1.  What is "Risk Management"?
2.  My Insurance Company offers Training; Why Should we Hire a Trainer?
3.  Can Risk Management Training Benefit Our Business?
4.  Why Shouldn’t we just Purchase an On-line Training Program?
5.  Can you Guarantee We will Save Money if we Hire a Trainer?
6.  What Should I look for When Choosing a Risk Management Trainer?
7.  What is Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)?
8.  Isn't it Expensive to Implement Risk Management?
9.  How is Cunnart compensated for its services?
10. Does Cunnart offer an Independent Insurance Review?
11. What is a Risk Management Policy Statement and do we Need One?
12. How Would I Conduct a Risk Management Assessment?
13. Where does Insurance Fit with Risk Management?

1. What is "Risk Management"?
Risk management is the process of identifying threats to life and property and then steps to prevent the threat from becoming reality and to minimize the negative impact of events that do occur.

For example, on a personal level you know that there is a possibility that riding in a car can result in injury or death. To minimize the chance of a car accident, you could take a driver training course, purchase a car whose design includes various safety features and wear a seat belt while in the vehicle. In taking these steps, you have effectively a) improved your skill at driving and avoiding accidents and b) reduced the severity of any injury that may occur if you are involved in an accident.

You also must choose how to pay for losses. Many people have ‘savings accounts’ in their bank to pay for unexpected costs – minor damage to their car, for example. In addition, they care automobile insurance for more serious damage than they can afford on their own.  Businesses can also set aside ‘reserve funds’, similar to the personal savings account that will pay for unexpected costs, then purchase insurance for more expensive losses. Organizations also have access to funding options that include risk transfer and the use of captive insurers or pooling that will bear unexpected high-cost losses.

 2. My Insurance Company offers Training; Why Should we Hire a Trainer?
Many competent agents, brokers and insurance companies offer seminars for their clients; some even offer seminars for prospective clients at no cost. Keep in mind, though, that their primary business is sale of insurance products. The people who typically present the seminar want to encourage you to buy more or different types of insurance products. Those individuals are not always able to suggest practical, low-cost solutions to solve your complex insurance and risk management needs.

Keep in mind that your colleagues may view recommendations from insurance personnel with some skepticism if they think the suggestions are made by someone with something to gain, or who does not have a clear understanding of your need to balance risk and reward while working in a complex organization.

3. Can Risk Management Training Benefit Our Business?
Often the day-to-day demands of running a business means that risk management practices get passed over as something managers have too little time for.

Think of it this way: risk management is similar to a health and safety culture. It’s not another chore; it’s the way you do your work. Just as workplace safety reduces your employment-related injuries/costs, so too can practicing risk management reduce errors that lead to unplanned/unexpected costs.

4. Why Shouldn’t we just Purchase an On-line Training Program?
There are many on-line training programs available. The advantage of systems these is that they are usually available to employee 14 hours a day, 7 days a week whenever and wherever one has access to the internet. Disadvantages are that users lose the ability to learn from the trainer and others present at the seminar, to ask questions specific to their interests and to debate pros/cons of various perspectives.

‘Webinars’ are a new option available to students. The ‘webinar’ functions much like a classroom session, but through the internet. All students are connected through the internet at a specific time, print off the seminar material at their own location, and use their own PC and audio link to the trainer. They can ask questions (in ‘real’ time) and receive responses, hear the questions and answers of other attendees. These sessions are typically 1 ½ to 2 hours in length.

They avoid costs involved when attendees need to travel long distances. Savings are related to lack of travel expense, accommodation and meals costs and loss of productive time in the workplace due to travel.

5. Can you Guarantee We will Save Money if we Hire a Trainer?
We can never a guarantee that insurance and risk costs will reduce costs. It is difficult to measure costs that do not happen. BUT – eventually effective risk management efforts do pay off with fewer losses – leading to lower risk-related costs and more competitive insurance premiums.

6. What Should I look for When Choosing a Risk Management Trainer?
Depending on whether you are situated in Canada or the United States, the diploma your risk management trainer or consultant has varies.

In Canada, a Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) has passed national examination covering a wide variety of ‘technical’ insurance topics in the property-casualty insurance industry. A Fellow, Chartered Insurance Professional has attained the CIP level, plus they have completed a series of university-level courses covering technical subjects in depth as well business-related topics.

In the United States, the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) diploma identifies a person with technical insurance expertise, similar to a CIP. CPCU is the key professional designation of the property and casualty insurance business.

In both Canada and the United States, there are specialty diplomas in risk management. In Canada these are called the CRM courses while in the United States they are known as ARM. In both countries, advanced education results in the Fellowship in Risk Management (FRM). The advance diploma includes specialty risk management training plus several university-level business management courses.

Always select your trainer or consultant based on their professional qualifications and overall knowledge and practical experience in risk management and training.

7. What is Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)?
ERM is organization-wide efforts to identify and manage risks - from perceptions of board members and senior executives to front line supervisors and employees. Once risks are identified, they must be prioritized by their overall potential to negatively impact corporate goals, managed in such a way to minimize their negative impact on the organization’s finances, physical assets and reputation. This is similar to constant ‘quality control’ but with the emphasis on risk.

A key to implementing and sustaining an ERM culture is communication through all levels of the organization. Effective communication ensures that a) no risk is overlooked and b) that no prevention/mitigation technique inadvertently negatively affects another part of the organization.

It is critical that employees/volunteers at all levels of the organization from board members to janitorial all understand their ability to identify and manage risks within their realm of endeavors.

8. Isn't it Expensive to Implement Risk Management?
Creating a risk management culture in your organization can be costly or  inexpensive. It can be surprising low-cost if you can convince employees and volunteers at all levels of its importance. For example, you may find that some activities that produce little return can be stopped while other actvities needed to reduce risk can be paid for with those now-available resources.

Keep in mind there are you may already be incurring from lack of risk management. These include higher insurance premiums, difficulty atrracting and retaining skilled employees and enjoying a poor corporate reputation. Reputational risk have a hidden affect on both for-profit and not-for-profit organizatin. Poor reputation can mean fewer sales in the for-profit sector and greater difficulty fund-raising in the not-for-profit sector.

9. How is Cunnart compensated for its services?
Our training is priced on a daily basis, plus expenses. Organizations booking multiple days of training obtain preferential pricing. A workbook is provided to every student on the training day. Publications offered by Cunnart are available on the seminar day at a reduced cost to the organization and students.

10. Does Cunnart offer an Independent Insurance Review?
Cunnart is primarily training and publishing organization. Inevitably, insurance questions are raised during discussions of risk management. Insurance programs are discussed in general terms, however specific recommendations and advice require more time and attention than can be provided in a seminar forum.

11. What is a Risk Management Policy Statement and do we Need One?
Think of these written statements as a detailed mission statement. It describes the organization’s risk management goals and philosophy towards the risk management process. The statement clearly lays out risk management’s responsibilities and authority. During the writing process, it encourages senior management to define what they want the risk management department to do. It helps to set the future risk management ‘culture’ of the organization.

12. How Would I Conduct a Risk Management Assessment?
On a regular basis, thoroughly review the potential risks to the organization. This is often easiest to do by focusing on one area of operations at a time and encouraging contributions from the organization’s employees who bring specific skills to the task. For example, you may include someone who has technical knowledge in the area being reviewed, a health and safety technician and someone who is unfamiliar with the work but brings an ‘outsiders’ perspective. Checklists are often helpful as they ensure that the key points will be considered by everyone involved in the review.

13. Where does Insurance Fit with Risk Management?
Traditionally, risk managers have been seen as chiefly insurance buyers. While insurance is an important factor, risk managers now emphasize the need to prevent the chance of accident loss and all the related negative effects that can arise from those losses. Insurance is a key element in the financial capacity of the organization to recover from losses.