5 Reasons to Run Your Own Driving Records

by Katie Petersen | Jun 1, 2022 | Safety | 0 comments

5 Reasons to Run Your Own Driving Records

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

You hire a new employee and let your insurance company know that they’ll be driving for you. A week or two later, you get a call from your insurance agent saying the new employee cannot be a driver because their driving record is terrible. Now you have a new employee who you don’t know what to do with because driving your company trucks is a requirement of the position that you hired them for. Sound familiar?

Of course it does. Every tree service has had issues with drivers and their insurability. However, the insurance issues are only a small part of the equation when it comes to managing your drivers.

At ArboRisk, we recommend that all tree care companies pull driving record reports on all drivers, before they are hired and at least once per year while they are still employed with the company.

When a tree service takes driver management into their own hands they begin to take back some control of the risk that their company faces every day when their employees are out on the road driving their company vehicles.

In this article, I’ll give you five reasons to run your own driving records internally as part of your driver management. Pssst…a little hint, if number 1 isn’t enough for you, number 5 should be the deciding factor for instituting a driving record review process at your tree care company.

Less Accidents – Obviously, no tree service wants to have their employees and vehicles involved in car accidents, so the first step in avoiding them is to ensure the drivers operating your vehicles have a good driving history. I know you cannot entirely predict the future solely on looking at information from the past, but you can get a strong indication of how the employee may drive for you by reviewing their past driving history. If the driver has a history of accidents and/or other moving violations, the chances that they will get into an accident with your vehicle are greater than that with employees who have a clean driving record.
Hiring Decision – By running the driving record yourself, you will immediately receive the information needed to make the proper hiring decision and avoid an awkward and potentially dangerous situation if you find out the new employee is a terrible driver after they have already been behind the wheel of one of your vehicles. Eliminate this risk by knowing about their driving record before you hire them.
Expectations for Employees – Instituting a driving record process within your company, provides clear expectations for potential and current employees on their driving record. If their position requires them to be eligible to drive, wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier if you just told them up front what those requirements will be? Many times when the insurance company tells you that a driver isn’t eligible to drive, it is for a long time employee. This just exacerbates the problem as it is probably someone who’s experience would be sorely missed on the crew if they cannot drive for the company. Establishing the expectations of what is accepted and what is detrimental to their employment, allows everyone to understand their responsibility in taking care of their own driving record.
Lower Auto Insurance Rates – We all know that insurance companies don’t want to see their insured tree care companies have vehicular accidents. Therefore, they will reward companies who have the best accident history and written policies and procedures with the lowest rate that they can. To do this, though, they need proof of what the tree service is doing to prevent the accidents from happening and the way you handle driving records within your company is the largest negotiation point you have. Showing the insurance company your driving record guidelines and the process you use along with the frequency of when you check the driving records will help tremendously when trying to lower the cost of your Business Auto Insurance. For other ideas on how to lower your auto insurance cost check out this article.
Duty of the Employer – I may have listed four other reasons before this, however, this is really the only reason you need to start pulling your company’s driving records. Have you ever heard of the phrase “negligent entrustment”? This is the basis that plaintiff attorneys use when suing a business for damages from a bad auto accident. The principle is simple, when a business allows someone to drive their vehicle they are entrusting them to operate it safely. If that driver ends up injuring or worse, killing another person, the business is held responsible for the actions of the driver. If the business did not review the driver’s driving record, they have negligently allowed them to operate the vehicle. Obviously, once the plaintiff attorney sees that the business did not take reasonable steps to prevent the accident, like knowing what the driver’s driving record is, they go after large settlements. It is the duty of the employer to have a process in place to monitor drivers and their records. Also, due to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, your insurance agency/company can only order a driving record for underwriting purposes, meaning to assess the likelihood of an accident, not for employment reasons. So asking your insurance agent/company for driving records does not fulfill your duty as the employer.

Ultimately, by running your own driving records, you are taking control of the risk that your drivers and vehicles bring to your company and lessening the headaches that come with problem drivers. Check out this article to learn how to set up a Driver Risk Management procedure within your company.

Lastly, if you are looking for one-on-one help in managing your drivers, sign up for our Thrive Safety Package today.

Growing Your Company With Trust

by Katie Petersen | May 31, 2022 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Growing Your Company With Trust

Written by Kevin Martlage

This month we are focusing on the culture of your business and how you can continue to work towards developing and providing a supportive and nurturing environment for your employees, customers, and those your business serves. So far this month we have discussed the importance of a strong business culture and its positive impact on the success of your team and company. We have also discussed how intentional and transparent communication can build trust which is the life blood of any successful company and team.

Trust is present in almost everything we do as a tree care professional so why is it not always a critical consideration in our approach with our teams and our company? When I think about trust in the tree care industry, there are numerous things that come to mind. For example:

Climbers have TRUST in their climbing equipment that the manufacturer made it safe.
Our customers TRUST that we have a level of knowledge to ensure we properly take care of their tree.
We TRUST that our customers will pay us the amount of money agreed to in our accepted work proposal.
Our customers TRUST that we will do the work to the best of our ability and according to the work order.
Our crews TRUST that as owners we will provide a certain framework and resources to do the work we are asking them to complete.
We TRUST our crews to do the work with a high level of safety, accuracy, and professionalism.
Climbers TRUST that the person who might be belaying their rope will not let go!
Climbers TRUST that their review of a tree and their equipment before using SRT will ensure their safety if they follow the proper procedures.
Tree Care Owners TRUST that Arborisk will have their best interest in mind as they insure their company.

Trust is evident in everything we do regardless of if you are a climber in a 50-foot oak, the ground crew member clearing and chipping brush, or the owner of 5-person, or 500-person tree care company.

There are also examples of trust in our personal lives which is what we probably all think of first when we hear the word trust. I am certain you can probably identify a negative situation which had a root cause of trust being challenged or not being present. If you review that situation close enough, I can almost guarantee that if trust was present the situation would have been resolved more efficiently while helping to continue to build the foundation of trust for any potential future situations with that person. You could also probably agree that trust was challenged in that situation because both sides were not on the same page or made up their own “story” about what was going on.

Bottom line, without trust we are left to our own mind and resources to try and figure it out, to tell the “story” and to protect ourselves, which can lead to confusion, lost productivity, and misalignment among our staff, colleagues, friends, and family.

So why then do I call trust the life blood of any successful company and team?

The reason trust is so vitally important to success is because without trust, you are enabling your team to get sidetracked as they try to understand your decisions, question your intent, protect themselves, or simply feel comfortable about being on the same page with you. In extreme circumstances, a lack of trust can even help foster resentment and the need to be defensive and always right which ultimately takes away from collaborative progress and success of the team.

Building Trust is sometimes difficult for organizations because it must be intentionally built over time. Much like a personal relationship or friendship, it takes work and intentional focus on providing the context, intent, and insight regarding your thoughts and approach. Whether you are interacting with a friend or a member of your team, trust is always on stage, and either being built or broken depending on the situation and conversation.

There are numerous ways to build trust among your team and within your organization. However, there is one thing that can kickstart your journey of building trust. You must first start by looking inward as a leader to understand how you are impacting trust within your own company. To do this, I would recommend asking yourself these questions:

What “stories” might my team be trying to figure out?
How can I always provide a great experience of understanding and collaboration for my team?
What are some things that I may be questioning? Chances are my team is too.
How is a lack of trust impacting the productivity of the company and team?

By looking inward, you can then start to identify some key areas where you can adjust your leadership approach. These adjustments, while unique to you, should be centered around the following:

Always ensuring you are providing transparent and intentional communication
Providing information designed to help eliminate the need to “make up their own story”
Communicating your intent by providing the desired outcome and reasons behind your decisions

Providing insight in a transparent and intentional manner, will allow your team the opportunity to build trust with you because they understand the intent and reason behind your decisions, communication, and direction of the company. You are helping to eliminate the unknown and offering a collaborative approach to the direction of the company.

A culture built on trust will help to empower you team to make sound decision without the fear of betrayal or misunderstanding. Trust will also help to create a team that will be focused and aligned on moving the organization forward instead of being consumed by trying to answer the unknown or making up their own stories or direction. Trust is certainly difficult to build, and it takes times, however the return on that investment will pay dividends that will help to build a foundation for your company that is both sustainable and flexible.

As you build trust I guarantee it will become the X factor regarding your organization and be the secret sauce that takes you to the next level, helps to retain your employees, and streamlines your operations. This will ultimately help you enhance your ability of being the place where everyone wants to work, and your customers want to do business with. Thus, making Trust one of the most important ingredients to the sustainability, success, and growth of your company.

For additional help with growing trust within your company, contact a member of the ArboRisk Insurance team! If you’re looking to improve upon your communication skills or want to help one of your key team members develop personally, sign up for the Thrive Leadership Development package today! Additionally, if you find it difficult to find or keep quality employees, check out our Thrive Hiring & Recruiting Package.

As part of ArboRisk’s Thrive family, we are also offering a FREE business culture self-assessment to help you begin to identify some ways in which you can continue to enhance your company’s culture. The assessment is extremely easy to complete and will take you less than 5 minutes. Following the completion of your assessment, you will receive a summary of recommended areas of impact to consider as you continue to enhance your company culture.

Building Trust with Intentional and Transparent Communication

by Katie Petersen | May 31, 2022 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Building Trust with Intentional and Transparent Communication

Written by Kevin Martlage

This month we are focusing on the culture of your business and how you can continue to work towards developing and providing a supportive and nurturing environment for your employees, customers, and those your business serves. There are numerous approaches to building a supportive work culture, but two of the most important approaches focus on communication and trust.

Trust is ultimately the most important ingredient in any positive work culture, but communication is key to building that trust and maintaining it effectively.

It is widely thought that communication is one of the most misunderstood and undervalued of all the interpersonal skills. Despite this, most people feel that they communicate effectively. Whether you feel you are an effective communicator or not, how can you enhance your ability to intentionally provide the context of your communication in a way that ensures the recipient is successful in understanding your true intent. The answer is in reviewing the difference between Reactive Communication (it is about me) and Intentional Communication (it is about you).

Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to lead numerous teams. Some have been more successful and productive than others, but regardless of their performance my approach to leading them has always been the same. Without an intentional commitment to communication, the team will never truly understand the “why”. Without an intentional commitment to transparent communication, the team will become consumed with the “why” and lose sight of their ability to achieve goals. Without the intentional commitment to using both of those approaches while actively listening to my team to build trust, well… nothing else would really matter.

Let me ask you a question. How much time and energy is being spent by your tree crews, your crew leaders, or your management team each day questioning the ‘why’ behind what they are doing and what you are saying to them? The answer to that question may depend on the position that person holds within your organization and certainly the situation that person may be in.

For example, a person clearing brush from a work site may fully understand the ‘why’ behind what they are being asked to do by their crew leader. The ‘why’ in this case is simple. Pick up the brush that is left behind as the rest of the crew prunes the tree and pile it by the chipper. That statement is clear and understandable by even the newest member of your crew. However, as you move upward within your organization, the understanding of the ‘why’ may become a bit more difficult to understand but is equally important.

Perhaps you have an instance where a crew leader is requesting a new piece of equipment that is not in the budget for that year. The reactive communication style would go something like this,

“Sorry, but we cannot pursue purchasing that piece of equipment at this time.”

Even though the crew leader may appear to accept your answer and move on, there is still a chance that they may be questioning your decision or thinking about the ‘why’ behind your decision. This internal questioning could lead to lost productivity and lost time on the job site as they wrestle to understand why it was just “no.”

As the communicator in this instance, it is important for you to intentionally provide your response in a way that ensures the receiver of that communication understands the full intent of what you are saying and the reason being that response. This is the essence of intentional communication which is all about the recipient and their understanding. This approach will help to eliminate the possibility of lost time while they are focusing on trying to understand your decision instead of obtaining your full intent and the reasoning during the initial conversation.

The intentional response in this situation may go something like this,

“I appreciate your request for the new piece of equipment, and I have reviewed options to see if we can make that happen. I’d like to go over my decision with you.

Based on our budget for this year, we are not going to be able to pursue purchasing that item. However, I am committed to continuing to look at some other options including making sure, at the very least, we get that item in the budget for next year.

While this piece of equipment is certainly important, I feel that there are other options we can use to get us through the rest of this fiscal year. Here are those options, and I’d like your feedback regarding this approach.”

As a leader you have just intentionally and transparently provided as much information as possible in anticipation of the questions that you may encounter. You have done your best to ensure that the recipient of your communication understands your full intent in a transparent manner. While the crew leader may still have additional questions or comments, you have allowed for the conversation to include the ability for the recipient to ask questions and to confirm your delivery has answered all their questions. As you continue to provide this type of communication it will start to build trust as there will be little opportunity for the person to ever question your intent. They will begin to trust that when you have a conversation they will be getting as much information as possible and that you will do your best to ensure their understanding instead of just assuming all things are good.

I have witnessed firsthand a loss in productivity due to a lack of transparent and intentional communication among a work group more times than I care to admit. While it may be difficult to put a number on the productivity lost due to communication that is not transparent and intentional, the main point is that something was lost, and that loss could have been avoided or at least minimized. I am certainly a realist in that it is difficult to achieve a perfect world where transparent and intentional communication always coexists, however it is the pursuit of that end goal where incremental success can be realized. This will make your conversations more effective and efficient while building that all important trust among your team.

It takes commitment by the leaders of any organization to ensure intentionally transparent communication is at the forefront of their leadership style when building a trusting culture. A trusting work culture will allow the team to focus on each other, the team, and the goals of the organization instead of becoming too consumed with trying to understand the “why” behind your decisions.

In next week’s tip, we will talk about why building and maintaining trust is important to the success of your organization. Trust is thought of as the life blood of any successful team and I look forward to talking about how that can help take your team and organization to the next level.

For additional help with company culture, contact a member of the ArboRisk Insurance team! If you’re looking to improve upon your communication skills or want to help one of your key team members develop personally, sign up for the Thrive Leadership Development package today! Additionally, if you find it difficult to find or keep quality employees, check out our Thrive Hiring & Recruiting Package.

As part of ArboRisk’s Thrive family, we are also offering a FREE business culture self-assessment to help you begin to identify some ways in which you can continue to enhance your company’s culture. The assessment is extremely easy to complete and will take you less than 5 minutes. Following the completion of your assessment, you will receive a summary of recommended areas of impact to consider as you continue to enhance your company culture.

What Is Company Culture Anyway?

by Katie Petersen | May 31, 2022 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

What Is Company Culture Anyway?

Written by Kevin Martlage

Austrian American management consultant, educator, author, and leader in the development of management education Peter Drucker once coined the phrase, “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” While that statement could be discussed, argued, and debated based on your thoughts and approach to leadership and strategy, the essence of what Drucker is trying to say is extremely important for you to consider as a leader and business owner. So, what is company culture anyway?

Your company culture is ultimately your brand and what makes you unique in a variety of different areas. It can be defined by your company values, attitudes, and beliefs which lead to you providing a supportive and nurturing environment for your employees, your customers, and your stakeholders.

As a business professional turned consultant who has spent the last 30+ years developing, building, supporting, and leading teams in both non-profit and for-profit organizations around the world, I have had the opportunity to work in a variety of different business cultures and with a lot of simply amazing people. Some of those business cultures have been more supportive and productive than others, but the companies that have had their culture defined as the ‘DNA’ of what they were about were the ones that I remember the most. To me, a defined and supportive business culture is the true X factor of what makes some organizations extraordinary vs just being great. Culture is all about defining how you are serving each other and your customers and then making sure that everything you do is based on the culture and those things that you have identified as being important.

I spent 15+ years of my professional career working for one of the greatest companies in the world. FedEx and specifically FedexOffice. During my time with FedexOffice, I had the opportunity to advance to different levels of the company and was able to work alongside countless driven and influential people who were all extremely talented at what they did and brought to the table.

As you may or may not know, FedEx is also one of the largest companies in the world and in 2020 was #50 on the Forbes Top 500 list. In 2020 FedEx had over 850,000+ employees worldwide who were responsible for $69.217 billion in annual revenue. To work in that business culture and alongside so many diverse and great people is something that continues to have a large impact on my view of the value of culture in any company.

With that many people working in locations all over the world, having their own values, beliefs, backgrounds, and personalities, you can imagine how difficult it may be to ensure that FedEx delivered upon the corporate strategy every day. With so many moving parts, divisions, trucks, packages, opportunities, and responsibilities it could be very easy for things to go off track unless you have a great support mechanism to ensure each employee understands what is important. The FedEx support mechanism I want to share with you supports Drucker’s quote, “culture eats strategy for breakfast” and is something I feel strongly can help take you and your team to the next level.

FedEx has one sentence that defines their culture and their approach to that culture. It is known as the Purple Promise which has the purpose of building and earning trust and loyalty of the FedEx team members, their customers, and the communities in which they support.

The Purple Promise is simply this:

“I will make every FedEx experience outstanding.”

The Purple Promise is something that is taught to every employee on their first day and remains an important part of how FedEx conducts their business around the world. The Purple Promise can be used in any situation, any decision, and any action you may be taking as an employee. Whether you are the most entry level package handler or the Chairman of the Board, the Purple Promise is the life blood of FedEx and is evident in everything they do.

As you begin to understand the true meaning of the Purple Promise you understand that every action matters. Whether that action involves business conduct, integrity, decisions, your team, each employee, each package, every location, every driver, every truck, every plane, and even every individual shipping label, your actions, and the experiences you create are the most important part of what FedEx does. Regardless of the gravity of a situation, the unhappy customer you may be dealing with, or the decision you must make, if you can honestly say you did everything you could do to make that FedEx Experience outstanding then chances are you made the right decision.

The Purple Promise illustrates Drucker’s point perfectly by saying it is the experience that is the most important, not the strategy.

As a tree care company owner, if you were to approach everything you do by ensuring that the experience will be outstanding then how can you go wrong in your strategic planning, team member training, customer interactions, completion of your work, and most importantly how you approach your business as an owner and the support of your most asset, your team.

So, the real question comes down to this. What is your company’s ‘Purple Promise’ and how can you enhance your current work culture to ensure that your team is supported with outstanding experiences? Over the next 3 weeks, we will be investigating various ways to assess, develop, implement, and enhance your current work culture. The overall concept and meaning of the FedEx Purple Promise is an interesting model to consider as you begin the journey of identifying and developing your own effective work culture.

As part of ArboRisk’s Thrive family, we are offering a FREE business culture self-assessment to help you begin to identify some ways in which you can continue to enhance your company’s culture. The assessment is extremely easy to complete and will take you less than 5 minutes. Following the completion of your assessment, you will receive a summary of recommended areas of impact to consider as you continue to enhance your company culture.

For additional help with company culture, contact a member of the ArboRisk Insurance team! ArboRisk also can work one-on-one with you to create an extraordinary business through our Thrive Risk Management Leadership Development Package!

Employment Practices Liability Insurance

by Katie Petersen | May 23, 2022 | Risk Management | 0 comments

Employment Practices Liability Insurance

Written by Mick Kelly

One of the first concerns that a new business owner has is how to deal with the hiring, firing and discipline of employees as well as wondering what the consequences your employees’ actions may have for your business.

Not only is the risk of being sued by an employee very real and on the rise, the risk of being sued because of the actions of an employee, outside of the scope of their work, is also very real.

This is where Employee Practices Liability Insurance or EPLI comes in!

What is EPLI

EPLI helps protect businesses against claims and lawsuits arising from improper or unfair acts brought by employees. EPLI includes coverage for the cost of defending a case in court and the damages from a judgement or settlement that may arise from a lawsuit. Legal costs are typically covered in the event of a win or loss.

EPLI covers against claims from:

full-time and part-time employees
temporary and seasonal employees
applicants for employment
independent contractors

Examples of lawsuits that can be brought against an employer include:

Unfair discipline
Wrongful termination
Unfair demotion or negligent evaluation
Breach of employment contract
Failure to employ or promote
Sexual harassment
Discrimination – age, race, sex, religion, etc
Libel, slander, defamation of character
Invasion of privacy
And more

Most small business owners think such claims will never come against them since the have the best employees or their employees just “aren’t like that” – but the claim may come from the actions of someone else within your organization or from a mistake from the employer. Even a “heat of the moment” dismissal may result in an ex-employee seeking damages for wrongful termination.

EPLI is typically a claims made policy – meaning you must have it at the time of the incident in order to have coverage.

How much does EPLI cost?

A rough rule of thumb is EPLI costs between $25 – $40 per employee but pricing does vary per carrier

EPLI Premiums, are typically based on the these factors:

Type Of Business
Number of Employees
Coverage Limits
Deductible
Past EPLI claims history

Many carriers will offer EPLI as an add on to the business liability policy but in the incidences where they don’t, EPLI policies can be purchased as stand alone policies.

How much coverage should you carry?

This question varies from business to business. Most small business’s don’t have the thousands of dollars that it would cost to defend an EPLI case and a way to offset that is to pay a monthly premium for the EPLI coverage.

It should be noted that most EPLI policies have a deductible and that the cost of the monthly premium plus the deductible along with the likelihood of a claim should all be factored in before deciding to purchase the policy.

A company with a well run HR department may feel more comfortable forgoing the coverage in the knowledge that all the correct steps are being taken in regards to discipline, termination, hiring, etc. however, even a highly skilled HR department doesn’t mean you’re immune from lawsuits.

What EPLI doesn’t cover

EPLI exclusions include:

Criminality or violations of state/federal laws – EPLI will not cover you against a criminal act or if you are in violation of state or federal laws. It may cover you up until the point you proven guilty but not beyond that.
Punitive damages
Worker’s compensation claims
Contractual liability or breach of contract

EPLI with Third Party coverage

This is an add on to EPLI coverage. While EPLI covers you against employee lawsuits, Third Party coverage covers you against the actions of your employees towards others such as customers or clients. These lawsuits are typically discrimination or sexual harassment in nature.

In a labor market where it’s become very difficult to hire and a lot of business’s are hiring “a body” to get by, this coverage can be helpful. While all businesses want to vet their employees to the highest standard and only hire people of the highest moral quality, it’s not always possible to be certain of either and EPLI coverage with Third Party coverage can be a way of mitigating that risk.

That being said, Third Party EPLI claims for smaller businesses are far more common in the food and accommodation and retail services than they are in contractor fields. The additional 15 – 20% cost associated with it should be weighed up against the likelihood of employee interaction with clients and customers.

For more information on EPLI, contact a member of the ArboRisk Insurance team! ArboRisk also can work one-on-one with you to create an extraordinary business through our Thrive Risk Management New Heights package!