By Chad Engle, Loss Prevention Manager and Safety Specialist
Recently, the loss prevention staff completed the final deliveries of the new NIRMA Safety Committee Resource Handbooks, so all members should now have their paper copies in hand. In addition to the paper copies, the Safety Committee Resource Handbook is available for download from the Interact portal. The Interact portal is password protected so you will need to have your contact person or safety committee chair log in on the NIRMA website to access the handbook. The Safety Committee Resource Handbook is your guide for the operations and procedures of your county or agency safety committee. As you know, NIRMA has ten Best Safety Practices for Members, and #2 is: “Establish a safety committee and conduct (no less frequent than) quarterly meetings.”
In addition to the recommendations made in NIRMA’s Best Safety Practices for Members, NIRMA makes recommendations by way of regular onsite assessments and inspections. We assess our members’ safety committees, road sign programs, highway department shop safety programs, jail policies and procedures and law enforcement policies and procedures, among other areas of operations. Assessing our membership is one way that NIRMA fulfills its responsibility to protect all our members and their funds in the member fund balance.
When a county or county-related public agency chooses to join the Nebraska Intergovernmental Risk Management Association, they have done so knowing that they have a duty to protect themselves from preventable losses, thereby protecting too the other members of the program from the financial harm associated with loss. Every recommendation made by NIRMA to a member is intended to reduce the risk of unnecessary loss to that member and protect the program’s overall financial security. These recommendations are not made to “check a box” or provide the appearance of risk management, risk management is taken very seriously as outlined in NIRMA’s Mission Statement:
“NIRMA, in partnership with its member Nebraska counties and other select public agencies, leads the way in providing innovative and cost-effective insurance coverages, sound risk management strategies, and comprehensive loss prevention and safety services.”
There is a saying here at NIRMA in connection with assessments, that we do not require anything except that our members abide by the membership agreement they have signed and pay their premium contributions. Everything else is a recommendation. We say this because our members chose to be here, and we presume that they are on-board and are taking the steps required to actively manage the risk in their counties and agencies.
NIRMA becomes concerned when repeated re-inspection and re-assessment results make it clear that a member is not taking steps to actively manage their risks. Failing to manage risk results in increased losses, increased costs, legal liabilities and an overall negative impact on the member fund balance.
To maintain their membership a county or agency must meet the NIRMA Membership Eligibility Criteria. Criteria number 3 is strongly linked to active risk management and states that a member must present a good risk profile based on the regular activities and functions of the agency, have acceptable claims experience, and is accepting of the risk management and loss control approaches employed by NIRMA.
When a member county or agency continuously disregards risk management recommendations made via their assessments and inspections, they not only put themselves at risk, but also the other members of the program. By doing so a member may reach a point where they no longer meet the eligibility criteria. NIRMA values each member, but we also have a duty to protect the overall membership and well-being of the program and to do this our members need to recognize and support active loss control and risk management.
Please contact me if you have any questions about inspections, checklists, or training. As always, I can be reached at [email protected] and 800.642.6671.
