Stacking the Deck to Mitigate Risk in Your Company

Risky Business, the 1983 film that launched the film career of Tom Cruise, had nothing to do with slips, trips and falls, motor vehicle accidents or pest management for that matter. 

 

But risky business is exactly what pest management professionals face each day when they send thousands of technicians and service vehicles out on the road, process recurring credit card payments or have technicians climb ladders or enter crawlspaces or attics to perform a service. Risk is simply an inherent part of the business.

 

How do pest management professionals mitigate the risks they face every day? The answer to that important question start and end with awareness, training and education, and a commitment to creating a culture of safety from the c-suite to the technician.

 

PestSure, a privately held insurance captive providing risk management services and insurance coverages to pest management professionals, recently held its annual Safety and Loss Prevention Meeting with the goal of not only educating attendees but challenging them to continually review and advance their safety initiatives. 

 

“As an industry resource to so many great pest control companies, it is important for PestSure to provide a consistent forum to share best practices and enhance safety cultures,” said Todd Burke, chief operating officer for PestSure. “The great part about the pest management industry is that everyone truly wants to help each other, collaborate and share ideas, and we see that play out every year at the meeting. We look forward to hosting this meeting in future years and continuing to invest in the industry.”

 

The meeting featured detailed case studies from member companies and sessions on auto liability, safety benefits of GPS monitoring, employee drug testing, subrogation and salvage services and OSHA compliance. Nearly 50 pest management companies were represented at the meeting.

 

“Our primary goal for the meeting was to share best demonstrated safety practices for the pest management industry,” said Linda Midyett, area vice president and loss prevention manager for PestSure. “This is why the company case studies are so valuable. They expose attendees to ‘real world’ situations where their company and technicians are at risk and provide them with solutions to prevent that from happening in the future.”

 

In addition to two days of in-depth sessions attendees spend time interacting and sharing information on what safety and risk management practices have worked well and how they successfully integrated these protocols into their operations.

 

“One of the key benefits of participating in an event such as this is being able to share with and learn best safety practices from your peers,” said Alfie Treleven, president/CEO of Sprague Pest Solutions in Tacoma, Washington. “The knowledge and practical tips we’ve acquired at this conference will allow the Sprague team to be better prepared to execute their jobs with a safety-first understanding.”

PestSure’s Midyett said attendees develop valuable peer contacts they turn to throughout the year to stay on top of best safety practices. 

 

"Many attendees visit each other’s companies to see first-hand how they develop and incorporate safety initiatives to lessen risk and take that information back home to improve their own programs,” added Midyett. “The learning doesn’t stop when the conference ends.”