Our Philosophy
Insurance and Risk Management form a natural partnership in the treatment of Business Risk.
- Insurance, a Risk Transfer mechanism, allows a business to remove uncertainty from some of its risks by transferring the financial risk to a third party.
- Risk Management allows a business to reduce the likelihood of risk manifesting itself and/or reduce the consequences and impact it could have if it did. These consequences may be transferable (as insurance) or not in which case these are the business’ Retained Risk.
If we look at the risk of Health and Safety, business can:
- Transfer some of its risk cost (the awards made for bodily injury and suffering should an accident or injury occur) by means of purchasing Employers Liability insurance.
- Manage its Health and Safety risks complying with relevant legislation, undertaking Risk Assessments and then establishing appropriate controls, arrangements, monitoring procedures and records.
A business that doesn’t manage its Health and Safety risks faces consequences that are uninsurable; the cost of fines, prosecutions, loss of management time dealing with incidents or dealing with the enforcement agency, potential brand damage with consequent knock on effect with customers and ultimately the value of the business. These are the business’ Retained Risks and they will be a multiple of the costs that have been transferred to an insurer.
As Insurers, we know as well that there are other potential costs to a business that doesn’t manage its Health and Safety. It can have a significant impact on claims defensibility, which will affect future insurance costs and this can also give rise to a claims culture in the business.
This can then impact employee engagement, productivity and operational efficiency all of which ultimately affect profitability. These can seriously impair business culture and performance.
Our philosophy is to work with our clients to minimise incidents that might occur, the cost of which they have transferred to us and where necessary enable us to best defend these. At the same time we hope to also help them minimise the impacts and consequences that they retain themselves.
Aspen-BCarm provides our clients with resources to control their risks on a daily basis whilst at the same time creating transparency of its Health and Safety performance therefore allowing it to manage Health and Safety like any other business function.