Franchise organizations face a lot of risks — physical damage to property, liability for customer injuries, employee injury, cyber attacks and more. While insurance exists to protect your business against the costs of these types of incidents, your organization can help prevent them from occurring in the first place.

Read on to explore 4 risk management plans for WellBiz franchises, including a general risk prevention plan, a severe weather plan, hiring and retention plan and a cyber plan.

General risk management plans for WellBiz franchises

A successful risk management plan should be built proactively ahead of potential risks, so your business isn’t caught off guard by the unexpected. Implementing a plan with the following elements is a good start:

• Selecting personnel: Remember proper role placement is key. Make sure your franchise assigns the most qualified person for each role.
• Establishing safety rules and procedures: Develop general and specific rules and implement the guidelines that employees will need to follow.
• Training: Implement a program to provide initial and ongoing training for all employees.
• Safety inspections: Establish procedures to maintain franchise safety. Check regularly for any unsafe conditions or operating procedures.
• Emergency preparedness: Designate procedures to follow for first-aid, treatment of serious injuries, building fires, workplace violence and natural disasters.
• Engagement and motivation: Keep employees engaged in the franchise’s risk management efforts. Establish a safety committee or incentive program and create posters, handouts and more.
• Accident reporting, investigation and analysis: Create a system to ensure all accidents and injuries are reported immediately, promptly investigated and analyzed so that corrective actions can be taken.

View more general risk management plan tips here.

Severe weather risk management plans for WellBiz franchises

Because severe weather can happen anywhere throughout the year, it is important to create a plan for any extreme weather that might come your way. Here are seven steps you can take to help prepare for an extreme weather event:

1. Set up an emergency action plan, with an evacuation policy, emergency escape procedures and route assignments.
2. Ensure all employee contact numbers are current.
3. Designate a severe weather shelter.
4. Implement a communication system to notify employees of severe weather.
5. Store important documentation in a secure location.
6. Compile a kit to be taken into the shelter, with items like flashlights, a first aid kit, water, snacks, a battery-powered radio and more.
7. Hold training sessions and practice emergency drills with staff to ensure everyone understands the emergency process.

View additional severe weather risk management plans here.

Hiring and retention risk management plans for WellBiz franchises

Your employees are the face of your business, and as such, many common claims can arise out of guest interactions with employees. To ensure you hire qualified, customer-service oriented employees, it’s crucial to implement a hiring and retention risk management plan.

• Implement reviews and checks. Conduct background checks at hire and annually. Use the WellBiz preferred vendor, license and/or education verification, and stay on top of employee certifications throughout their tenure. Don’t forget to be thorough on reference checks and social media reviews, too.
• Expedite the process when possible. A typical hiring process has numerous friction points that can cause job candidates to look elsewhere or take another offer before you can make yours. To speed things up, look at your current process to see what can be expedited. For example, you could have candidates complete a short, customized application, rather than collecting resumes with unnecessary information.
• Consider providing incentives for new hires and current employees. Incentive ideas can range from sign-on bonuses, performance awards and employee benefit packages to free snacks, social outings, referral bonuses, professional development and other workplace perks. Consider a mix of one-time, recurring and continuous incentives of different levels and costs that appeal to your workforce and are appropriate for your business.

Hiring and retaining quality employees has long been a challenge for franchise businesses. Explore additional hiring and retention tips here.

Cyber risk management plans for WellBiz franchises

Cyber attacks are now a common threat for small businesses, and the lack of a cyber plan increases the risk to your data records and may worsen the outcome if you are hacked. Your plan should:

1. Assess the cyber risks your business faces. Consider the likelihood and severity of threats, focusing on more than just the worst-case scenarios.
2. Identify your vulnerabilities. Look at what is at stake in the event of an attack, such as customer records and financial details or systems such as daily operations and communications channels.
3. Plan for detection. Determine how your business will detect a hack, data breach or other cyber incident, whether in-house automated security systems or outsourcing monitoring to a security firm.
4. Define normal operations. Define when it is appropriate to raise the alarm that a cyber incident may have occurred.
5. Assemble a team that will respond in the event of a cyber attack, including any IT team members, key stakeholders and outside experts such as communications, legal and data forensics experts and your insurer.
6. Note assets and resources. Take inventory of your cyber assets, such as backups, firewalls, log systems and software.
7. Plan a cyber response. Decide how your practice will investigate attacks, contain threats and recover from a hack.
8. Prepare communication templates. A cyber incident often requires notification for affected customers and careful public relations management. Consider preparing these communications now so they can be used quickly, if needed.
9. Creating an event log. Use a cyber security event log to track the discovery of a hack, the actions taken and other technical details.
10. Stay alert for threats. Practice going through your plan to ensure you’re ready and update it when needed.

Risk management plans for WellBiz franchises

As a franchise owner, you have a responsibility to protect your employees, customers and business from common risks. Luckily, Lockton Affinity is here to help you with that responsibility.

In addition to 4 risk management plans for WellBiz franchises, we offer tailored insurance policies to protect against the financial risks related with operating a WellBiz franchise.

Available policies include Property, General Liability, Workers’ Compensation, Business Auto Liability, Cyber Liability and more.

Contact our dedicated team today to learn more about options to protect your business.