Small Business Insurance
Small Business Insurance : Accident and Incident Reporting
Accident and Incident reporting is a really important area of risk management, particularly in relation to health and safety issues in your business.
Some people think of keeping accident records as form filling or paper pushing.
In fact it is one of the most important things to get right in your business, however many people you employ, sub contract or use in any capacity.
Firstly, there may well be a legal obligation to keep accurate records, in particular formats for a certain lengthy of time. These may be local or national laws, check and comply !
A decent system for recording any form of accident or incident does send a message to anyone working for you that you care about their welfare.
This really matters to employees.
If they genuinely feel a sense of belonging, rather than feeling used, the you will have a much more effective workforce.
Any form of accident or incident should be noted, logged and written down.
It should include, at a minimum, date, time and place of incident or accident. It should include as much detail of what happened as possible, including any diagrams.
If possible take photos of the accident, even if they need to be stored on-line.
Keep a record of how the accident and incident was dealt with, including any first aid administered and or any medical attention that was required.
Keep notes of whether paramedics were needed or not and who made that assessment. Also any details of any hospital trips that were needed or not, including follow up appointments.
This may sound like a lot, but it is all really crucial information.
Any accident or incident has the potential to turn into a claim for damages at some point in the future.
The more information you have about what happened, that was collected at the time is crucial.
This includes what wasn’t done and why.
This can help both you and your employee deal with it more effectively, both legally and from an insurance point of view.
The other really important feature of accident and incident reporting, is that it alerts you to potential problems from ahealth and safety point of view.
Even if you have a really sound health and safety policy, accident and incident reporting will flag up areas of concern that you will want to look at .
They could have been overlooked in the first place, or simply deemed not risk sufficient to be too worried about.
Either way, if incidents are happening, it will alert you to them, and allow you to deal with them before they hopefully become too serious.
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