Hazards and risks, and loss, oh, my! At first, risk management can seem overwhelming, even frightening. But, as The Wizard of Oz's Good Witch told Dorothy, "It's always best to start at the beginning..." In the case of risk, you begin by defining it. This course explores the concepts of hazard, risk, and loss. With this base knowledge, you can follow the (not necessarily yellow or brick) road to a solid risk management plan and the peace of mind it brings.

How do you identify risks? Do you walk around the office, looking for loose wires and water on the floor? That may be a small part of it, but there's much more to finding possible problems. It involves looking at your unique company and analyzing its unique situation. Here, we talk you through this process, enabling you to clarify, and consequently better handle, whatever the future may hold.

Spongebob Squarepants said of blowing bubbles, "It's all in the technique." This statement can be applied to risk management. What techniques do you have for handling various risks? Do you fly by the seat of your (square)pants? Or do you have established policies to minimize the impact? This course presents several methods and their benefits, empowering you to answer back when (bubble) trouble calls.

Have you had your risks assessed lately? Do you know what it means to do so? We do, and we're more than happy to share! In this course, we'll walk you through two methods for evaluating and rating risks. This enables you to more objectively and rationally move forward on a plan.

There's a healthy balance between safe and risky business, but do your people know what this "balance" means for them? And are they encouraged to put it into practice daily? This course explores what a healthy risk culture looks like, and helps you instill it with confidence.

Your risk management philosophy and plans only flourish if nurtured. This happens through planting seeds of integration, keeping a continuous flow of communication, and weeding out any misunderstandings. This course addresses these items, and more.

Many companies have dealt with crises and taken hits to their brands, as a result. Workplace catastrophes, data breaches, executive scandals, etc., can all deeply impact a company's reputation, resulting in loss of trust and revenue. Organizations can't necessarily prevent crises, but they can manage the way they respond and protect the brand. In this program, we'll talk about managing your brand's image during and after a crisis. We'll go over analyzing the company's current brand and tone, creating and maintaining a crisis messaging plan, and monitoring and responding to comments and reactions from the public.

As Mom would say, "Better safe than sorry." Why are mothers always warning us to play it safe? Because they're smart. They know that by making assessments and training on safety ahead of time, you can alleviate a lot of trouble and pain. This course (cross)walks you through how to do all that, including OSHA's take on safety controls. Mom would most definitely approve.

As Benjamin Franklin said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." When good ol' Ben said this, he was addressing fire safety. But it can pertain to just about everything, and preventive maintenance is no exception. This course looks at preventive versus reactive maintenance, how to plan, and what triggers are. Once you've applied this knowledge, you'll find yourself enjoying another one of his wisdoms: "A penny saved is a penny earned."

"That would never happen to us." This is a common thought when it comes to workplace violence. But the companies that have experienced it most likely thought the same thing. So even though we hope for the best, we need to plan for the worst. This course goes through the types of violence, risk exposure, and warning signs, helping you best manage if something should occur.

What makes for a healthy workplace and, as the band R.E.M. would put it, "Shiny Happy People"? Well, it takes a mixture of things, including safety, wellness, and stress prevention. This course explores these items and a sound approach to each.

How's your cash flow these days? How about your debt-to-equity ratio? If they're both good, we'll assume you want to keep it that way. This course introduces the basic ways we gauge financial health, and then looks at possible risks to that health. Finally, we go through the steps you can take now to best avoid each scenario.

Warren Buffet says, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." This is so true, particularly in our age of social media. Whatever we're doing, we need to be acting as if our reputation depended on it...because it does! We must first look internally at our hiring, training, and general processes. Then, we must evaluate the management of our external reputation, which includes our critically-important online presence. This course goes through both of those profiles, and how to make sure your company is getting the "thumbs up" and "five stars."

The Clash rock band shared it in their eternal lyrics, "Should I stay, or should I go now? If I go, there will be trouble, and if I stay, it will be double." They are having trouble making a decision, but at least they're performing a risk assessment on the choices! We can do the same, only better. In this course, we share our five-step plan for defining the decision, and choosing between the options, but only after identifying the risks for each. With this knowledge, you can feel much more confident in "rockin' out" those decisions!

A pandemic is an epidemic of disease that has spread across a large region. They happen when new diseases emerge that are able to infect people easily and spread from person to person in an efficient and sustained way. Pandemics can affect your business in countless ways and require extensive planning and allocation of resources to reduce risks, minimize damage, and protect the health of your employees and customers. In this course, we'll take a look at how to prepare for a pandemic, including establishing company policies, creating plans for maintaining business operations, and coordinating a communications strategy.

In the event of a pandemic, one of the most important things you'll need to manage is internal communications with your staff. They may be frightened, worried, or confused about what this event means for both their personal lives and work projects. How are they going to do their jobs? What do you expect of them? Should they come into the office or stay home? And what about your customers? Will their orders be delayed? It's up to your business to have a plan in place for internal communications during a pandemic, so you can answer all these questions for your staff and customers in a timely manner. In this course, we'll discuss how to establish a communication team and communication procedures for a pandemic.

Media presence after and during a pandemic crisis is unavoidable. Reporters report, it's as simple as that. The treatment your company receives by the media and the resulting public opinion, however, is within your control. In this program, we'll go over some best practices for handling media inquiries in the event that a pandemic outbreak affects your company. We'll discuss naming a spokesperson, preparing media statements, holding press conferences, and handling interviews. We'll also cover what should be included in a media kit, how to manage social media, and general tips for communicating with the media.

If a pandemic breaks out in your region of the world, or in a region of the world where you have employees, it could severely impact your staff's lives and ability to work. What do you do in a situation like this? Luckily, there are some steps you can take in your office to prevent the spread of the illness in question, continue operations as much as possible, and stay in line with public health recommendations. We'll go over what preventative measures to take to avoid the spread of illness. We'll also talk about handling sick employees and recommendations for working from home.

Business continuity is the ability to continue to do business regardless of crises, disasters, and other disruptions. Normally these disruptions might be earthquakes, floods, or fires, but pandemics can affect your business in much the same way, even if it's not happening where you live and work. In this program, we'll discuss how to assess the potential impact of a pandemic to your business. We'll go over various disruption scenarios as well as how to create a business continuity plan.

You've likely heard the saying, "Hope for the best; plan for the worst." This could've been written with crisis management in mind. In business, this is about being prepared for worst-case scenarios. In this program, we'll talk about what these worst-case scenarios might be, including the various types of crises that impact organizations. We'll also go over how to plan and coordinate a response to a crisis. This includes having an emergency response plan, a crisis communications plan, and an IT disaster plan.

Experts estimate that nearly half of all businesses affected by disaster, whether natural or man made, never reopen. It's basically a 50/50 chance that a business faced with a crisis will outlast the event. Those are scary odds, which is why preparation is so important. In this course, we'll go over some practical steps that organizations can take to get prepared for a crisis. We'll discuss preventative maintenance on facilities, databases, and equipment. We'll go over how to create an emergency supply kit to keep on hand. We'll cover ways to properly communicate information during and after a crisis, and lastly, we'll explain how to raise awareness to spot warning signs of potential trouble.

Natural disasters come in many forms. There are thunderstorms, blizzards, hurricanes, and heat waves to consider. Then there are geological disasters, like earthquakes and volcanoes to contend with. How organizations should prepare for these types of events varies greatly depending upon location, industry, and other factors. However, there are some similarities in response strategies, regardless of the type of disaster. In order to respond, you must know what to do before, during, and after the event. That's what we'll cover in this program.

Most of the time, we count on our workdays being routine and predictable. However, emergencies can happen at any time, so it's critical that businesses and employees are prepared and equipped to handle worst-case scenarios. In this course, we'll talk about common emergencies organizations experience, safeguards companies should have in place, and what should be done during emergency situations. We'll discuss what actions should be taken before emergency responders arrive and go over implementing and executing an emergency response plan.

If something catastrophic happened to your organization, would you be able to continue serving your customers and paying your employees? Of course, it's dependent on the type and severity of the crisis, but in general, do you have a plan in place to continue doing business? In this course, we'll talk about how to get a solid business continuity plan in place. We'll go over assessing risks and doing a business impact analysis. We'll also cover the various components of a business continuity plan, so your organization can keep things running smoothly if disaster strikes.

Media presence after a crisis can be unavoidable. The treatment your company receives by the media and the resulting public opinion, however, is partly within your control. In this course, we'll go over best practices for handling media inquiries. We'll cover assembling a crisis communication team, choosing a spokesperson, and addressing the situation. We'll also talk about how to handle employees who are contacted by the media, what to do with your company's social media accounts, and the various ways to release information to the media.