How Marketing is Risk Management

by Katie Petersen | Apr 7, 2022 | Risk Management | 0 comments

How Marketing Is Risk Management

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Yes, you read that title correctly. The marketing your company is doing to attract new customers and employees is actually a form of risk management. In a previous article, Building a Risk Management Mindset, we discussed how a business intentionally creates opportunities and avoids problems by installing a risk management mindset. Those same principles are very true when looking at your marketing.

Let’s first define what I mean by marketing. Marketing can be any outward action or impression of your company that is released into the world that will either attract customers or employees to your company. Most people think of marketing in an active sense only, where the sales flyer or social media post that is created is marketing; however, many times marketing happens in a passive way without the business owner truly knowing that it is occuring. The appearance of who you are sets the stage for the customers and employees that will be drawn to your company.

We are going to explore marketing from a risk management perspective to help you intentionally create the business you desire by looking at both external marketing (for customers) and internal marketing (for employees).

External Marketing – This is what most people think about when they use the word “marketing,” which is the action taken by a company to attract new customers or sell more products/services to existing customers. All too often we see tree services advertising or promoting a unique one-time job that they did for someone, that, while they are really proud of that job, chances are they won’t be doing it again for a long time. This could be a removal job on an island or large crane job or a project in a remote area. Whatever the job is, when the company advertises it, their potential customers begin to connect that unique job to the expertise of the tree service.

Those unique jobs typically are not ones that you want to rely on as a business and more often than not don’t fit into your Sales Sweet Spot. Your Sales Sweet Spot is where your Specialty Service intersects with your Ideal Customer. (To learn more on the Sales Sweet Spot read our article here). When you are operating outside of your Sweet Spot, the risk to your company increases dramatically.

Therefore, it is the goal of your marketing to showcase the type of work that you are truly experts in and the type of work that you want more of so you can continue to operate within your Sweet Spot. To help your marketing team utilize a risk management mindset, ask yourself these questions:

Have you defined the Sales Sweet Spot? (For one-on-one help in developing this, enroll in our Thrive Sales & Marketing Package)
Does your entire team, including the marketing team, understand your Sales Sweet Spot?
What type of jobs are you attracting through your marketing materials?
Do your social media posts talk about and show the type of work that you want more of?
Does your website accurately depict what type of work you want more of?
Have you ever run a marketing campaign that focused on a product/service that was outside of your Sales Sweet Spot? If so, how did the results end up?

Internal Marketing – Internal Marketing is the action or inaction to get new, quality employees interested in your company. This can be more difficult than external marketing, because it often happens without your conscious thought, yet is one of the main drivers for whether or not you are actually attracting quality employees. It goes without saying, but the better, more professional employees you have, the lower the risk of injury and accidents happening within your company is.

Therefore, by intentionally marketing to the type of employee that you want, you are practicing risk management. To subjectively look at the internal marketing that is happening within your company today, ask yourself these questions:

Have you defined what your ideal employee’s characteristics are? (For one-on-one help in developing this, enroll in our Thrive Hiring & Recruiting Package)
What type of employee are you attracting through your external marketing? The adrenaline junkie or a professional arborist?
Are all of your marketing pictures and messages focusing on projects or jobs outside of your Sales Sweet Spot?
Does your messaging align with your staffing needs, today and into the future?
What do your trucks, equipment and uniforms say about the professionalism of your team?
Do you promote employee appreciation in your social posts and on your website?

Simply put, marketing, both external and internal, is happening every day within your company. How intentional you are about getting your desired customer and employee is what separates the good companies from the great ones. Employ a risk management mindset when thinking about your marketing and your company will be miles ahead of others in your area.

If you’re struggling trying to implement a risk management mindset within your marketing, reach out to an ArboRisk team member today or enroll directly into our Thrive Sales and Marketing Package for one-on-one help.

Building a Risk Management Mindset

by Katie Petersen | Apr 7, 2022 | Risk Management | 0 comments

Building a Risk Management Mindset

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “safety pays” before. In fact, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a website, with that very name, that allows you to calculate how much an injury will cost your company. While figuring out the cost of an injury can be a great addition to an internal safety meeting, the larger message here is that when everyone within your company possesses a risk management mindset, your organization can truly reach new heights.

So what does it mean to build a risk management mindset within your company?

Simply put, it means to be intentional with any decision you make by contemplating the potential outcome(s) before you act and how that outcome will affect the company at large.

It could be from an injury/accident standpoint, where taking a moment to think about what could happen to you or others if you follow through with your decision. It also could be from a sales or marketing view as well. How many times have your salespeople sold a job that was out of your comfort zone and now your production crew has to find creative ways to get the job done without the proper equipment, experience or workforce?

Thinking through the potential outcomes before a decision is made can also help you take reasonable or calculated risks for your company that move everything forward. Just by starting your business or joining the leadership team where you are right now, you utilized a risk management mindset to decide to embark on your new professional journey in hopes that you would find a better opportunity for yourself and your family. You intentionally made that decision as you felt it was the best chance to improve your situation. The intentionality of your decision, the fact you thought about the outcome of your career switch before you made your decision, is how you use a risk management mindset for the positive.

Being intentional in your decision making also creates an opportunity to have meaningful conversations with your team based on your thought process before acting – and we all know the power of open conversations between team members. Good tree services become great when communication has been encouraged amongst every person within the company.

To begin installing a risk management mindset within your company, start your next safety meeting by explaining something that you did without much thought that led to a near miss. Then talk through with your team how, if you took a few extra moments to think through the outcomes of your action (both positive and negative), it could have changed your decision. Ask for participation from your team so they become involved in the conversation and begin to understand the topic. Don’t forget to bring in the larger picture at play as well. If your decision led to an injury or accident, how does that affect the entire organization? What do others need to do to help overcome that injury?

Then use a positive example to illustrate the opposite effect of a risk management mindset. Discuss the latest business decision that may have seemed risky (starting a PHC division, opening up a new location, buying a larger piece of equipment) and how you strategically thought through the risk of that decision by understanding the outcomes to arrive ultimately at your decision to move ahead with it.

Getting your team to begin to think just a little bit into the future by using a risk management mindset can dramatically shift the experience your company faces from having things happen to you, to making them happen for you.

We all have a risk management mindset at times when making decisions for ourselves and company, however, the companies that grow the fastest and are the most profitable have been able to consciously replicate that mindset within everyone inside of their organization. If you are struggling with this concept, our Thrive New Heights Package and Thrive Safety Package will help you realize the potential of a risk management mindset within your organization.

Q&A with Aerial Lift Specialist Dave Webb Jr.

by Katie Petersen | Mar 18, 2022 | Safety | 0 comments

Q&A with Aerial Lift Specialist Dave Webb Jr.

Written by Mick Kelly

As more and more tree care companies transition from climbing to working out of aerial lifts, the need to talk about safe ownership and operation of these pieces of equipment has become evident. Many times we hear from companies that they don’t know their aerial lift should be inspected annually and/or where or how to get the inspection done.

At ArboRisk, we wanted to give you some basic information and provide a resource to help you out, so I sat down with Dave Webb Jr. of Wellbuilt Equipment to talk a little bit more about his background and knowledge of aerial lifts. His family has been in the aerial lift business for over 30 years – so they know a thing or two about what you should be looking for with your lifts!

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background in the lift industry.

My name is Dave Webb Jr. and I work at Wellbuilt Equipment. We’re a family owned and operated full service aerial lift company based out of Crete, IL. My dad started our company in 1987 in our back yard with just a couple of lifts. Since then we have grown to over 500 machines in our rental fleet and a staff of almost 30 people.

I’m a second-generation aerial lift mechanic. I started working at Wellbuilt when I was 12 and became a mechanic when I was 18. I’m over 20 years into the industry and about 16 as a mechanic. Despite being in the management team here, I still work on equipment every day. I love getting dirty and fixing equipment, and hope to continue that path as long as possible.

Explain the process of the annual inspection and why it’s so important?

First off, annual inspections are important to keep tabs on not only common wear and tear items but also long-term maintenance items and breakages that may occur on equipment. Many of our customers bring in their equipment quarterly for inspection and maintenance, but most are on a yearly rotation.

The process of an inspection at our shop is very in depth. From top to bottom we touch everything on the machine. This includes checking electrical connections, torque checking every nut, bolt, hose, pin, mount, you name it, load testing, performing preventative maintenance and ensuring all proper decals and placards are in place.

For more information regarding inspections, click here to visit our website!

How and where can you become a certified lift operator?

You can become a certified lift operator through an IPAF location (such as ourselves) or other independent aerial lift companies. We require that whomever is performing the training is familiar with the brand and model of the machine they are using to certify operators/users.

Do you have a brand and model of lift you recommend?

We sell two brands that we have partnerships here in the US with – CTE and Palazzani (Spimerica). Both have an industry leading 2 year warranty and excellent service and support.

We try not to pick favorites as no brand truly checks all the boxes when it comes to design and customer service. We work on every brand of spider lift out there as well as over 60 brands of aerial lifts and other equipment. Brands and models vary heavily in features and cost, we try not to force a particular brand on a customer, but rather point them in the direction that best suits their needs.

For more information on aerial lifts or inspections, visit Wellbuilt Equipment’s website here: https://www.wellbuiltequipment.com/.

If you need further assistance with safety, please reach out to a member of our ArboRisk team. We have many resources that can help you with this, in addition to our Thrive Safety Package, which gives you one-on-one help creating the safety culture that you desire.

Management’s Role in Safety

by Katie Petersen | Feb 28, 2022 | Safety | 0 comments

Management’s Role in Safety

Written by Margaret Hebert and Eric Petersen, CIC

We often hear that safety starts at the top, however, what does that actually mean? In this article we’re going to dig into the role that management plays in instituting a culture of safety within a tree care company.

When building a safety and health program, many companies turn to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for guidance. Sure enough, OSHA lists Management Leadership as the first of its seven core elements and for good reason.

Management of an organization, the business owner(s), managers, supervisors, etc., provides the leadership, vision, and resources needed to implement an effective safety program. Being at the top of the organization, management must embrace and communicate a few basic principles:

Make worker safety a core organizational value.
Provide sufficient resources to implement and maintain the safety program once it is developed.
Visibly demonstrate and communicate their safety commitment to workers.
Set an example through their own actions.

According to OSHA, management leadership of a safety program can be broken down into four action items.

Item 1: Communicate your commitment to a safety program. A clear, written policy helps you communicate that safety and health are primary organization values – as important as productivity, profitability, service quality, and customer satisfaction. After all, without safety, none of these other things can happen.

Item 2: Define program goals. By establishing specific goals and objectives, management sets expectations for everyone on their team and for the program overall. The goals and objectives should focus on specific actions that will improve workplace safety and health. Establish realistic, measurable goals for improving safety and emphasize preventing injury and illness rather than focusing on incident rates.

Item 3: Allocate Resources. Management has the authority to provide the resources needed to implement the safety program, pursue program goals, and address program shortcomings when they are identified. To do this effectively, management must integrate safety and health into the planning and budgeting process. Estimating the resources needed to establish and implement the program and allowing time in workers’ schedules for them to fully participate in the program are two critical components to an effective safety program. Remember to include all of the following when considering what safety resources your company needs: capital equipment and supplies, staff time, training, PPE and Safety Data Sheets.

Item 4: Expect performance. Management leads the program effort by establishing roles and responsibilities and providing an open, positive environment that encourages communication about safety and health. They will identify a front line person or persons (even a safety committee) to be responsible for safety performance. That person or committee charged with safety responsibility will need to make plans, coordinate activities, and track progress. Providing positive recognition for meeting or exceeding safety goals aimed at preventing injury and illness (e.g. reporting close calls or near misses, attending training, conducting inspections) is also a crucial management function.

In case you are wondering what OSHA’s seven core elements of safety and health programs, they are as follows:

Management Leadership
Worker Participation
Hazard Identification and Assessment
Hazard Prevention and Control
Education and Training
Program Evaluation and Improvement
Communication

If you have any questions on what role your management team should be playing in your safety culture, please reach out to a member of our ArboRisk team. We have many resources that can help you with this, in addition to our Thrive Safety Package, which gives you one-on-one help creating the safety culture that you desire.

Enhance Your Safety Culture

by Katie Petersen | Feb 28, 2022 | Safety | 0 comments

Enhance Your Safety Culture

Written by Tom Dunn

In the never ending quest to make sure every employee returns home safely each day, we wanted to take a deeper look into the concept of a company safety culture and the opportunities available for enhancing it.

We have previously touched on this topic in our weekly business tips articles (4 tips to creating a culture of safety) that included high level concepts like communication, training/employee development, preparing for safety, written procedures and having a safety “guru” on staff.

In this article we want to identify two specific, affordable and long lasting ways you can enhance your company safety culture. Both of these are offered by the only organization representing commercial tree care companies across the U.S, the Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA). Full disclosure, the author worked at TCIA for 7 years.

The Certified Tree Care Safety Professional (CTSP) and the Arborist Safety Training Institute (ASTI) are two programs that individuals (CTSP) and tree care companies (ASTI) can access to enhance their company’s safety culture.

The CTSP program is one I went through personally. I found it very helpful in my roles at TCIA and continually saw the benefits it provided to tree care companies who had individuals complete the program. The idea behind this designation is to teach an individual about the different ways the adult learner takes in information and identify their own teaching styles to help them become the safety “guru” for their organizations.

The individual going through this program can come from many different areas of a company, and depending on the size of the organization it might make sense to have more than one individual from a company obtain the designation. There are eligibility requirements, but TCIA will work with individuals to get them enrolled in the program.

The program is definitely a commitment for the individual going through it and for the company that is paying for it, but the long term benefits are far reaching for both.

There are other benefits as well. Insurance company underwriters are very interested in working with companies who have CTSP’s on their staff and offer discounted pricing for those companies. OSHA investigators are well aware of the designation and will take it into account during an accident investigation. In fact, as part of some settlement agreements, they have required companies to enroll individuals in the program.

Spurred on by Covid-19 restrictions, TCIA has made a commitment to transitioning the program to an online format. This has created the added benefit of cutting down on the travel costs that may have deterred companies from committing in the past.

To maintain their CTSP credentials, individuals must re-certify every 3 years, but there are many creative and accessible ways to obtain the CEU’s. Those who continue in the program become part of an active nationwide community for the rest of their working lives.

The ASTI program is another opportunity that not everyone is probably aware of or takes advantage of to enhance their safety culture. Smaller tree care companies who would like to bring in high quality, outside safety training, now have a way to do it affordably. Grants up to $2,000 are available to fund ½ day or full day training. You can utilize TCIA curriculum from the Tree Care Academy programs or other educational material as long as it relates back to safety topics that are important to tree care workers.

There are some caveats behind the ASTI program that you will need to consider. They have been put in place to offer quality safety training that will reach the biggest audience of tree care workers possible. For example, workshops have to be made available to all tree care workers in a particular geographic location and must be held in a neutral location (not at a tree care company shop).

The grantee is also responsible for marketing and registration for the event, but TCIA does offer materials to help as well as a list of approved instructors. There have been a number of tree care companies who have been awarded grants since the program was started. Why not your company?

Both of these programs will show your employees and potential employees that you are serious about creating a positive safety culture. Check out https://www.tcia.org/ for more information.

ArboRisk is doing its part to help companies assess their safety culture and show employees of your commitment to safety. We have developed a safety culture survey that employees can take with actionable steps for company leaders to address any safety related deficiencies identified. Call us for more information on implementing the survey and check out our Safety Package for one-on-one help.