably strikes. These eight steps can help risk professionals develop strong crisis and disaster response plans:

1. Define The Types of Crises You Could Face: There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to a crisis management plan. Working out what is likely to affect your business specifically can relate to your geography—areas that get hit by severe storms or earthquakes must include those potential disasters, and what knock-on effects they may cause. For example, storms may cause flooding, loss of power, or blocked roads that make it difficult to reach your premises. The type of crisis can also be specific to your industry. Employees in a manufacturing facility are likely at greater risk in a physical disaster than those working in a tax consultancy, for example. Security should also be a consideration. Is your business likely to get robbed of cash or equipment? Do you have high-profile proprietary information that makes you more likely to be the victims of cybercrime?

2. Triggering the Plan: Including levels of urgency in your plan will help people responding to the crisis pinpoint how significant the event is, and how much of the plan must be put into action. A step-by-step approach for specific scenarios can be helpful and cover dealing with man-made and natural disasters in different ways. The risk for each will be unique to the situation and knowing when and how to trigger a response is key. The plan should include how and when to escalate the response should the crisis worsen, as well as how to identify when the crisis has passed. It can be helpful to use red, yellow and green system to indicate severity and urgency, and this classification approach is easy to adapt to any scenario.

3. The Base of Operations Location: Accidents or natural disasters may cause your usual place of business to close temporarily or permanently. In your plan, designate a backup command center in an alternate location for dealing with the crisis until you can get back to work. This location can be your company’s operations hub, a point for gathering after a crisis, or where you know your sensitive and important data backs up. If a natural disaster has made travel dangerous or roads impossible to navigate, you will also need a virtual base of operations—some possibilities include message boards, chat apps or email. With so many employees working remotely because of COVID-19, this may be easier to implement now.

4. The Chain of Command: Ensuring a clear chain of command so that there is no arguing or confusion when people and the business are at risk. Wherever possible, appoint a back-up for each person in charge so if someone cannot perform their duty, it falls to the next in line.

5. Internal and External Communication: When a crisis compromises an office or business, communication can become tricky. Have a clear set of rules for how you get information to and from your employees, what information you must and must not share with those outside of the company, and how to achieve that. This part of your crisis management plan can save lives and stop rumors from spreading.

6. Necessary Resources: Though this will depend on the nature of the business, consider first aid and safety equipment if you are likely to have injuries or get cut off because of poor weather. Also, think about alternate communication methods if mobile phone towers go down or the electricity gets cut, as well as access to your sensitive data, such as employee contracts and supplier agreements.Include all necessary resources you would need to operate and highlight any alternate replacements. For example, if a storm knocks out your power, you may have a generator.

7. Training: It is no good putting a crisis management plan together and not giving the relevant people the training they need to execute it. For example, the people you name as first aid providers or unit leaders need to know what is expected of them and undergo the necessary training. If you have safety equipment on your premises, like fire extinguishers or emergency release valves for machinery, you need to educate all stakeholders how these work.

8. Testing the Plan: Finally, test that your plan actually works. Review it with staff and conduct safety drills regularly—every two months at least. Look for any weak points or flaws in the plan before an actual crisis.While it may not be possible to anticipate everything a disaster brings, you can set up several response plans and test each one individually. These plans can tie in with your standard safety drills, or stand alone, depending on the nature of the event anticipated.

A crisis management plan is integral to every business, no matter its size, scope, or sector. By preparing for various potential disasters, you can take action when needed without putting your organization, employees, or yourself at unnecessary risk. 

Six Considerations Impacting Strategic Regulatory Change Management

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Regulatory change management (RCM) is one of the most important risk and compliance related domains in 2021, thanks to two key drivers. First, the shift from Republican deregulation to Democratic control and an expected uptick in regulatory requirements. Second, similar to the 2008 crash, the pandemic-induced economy and focus on Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans caused many banks to relax their regulatory exams and requirements, while regulators gave companies extra runway for transitioning processes and policies for remote/work-from-home models.

Sometimes regulatory changes are significant enough to change business strategy. In 2021, chief risk officers must be prepared to quickly adapt and react to a historically volatile risk management environment.

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When thinking about an updated, strategic regulatory change management program, here are six considerations for chief risk officers:

1. Lax compliance during the pandemic in 2020 may have introduced hidden risk for activities that normally would have had deeper oversight. 
Sometimes rule changes can also introduce new risks or eliminate a previous risk that needed to be managed, such as potential new default rates around extensions, forfeiture and other things. For example, historically low interest rates present a vexing risk for banks dealing with less profit but just as many loans to process.

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What kind of new risk may be found within those loans?

2. When communicating change across the enterprise, establish responsibility to manage it.
Once you understand which regulations have changed, prioritize those that present the most risk, identify what department’s products and processes are impacted, and determine who is responsible for managing those policies. Having a secure central repository for communicating, storing and managing compliance documentation, versus relying on employees storing information on devices outside corporate servers, is ideal.
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3. If conducting quarterly testing of compliance requirements, it may be challenging to identify key areas in advance that could slip, such as controls around IT/cybersecurity.
When the risk portfolio changes, the controls to manage those risks must be updated accordingly. Firms that may now be less dependent on management oversight and more dependent on confirmations that processes are being followed should put automated controls in place to verify those activities.

4. Companies should shift to best practice or common checklists that can be standardized and shared across the enterprise. 
Assessment checklists are a great way to ensure that all requirements are being met for a wide variety of business processes. Once checklists have been updated, cloud-based software systems can track who has access and can also notify when changes happen. 

5. Historically done manually in-house by visible teams, monitoring and testing for compliance purposes will be conducted remotely. 
The visibility of those tests presents significant challenges, and it is critical to determine how errors and issues will progress and be communicated to the remote testing teams, management, and the organization at large. 

6. Verifying and certifying online training for remote employees can be daunting. 
Creating courses formalized for online training represents a major compliance and process change, particularly for companies in industries with limited work-from-home models, such as financial services. Training materials will need to be updated for new employees, while previously trained employees will need to be retrained. 

Women in Risk: Advice for Advancing Female Risk Professionals Beyond Women’s History Month

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women in business

“There are more and more courageous conversations happening in business about gender parity and barriers for women in business,” said Tina Gardiner, manager of risk management services for Regional Municipality of York, Canada, and member of the RIMS board of directors. “While women are still underrepresented at the executive level largely due to gender bias, I am pleased to see changes happening at a rate much faster than ever before.”

Indeed, significant challenges remain in gaining true equity and eliminating the gender gap in risk and insurance, but there are also more resources, momentum and mentors than ever before.

“One of the biggest barriers I faced as a young woman starting a career in risk management was operating in an environment where there wasn’t really the benefit of high-level female role models or mentors,” said Carrie Cannataro, senior vice president of client services at Gallagher Bassett, noting the dramatic evolution since she entered the space in the mid-’80s. As more women have earned senior leadership roles, female risk professionals are increasingly strengthening both the risk profession itself and the prospects of other women fighting for a seat at the table. As Cannataro noted, “We can only be successful if we immerse ourselves within a network of collaborative and positive influences.”

To that end, I recently put out a call on social media asking women in risk to share their best advice for others who are trying to advance in the risk profession and who identify as female. Originally, the goal was to celebrate Women’s History Month by spotlighting women in risk and insurance in March, and it has been wonderful to see initiatives to highlight and advocate for women across the industry for the past 31 days. Equity and excellence from half the population should span far more than a month, however.

In that spirit, here’s some of the valuable insight of women advancing risk management year-round, and their advice to fellow female risk professionals looking to advance their careers in risk:

“There are tremendous opportunities for women in risk management. However, to reach your potential and really excel in this field, women can’t be afraid to speak up. We must ask for the resources we need and seek out opportunities that might take us out of our comfort zones but that also offer a platform for us to share our knowledge and expertise.”
– Kristen D. Peed, CPCU, RPLU, CRM, AIC, ARM-E, corporate director of risk management and insurance at CBIZ, Inc. and member of the RIMS board of directors

“In my experience I have found women in risk management are strong in their support and encouragement of each other through networking, mentoring, celebrating and sharing stories about career journeys. We need to keep investing in each other by pushing boundaries and comfort zones in the positions we apply for, the salary levels we expect, the credentials we earn and the workplace environment we demand. We need to actively engage in the socialization of gender equality, inclusivity, combating imposter syndrome and workplace flexibility for shared family responsibilities. The future we want and deserve is ours to create for each other.”
– Tina Gardiner, B.Sc., CRM, CIP, manager of risk management services for the Regional Municipality of York

“I’m committed to supporting women in the workplace and believe it’s crucial that we pave the way for future generations. I’d offer the following advice: 1) Own your development and invest in yourself. 2) Establish a personal growth/career goals, including strategies and tactics on how to achieve them and timelines. Review regularly to monitor progress and celebrate wins. 3) Create a personal board of directors and mentors, and seek feedback from them. 4) Give back and gain valuable experience via joining a non-profit board. 5) Network, network, network.”
– Soraya Wright, RIMS-CRMP, vice president of strategic initiatives at RIMS, and founder and chief risk officer of SMW Risk Management Consulting LLC

“Women have been the cornerstone of this profession since its inception. I applaud all of those who came before us and laid a foundation for us to grow and succeed, as well as those inspiring women who are determined to leave their own mark on this profession. For women to succeed in risk management, we must support each other. We must create opportunities for others to demonstrate their knowledge and capabilities, achieve their goals and advance professionally.”
– Penni L. Chambers, CPRM, CIC, CRM, ARM, vice president of risk management for Hillwood, a Perot Company, and member of the RIMS board of directors

“One of my biggest pieces of advice for women working in risk is that working hard by yourself is not the answer. We need to seek out relationships that inform and support our advancement. Whether it’s a mentor, coach or other professional network, there are plenty of ways we can seek help in defining rewarding and realistic career opportunities and put those opportunities within our reach.”
– Carrie Cannataro, senior vice president of client services at Gallagher Bassett

“Persistence and communication. Not everyone hears information the same way. Think about your audience as you communicate fact-based information and gut instincts. If you’re not heard the first time, don’t give up! You may need to change your wording, timing, or examples in order to get your point across.”
– Katherine Gledhill, MBA, vice president of finance and accounting at RIMS and CFO of Spencer Educational Foundation

“Growth and comfort do not always happen at the same time. You have to get comfortable doing things that are out of your comfort zone. This is where you’ll really grow, when you challenge yourself beyond what you think is possible. As women, we must build each other up and constantly look for ways to learn from and support one another. I’d also strongly encourage women to consistently assess their values and take the time to prioritize them throughout their careers. This will lead to sustainable happiness and success in both your personal and professional life.”
– Grace Grant, executive director at Gamma Iota Sigma

“Pick an area that interests you and become an expert. Being an expert takes time, but once you have this knowledge, no one can take it away. You must always continue to learn and expand your knowledge base. A solid foundation will support and allow you to take chances that a generalist cannot. You can gain this expertise by moving within one company/industry, one line of business, or geographically—just be clear on what your focus is. Women are often undermined or challenged on technical issues. However, if you have developed the needed expertise, you are more likely to challenge confidently with fact and figures. As you build your career, you will learn that people trust and respect experts, as experts understand their business better and can predict trends and drive the business more effectively.”
– Ciara Brady, global head of liability for Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty