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Maintaining a Healthy Workstation When Working from Home

With a large percentage of the UK’s workforce now working from home as a result of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, it has become more important than ever to consider the home working environment and associated risks to your employees’ physical and mental health.

Employers have a duty of care to employees, whether they are working on or offsite, and this extends to homeworking.  Specifically, the employer is responsible for carrying out a risk assessment to check whether the proposed home workplace’s ventilation, temperature, lighting, space, chair, desk and computer, or any kind of workstation, and floor are suitable for the tasks the homeworker will be carrying out.  The employer is also responsible for the equipment it supplies, but it is the employee’s responsibility to rectify any flaws in the home highlighted by the assessment. Once the home workplace has passed the assessment, it is the employee who is responsible for keeping it maintained.  ACAS provides a comprehensive guide to homeworking for employers and employees, which you can view on their site.

With this in mind, it is important that employers consider their employees’ homeworking arrangements to mitigate their risk of future claims.  Whilst this may not be a priority at such a difficult time for businesses and the economy generally, it is worthwhile doing some basic checks to ensure that employees’ basic mental and physical health is not adversely affected.

To help you navigate potential issues related to working from home, we have collated some basic advice, which you can distribute to employees to help them create a healthy workstation at home, maintain workplace wellness, and optimise productivity.

Choose the Right Chair

Choosing the right chair to sit upon during your working day can have a more profound effect on your physical health than you may expect. To reduce the amount of lower back stress, as well as visual difficulty when working (the effects of which can significantly reduce both productivity and motivation), we would recommend the following:

  • Adjust the seat height so that your feet are flat on the floor, and your legs are at a 90° angle with knees equal to or slightly lower than your hips
  • Slightly recline the back of the chair to an angle that matches approximately 110°. This allows for both upper and lower back support and avoids ‘hunching’ over your computer.
  • Sit in the chair with your hips and bottom positioned on the back of the chair seat. This also helps to support the lower back.

Arrange your Desk

Arranging your desk so that your monitor, keyboard and mousepad are properly positioned can alleviate eye strain as well as helping to maintain good posture.

  • Sit at least an arm’s length away from your screen and adjust the ‘zoom’ on the monitor to suit your vision.
  • Reduce screen reflection and glare by positioning your screen away from windows or by adjusting blinds.
  • Try to position source documents directly in front of you between the monitor and the keyboard to help reduce neck strain.
  • To maintain correct wrist positioning and to reduce aches and pains, try tilting your keyboard away from you at a negative angle using the keyboard ‘feet’ or a homemade prop.

Consider your Environment

Your environment can both positively and negatively impact your productivity when working from home. Although being within familiar surroundings may seem comforting, it can cause individuals to lack motivation and become easily distracted.

  • Try to have a separate workspace. Use a desk instead of sitting on your bed on or the sofa. This will help you stay in a ‘professional’ mindset and make your day feel more ‘normal’.
  • Try and work somewhere that is well lit. This will reduce eye strain and make you feel more awake and productive
  • Take breaks. It can be easy to get stuck behind the screen, but try to ensure you take scheduled lunch/tea breaks.

Overall, working from home and maintaining a healthy, productive routine can prove difficult, but with these simple tips, employers can advise their workforce on the best ways to stay motivated and maintain strong results despite these uncertain times.

Keep your employees happy and sustain productivity for your business by trusting the insurance professionals at Robison & Co Ltd to provide you with all of the resources you need to stay compliant and prosperous. If you would like more information about workplace wellness, download our Workplace Wellness Scorecard or call our expert team on 01730 265500.

About Robison Insurance Brokers

Robison is an experienced business and personal insurance broker based in Petersfield, specialising in sourcing specialist insurance advice for businesses in the public and private sectors throughout Hampshire and the South. Our highly trained staff are on hand to offer support and guidance for your business, benefiting from a wealth of experience working within a wide range of industries from professional services to retail. Whether you are looking for public liability insurance or advice about workplace wellness, our team can offer tailored advice and services no matter your requirements. To arrange an audit, call our team on 01730 265 500 or email us at hello@robison.co.uk.

 

 

 

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Cybersecurity Trends in 2020

This year, cybersecurity concerns are on the rise as hackers become more aggressive and technology advances. If your business is reviewing its budgets and strategies for 2020, Robison recommends investigating these cybersecurity trends to identify how they might affect your company.

Investors

In 2020, financial investments will be affected by cybersecurity more than ever before. Following 2017’s Equifax data breach, investors are beginning to realise that businesses with vulnerable cyber risks are a less worthy investment. With ‘Fortune 1000’ companies twice as likely to suffer a data breach, it is clear that even the largest, most prosperous companies are at risk. Surprisingly, research by cybersecurity rating company BitSight revealed that the majority of the 1,000 largest American companies ranked by revenues, as compiled by the American business magazine Fortune, have at least one division in their administration which uses a vulnerable ‘port’ which could be accessed by cybercriminals to acquire sensitive data.

Consequently, investors are reining in their support of companies which do not have solid security measures in place. The correlation between strong cybersecurity and strong stock performance has allowed investors to make smarter choices about which companies they decide to invest in, and although this relationship is in its infancy, it is likely that in the future more investors will incorporate cybersecurity into their analysis.

As a business, it is imperative to showcase your company’s cyber aptitude, as it will not only protect your data, but increase your investment value.

Blunt-Force Cyberattacks

Projections show that in 2020, hackers are likely to use simple strategies such as brute-force password spraying, business email compromise (BEC) and gaining access to third-party systems. Although it is beneficial to have complex firewalls in place to protect the delicate infrastructure of your computer systems, businesses must practice back-to-basics cybersecurity vigilance such as:

  • Staff training on phishing and suspicious emails
  • GDPR enforcement
  • Maintaining Codes of Practice when discussing sensitive information

Often, the human element of a business is the weakest link, and the easiest route for a cyber criminal to gain access to sensitive data.

For more information on Cyber Risks and Liabilities and how you can protect our business, read our guide.

How Can We Help?

Cyberattacks can cause your company to lose the trust of your clients, lose money and damage your reputation. As an experienced broker, Robison can find the best cyber liability insurance for your business, based on your specific needs. Our professional team specialises in creating bespoke insurance solutions to resolve your concerns, with a focus on value for money, industry insight and personal service.

Robison is an independent business and personal insurance broker based in Petersfield, Hampshire. We have provided advice and services for businesses throughout Hampshire and the surrounding areas since 1982, providing friendly customer service, value for money and advice from trained professionals. If you’re looking for an experienced, professional broker who is innovative in providing you with the right programme of policies, our team can offer tailored advice and services no matter your requirements. To arrange an audit, call our team on 01730 265 500 or email us at hello@robison.co.uk.

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How Manufacturers Can Manage Their Risks Through Insurance and Non-Insurance Strategies

As a manufacturer, it can be difficult to calculate the cost of losses and the degree of risk. If your business is faced with a product recall or downtime of machinery, are you equipped to keep trading without incurring loss of revenue, customers or reputation?

What is a Risk Management Programme?

Total cost of risk is an insurance term describing the cost of both pure and speculative risk. Additionally, it is synonymous with price: the price of your risk management programme. Some components of cost of risk are easily identifiable, such as insurance premiums or loss of production costs, whereas loss of reputation or market share is more difficult to quantify. Establishing and maintaining a risk management programme aims to decrease your total cost of risk, by helping to achieve the following:

  • Analyse your exposure to risk
  • Implement control measures to these exposures
  • Determine risk transfer or financing options
  • Manage current and future exposures

Identification of Exposures

In order to identify total cost of risk, it is imperative to recognize which areas of your business are vulnerable. Aligning your risk management approach with your overall business objectives will aid the recognition of qualitative and quantitative risks against which you can aim to protect your business. The analysis of both qualitative and quantitative risks also offers a foundation for developing forward-thinking approaches to the exposures identified.

When identifying risks as a manufacturer, it helps to ask the following questions:

  • What is your viewpoint on risk?
  • Is your company risk-averse?
  • Is your company in a financial position to take on more risk? Can that risk be transferred to another party or contractually to an insurer?

To help answer these questions, assessing your company history is useful to find patterns and to ascertain risk-taking behaviour. For example, start-ups are more likely to want to protect their financial viability as funds and cash flow is tight, in contrast to a 20-year business whose strategies and business plan may be becoming obsolete or too conservative.

Additionally, we consider norms in the manufacturing industry, your market position and competition to fine-tune your risk management solution to the changing needs of your business.

Quantitative analysis including ‘hard numbers’ and prior losses can also be used to identify trends. This data is also used to identify:

  • Average incurred costs per loss
  • Total incurred trends
  • Fraud behaviours

Implementing Control Measures

Through pre- and post-loss control measures, Robison looks to control and reduce the cost of commercial insurance expenses, an estimated 75% of which are claims driven. Using a comprehensive loss control evaluation to implement control features such as anti-fraud tactics, employee campaigns about the effects of insurance fraud, and safety incentives for solid performance can show how an active loss control programme can be elemental to cost containment. Robison can offer comprehensive resources for your business to help you employ the most appropriate strategies to control your risks.

Next Steps

Once a risk management programme and control measures are in place, the remaining vulnerabilities of your business can be addressed. It is important to comprehend how much risk you can assume in-house and how much of that risk you should be transferring to a third party. Robison can finance remaining risks through an insurance policy as well as assisting with the transfer of risk to a third party.  However, we recommend that you use a combination of insurance and non-insurance strategies to cover losses to fully mitigate your risks, using self-insured retentions as well as bespoke policies.

About Robison

Approximately 25% of businesses that sustain a major catastrophe are no longer in business within a year.  If your operation is interrupted, will you have access to the professional advice needed to ensure you can continue trading? By utilising Robison’s range of insurance and non-insurance strategies, your manufacturing business could reduce the cost of your risks, as well as plan a strategy to mitigate and control risks in the future.

Robison Insurance Brokers have provided expert advice and professional insurance solutions to businesses in Hampshire and the surrounding areas since 1982, working with manufacturers to develop strategic action plans, assisting in the execution of the designed risk management programmes and maintaining low risk costs. If you are interested in reviewing your risk management strategies, contact us today on 01730 265500 or hello@robison.co.uk to speak with one of our insurance experts.

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Well-Being Initiatives in the Workplace

What is well-being and why is it so important in the workplace?

Well-being is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy”. As well as referring to physical happiness, well-being includes mental wellness, satisfaction and how people evaluate their lives as a whole.

In the workplace, wellness is of particular importance to both employees and employers, as poor physical and mental well-being can affect efficiency and morale. A healthy workforce is demonstrably more productive, engaged and cost-efficient.  Unhealthy employees cost employers billions of pounds every year as a result of reduced productivity and visits to A&E.  However, simple wellness initiatives can help lower expenses and establish a more secure bottom line.

Are you taking appropriate steps to save money at your organisation?

What are the benefits of workplace well-being for employees?

One way to promote well-being at work is to introduce and maintain proper levels of physical activity. Exercising for 30 minutes a day can offer a range of benefits, including improving mental health, decreasing the risk of obesity, lowering blood pressure and decreasing the risk of heart disease.

Some examples of activities which employers could introduce include:

Exercise Classes

Introducing group exercise classes to your workforce is a great way to maintain recommended levels of physical activity. Try offering a range of classes like aerobics, kickboxing, Pilates and tai chi to appeal to a range of audiences.

Walking Buddy

Employees are more likely to stick to an exercise plan when they have an accountability partner to help motivate them and exercise with them. Provide maps of local walking routes which begin and end at the office or workplace and encourage employees to walk in groups or pairs.

Pre-Shift Stretching

Standard 9-5 jobs often include 8 hours of sitting, hunched over a computer screen. Initiating a stretching routine for the team before they commence work for the day could help alleviate strains, aches and back pain often associated with sedentary jobs.

Company Sports Team

Visit your local leisure centre to find out about hiring their pitches/courts for regular sporting events for your team. Encouraging your workforce to regularly play a team sport together not only increases their physical well-being but fosters better relationships and improves communication.

What are the benefits or workplace well-being for employers?

Having a more physically active workforce reduces staff absence, increases morale and boosts productivity and profits. By providing well-being initiatives for staff, employers can reap the benefits of a happier, healthier and more active team. These initiatives also increase workplace unity and relations between workers, which in turn improves communication and the execution of projects.

Employers can also offer facilities at work which accommodate well-being incentives, such as:

Bike Racks

By offering convenient, safe and visible locations for employees to keep their bikes, employers are more likely to be successful in encouraging a ‘ride to work’ scheme.

Showers 

If the exercise classes provided at your workplace take place during lunch hour or in the morning, offering showers on the premises will encourage staff to take part, knowing that they will be able to wash afterwards.

Pedometers

Pedometers are a great way to motivate staff to stick to their exercise programme by measuring steps and estimating distances. Offering incentives like ‘first employee to reach 10,000 steps wins a gift voucher’ are a good way to motivate the team.

To help you identify and assess the risk to your business and employees, we have produced a Workplace Wellness Scorecard to assist in navigating the typical areas of risk and determine a strategy which protects you, your business, employees and customers.  For more information on how workplace wellness can lower your risk of losses in your business, call us on 01730 265 500 or email us at hello@robison.co.uk .

About us

At Robison, we offer professional advice and insurance policies to reduce the risk to your business and employees. Our vast experience means that we can help you to identify the risks specific to your operation and help protect your staff and reputation in the case of a staff complaint or loss of revenue.

Robison is an experienced business and personal insurance broker based in Petersfield, providing insurance services and advice for businesses and individuals in Hampshire and the surrounding areas. Our highly trained staff are dedicated to offering support and guidance, tailoring our policies to suit your needs.

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Cyberattacks: How to Protect Your Business

A successful cyberattack can cause significant damage to your business. Reliance on a variety of IT equipment such as PCs, laptops, cloud-based systems and smart devices means that virtually all businesses are vulnerable and at risk of losing customer data, employee details and commercially confidential information. 

However, it is not just large organisations at risk.  Small firms suffer close to 10,000 cyberattacks daily, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), with Policy & Advocacy Chairman Martin McTague stating:

“These findings demonstrate the sheer scale of the dangers faced by small firms every day in the digital arena.”

Different Types of Cyberattack

Every business, regardless of size, is a potential target of a cyber security breach. Criminals seek to exploit data such a personal information, trade secrets, financial details, client lists and login credentials. Here are four key cyber threats that your business should be aware of.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malware (malicious software) which attempts to encrypt your data and will only restore access in exchange for a ransom. These types of attacks are usually financially motivated as attackers will often ask for a sum of money. Ransomware attacks can be targeted or un-targeted; criminals may simply target as many devices as possible, or the attacker may have a specific interest in your business or is being paid to target you. Ransomware attacks sometimes occur if a business ‘scandal’ has been leaked and the attacker knows that the business will be motivated to protect the information under ransom. Ransomware attacks are often implemented via links in malicious emails.

Phishing

Phishing attacks occur when criminals attempt to gain sensitive information whilst posing as a trustworthy contact. Attackers could be using an email address disguised as a banking service, online retail service or government contact regarding a tax return. Often these emails contain genuine logos and can be hugely convincing.

Another type of phishing attack, known as ‘spear fishing’ or ‘whaling’ involves posing as the CEO of a business and sending a fabricated email to the chief financial officer requesting an urgent invoice payment. These attacks are also often financially motivated and attempt to trick individuals into providing their financial information.

Hacking

Hacking involves identifying a weakness in the IT systems of a business and using that weakness to gain access to information. Hackers will attempt to access bank information, credit card databases and intellectual property. Some hackers use social engineering to trick employees into revealing usernames and passwords, which would then be used as a gateway into the company’s IT systems and more sensitive data.

Data Leakage

Cybersecurity seems challenging enough within the confines of your business; however, with the smart technology of today, portable storage devices such as phones and tablets extend the risk of cyberattacks to a much wider area. These devices are a prime target for data thieves as they are easy to hack.

Impact of Cyberattacks on Business

Cyberattacks can have two major impacts on a business: cost and reputation.

The economic cost of a cyber attack can result in substantial financial loss to a business, arising from theft of financial information, theft of corporate information or loss of business. Additionally, business often incur costs of software and network repair and device replacement after a cyberattack.

Breaches in the security systems of a business can sustain reputational damage and distrust from clients, especially if personal customer information has been compromised. This can lead to loss of customers and a loss of sales and profits. The impact of cyberattacks can also damage an organisation’s relationship with investors, partners and shareholders.

What You Can Do to Mitigate Your Risk

The financial losses resulting from a cyberattack could permanently affect the stability of your company. However, data breach is not inevitable, and there are several hazards that your business can avoid, making it much more difficult for cybercriminals to access your company’s data.

Improve Personnel Monitoring

Failure to effectively track personnel (both on and offline) can result in unauthorised individuals accessing restricted or high-security areas or data, which in turn can increase the likelihood of cyberattack.

Improve Security for Senior Employees

When personnel with high-authorisation levels are at risk, high-security data is also at risk. Wireless emergency alarm systems are a secure, discreet way for personnel to alert other employees if data is at risk.

Educate Employees

It is imperative that employees are aware of the potential for cyberattacks and are given information on how their actions can increase or diminish this risk. Staff training on how to handle sensitive information and data security education should be an integral part of your organisation’s induction and ongoing training programme. Employees are particularly susceptible to phishing attacks through malicious emails, so staff should be reminded that continuous caution should always be practiced.

At Robison, we offer several types of insurance that could help protect your business in the event of a cyberattack. Our experience in the technology industry means that we can help you to identify the risks specific to your business and help protect your staff, customers and reputation in the case of a cyber security incident. Our Cyber Liability Insurance protects you and your customers against the costs relating to damage to or loss of information from IT systems and networks.

Our Cyber Liability Toolkit is designed to help employers protect their business, information and customers from cyber threats. For more information on how our Cyber Liability insurance can help protect your business, call us on 01730 265 500 or email us at hello@robison.co.uk .

Robison is an experienced business and personal insurance broker based in Petersfield, providing insurance services and advice for businesses and individuals in Hampshire and the surrounding areas. Our highly trained staff are dedicated to offering support and guidance, tailoring our policies to suit your needs.