A new risk that many companies were not potentially considering was the pandemic Covid-19. Since early 2020, this pandemic has jilted and even dismantled some companies. Even in 2021, some companies remain crippled due to the ramifications of their unpreparedness for something like Covid-19. Many companies have suffered from the inability to work without their employees being physically present. This unpreparedness comes from a myriad of factors from lack of access to or funds for sufficient PPE to the inability of management to allow proper offsite access to office files and servers. Risks like this are important to focus on because not only do they stunt productivity, but they endanger the lives of all the employees and stakeholders in the company.

Risk management specialists have had ample time to study this virus and the changes that need to be made to the workplace because of it. With the new vaccinations in place, reintegration into the workplace will soon be a serious discussion. Although being physically present in the workplace has become obsolete for some companies, other will not be able to function that way. Those in risk management must address some of the risks that endangered many employees with this Covid-19 Pandemic. For instance, crowded workspaces allowed the virus to be spread more easily. Post-COVID workplaces should be less closed-in and better ventilated. PPE such as hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies should be well-stocked, allowing for frequent cleaning of the workspace. Also, a wheel-based rotating work schedule should be implemented so not everyone is in the office at the same time. This will eliminate the issue of overcrowding and decrease the possibility of the spread of disease.

The threat of Covid-19 and diseases like it that could potentially come can affect a person’s comfort at work or willingness to work certain jobs. For instance, a lot of people who were once interested in pursuing jobs in the medical field are reconsidering due to the dangerous amount of exposure that have affected people already. Also, jobs that do not allow for offsite work access have become less desirable to jobseekers. Jobs such as retail, food service, and hospitality left employees jobless with no income due to the mandated Covid-19 restrictions, so jobs in those fields will also be less sought after.

In an increasingly dynamic and complex business climate, risk management has become an even more consequential role in providing insight and guidance during one of the most unpredictable times for many. The COVID-19 pandemic has created new problems for businesses that were unforeseen: having to shift their employees to remote work, severe health safety concerns, disruption in consumer behaviors, and a rapid reduction of resources. 

Focusing on the pandemic-triggered issues is essential to reaching the ‘recovery stage’. It’s impossible to confidently predict the future being in the midst of a raging pandemic but it is possible to take maximum precaution in effort to minimize the effects. Organizations need to begin with adjusting business strategy around pandemic-specific threats. The welfare of its workforce must be the first priority and that may translate to bringing reluctant employees back to work by investing in new ventilation systems, rapid covid testing, temperature checkpoints, plexiglass, and enhanced sanitation. The welfare of the employees also means the wellbeing of themselves and family- implementing different forms of support like child care and extended health coverage.  Another way to encourage workers to return to the offices is, organizations can require assigned days for workers to come in- that way employees can slowly transition into coming into the office for fewer hours of the day and complete remaining work at home. 

Health issues continue to pose a major challenge to the comfort of workers returning to work. Another point to be made is pre-pandemic statistics, i.e. the 2018 Global Talent Trends study done by Mercer, showed employees desired a more flexible workplace and schedule. Many have adjusted to remote work, enjoy the flexibility and hope it becomes permanent. Going forward, versatility in the workplace will remain a top priority in the professions of many workers. Working from home has proved to be doable and organizations will have to begin compromising. 

Richard Kearse

Professor B. Buckler

Business 311 Section 1900

November 15, 2020

Assignment 10 – Risk Management

Understanding safety, and the risk procedures within an organization are important facing the new challenges that companies are facing now such as COVID-19 is not what we prepared as a nation. Businesses have been taken cautions for not only their employees but for their customers. To provide the services that are needed. But, doing so may cause some controversy.

Although corporations think it’s a brilliant idea to keep organizations open to provide services to civilians, it’s important to know the risk they’re putting employers in. COVID-19 has had a massive impact on us as a nation; the advancement of technology and implementing remote roles within a workplace can and/or ensure the safety of your employers.

Enforcing the safety, and risk procedures within an organization are important cause it is preventing lawsuits and employee injury. Also, prevents ignorance from occurring and termination. A company can enforce the credentials by mandating employees to attend a meeting speaking on the guidelines, requirements quarterly, and/or up-to-date conducts.

Overall, COVID-19 has put us as a nation in a predicament that we weren’t prepared for. However, corporations and companies decided to take caution to provide services to their clientele. Some decided to even advance their technology and add remote roles to their corporations’ needs. Myself personally, think that companies and corporations should compensate their employees for putting themselves and their loved ones at risk due to the circumstances.

Nadya Dunkley
November 15, 2020
BUS311 [1900]
Prof. B. Buckler

Unit 10 Safety, Health & Risk Management

Covid-19 is a new risk that companies are facing in 2020. COVID-19 19 is a risk because it is a highly infectious virus in which there is no cure and or vaccine. Several companies have been working on a solution to this problem with a few coming close but there are still debates regarding the effectiveness and possible side effects that these new drugs might cause. Covid-19 caused workplaces to shutdown across the world due to workers becoming sick and many of them dying. People were and are still becoming contaminated with the virus and are passing it on to other people causing the worldwide pandemic of 2020. Now workplaces are trying to reopen even though they face new risk regarding the health and safety of their workers.
This new risk is so important to focus on because COVID-19 is deadly. Even though the show must go on workplaces still have an obligation to protect the health and safety of their workers. In companies and organizations not only are employees the most important asset but in the case of infectious disease an organization must also protect the health and welfare of its other stakeholders such as their partners, and customers. Organizations also have an obligation to make sure that they are following the health and safety laws and standards such as OSHA. For example employers must now check the temperatures of their employees daily and make sure that they are allowing sick employees to stay home where before COVID-19 employees would show up to work sometimes sick with a cold or flu in fears of being able to call out because they didn’t have sick days or time. Organizations across the world are facing this new reality that the health and welfare of their employees must be a priority. Organizations have a social responsibility. The way companies respond to this crisis will be remembered for decades. As we could see with the recent infection of the Trump administration including the president due to the rose garden event held at the white house where many people were not wearing a mask which is the remedy that the CDC used to combat against COVID-19. Now the administration will be remembered for its negligence and how it put the health and safety of many employees and affiliates at risk during the pandemic of 2020.
Organizations an prevent these risks by following OSHA and CDC guidelines and recommendations for maintaining a safe work environment. Managers must also perform job hazard analysis to ensure the safety of employees and to make sure that social distancing and other preventative measures are being addressed when performing job relate task. If the usual routine does not align with the social distancing rules, then the task must be redesigned to ensure the safety of the employees within an organization. HR managers must work with other managers to reduce risk. They need to discuss possible workplace adjustments such as transforming workplaces to the new COVID-19 prevention guidelines and transforming some departments and roles to remote positions. If organizations can adhere to the new hand washing standards, social distancing, wearing of mask, and making sure that organizations are clean, sanitized, and well ventilated they can prevent this risk from coming to fruition.
These new risk makes me extremely uncomfortable at work especially because we have a small break room with ventilation. My store is also located on the lowest level of the World Trade Center which is underground. I do not trust that my employer cares enough about the safety of the employees enough to have employees stay home if they are having symptoms they should stay home. Also, our coat area is very compact and everyone’s coat touches. People also try on merchandise in the fitting room and we must touch this merchandise and put them back on the floor. This makes me not want to go to work. My company didn’t even want to shutdown when other retailers started shutting down and especially since the money isn’t worth it.

Christian Narine                                                                                         November 13th, 2020

BUS311 1900                                                                                              Professor Brielle Buckler

Assignment: Safety, Health, & Risk Management

A particular new risk that companies are facing in 2020 that were potentially not considered in prior decades are the risks of cyber threats. As more and more organization conduct business to business transactions over the internet & directly with customers & consumers through a web or internet portal, the potential for cyber attacks have become more prevalent, and smarter.

These risks are so important to focus on for several reasons, mainly it can cause reputational damage to an organization. Attacks should be identified immediately, escalated to relevant technology managers, HR managers & Executive team and handled swiftly, as interruptions to a company’s technology platform affects workplace productivity, customer satisfaction, and eventually, profits They can result in the theft of valuable, sensitive data like medical records or customer credit cards records. For instance, the Target credit card Hack -which affected customers who shopped at U.S. Target stores between [2013] November 27 and December 15, Target said. “Customer names, credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates and CVVs were involved in the information theft.”

Some of the more popular variants of cyber attacks that companies need to be aware of & mitigate include:

• Ransomware – An attack that involves encrypting data on the target system and demanding a ransom in exchange for letting the user have access to the data again. These attacks range from low-level nuisances to serious incidents, for example- like digital extortion aimed at Atlanta. The locking down of the entire city of Atlanta’s municipal government data in 2018 by a ransomware attack.
• Phishing – An email-borne attack that involves tricking the email recipient into disclosing confidential information or downloading malware by clicking on a hyperlink in the message.
• Spear Phishing – A more sophisticated form of phishing where the attacker learns about the victim and impersonates someone he or she knows and trusts.

Cyber threats come from a variety of places, people and contexts. Some of these include:

• Business competitors
• Industrial spies
• Unhappy insiders
• Hackers
• Terrorists

It can be a scary time for businesses and consumers who are worried about cyber threats. The threats certainly exist. Even if a company is targeted by a powerful perpetrator, it is still possible to protect critical digital assets. Organizations can prevent these risks from coming to fruition by making the investments in planning, commitment of resources and a coordinated response from Executive management, Technology Managers partnering with HR managers to implement a comprehensive Cyber Awareness Training program on a regular cadence in conjunction with a robust Technology cyber defense countermeasure program. This is not only good for business, but it is good security & proactive, so employees & the company can stay on top of most serious cyber threats.

Cyber threats certainly can have an impact at your comfort at work and the willingness to work at a particular organization, mainly by how much ‘big brother’ is looking at your online activity. Another privacy issue that comes up often is the monitoring of employee activities on devices that are provided to them by the organization. From Chapter 13.2 – Generally, Case Law decided that employees do not have privacy rights if they are using the organization’s equipment. And some organization’s can be more restrictive, requiring more stringent security measures when entering and leaving the company premises. It is important that HR Managers working with the company’s Technology department implement and communicate standards. When an organization finds it necessary to implement monitoring policies, the HR Managers must communicate the following to ensure employee buy-in of the monitoring:

• Develop a policy for monitoring.
• Communicate what will be monitored.
• Provide business reasons for why e-mail and Internet must be monitored.

Followed by regular communication of a privacy policy is an important step as well.

Another new risk that companies are facing in 2020 that were potentially not considered in prior decades is the risk of second-hand smoke. I found this to be particularly interesting as I notice employees daily, at regular intervals through Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, huddled outside the fronts of office buildings further and further away from main entrances, relegated to a small corner of a sidewalk or public park.

Promoting a Culture of Safety and Health – These risks are important to focus on because employee health and safety is a must in today’s high-stress work environments. Although it may appear that employee health is something that shouldn’t concern HR, the increasing cost of health benefits makes it in the best interest of the company to hire and maintain healthy employees.

Workplace Health, security and safety is the responsibility of everyone in the organization & helps to prevent these risks from coming to fruition. HR professionals and managers, play a large role in developing standards, making sure safety and health laws are followed, and it is also important to note that some state standards are different from federal standards, which means the HR professional will need to be aware of the laws in the individual state in which the company is operating.

From our Chapter 13 reading; “In the United States, twenty-six of the fifty states have smoking bans in enclosed public spaces. These smoking bans are designed to protect workers’ health from the dangers of secondhand smoke. A recent report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Steenhuysen, 2011) says that state or local smoke-free laws cover 47.8 percent of workplaces. The report says if the trend continues, the United States will be 100 percent smoke free by 2020.” Most workplaces have no-smoking policies because of rising health-care costs. Smoking can have negative employee health effects that can result in lost productivity, can raise health insurance costs and cause employee turnover.

Benefits to a Smoke-Free Work Environment- For the Employees:

• A smoke-free environment helps create a safer, healthier workplace.
• Workers who are bothered by smoke will not be exposed to it at work.
• Smokers who want to quit may have more of a reason to do so.
• Smokers may appreciate a clear company policy about smoking at work.
• Managers are relieved when there is a clearly defined process for dealing with smoking in the workplace.

Benefits to a Smoke-Free Work Environment -For the Employer:

A smoke-free environment helps create a safer, healthier workplace.

• Direct health-care costs to the company may be reduced.
• A clear plan that is carefully put into action by the employer to lower employees’ exposure to secondhand smoke shows the company cares.
• Employees may be less likely to miss work due to smoking-related illnesses.
• Maintenance costs go down when smoke, matches, and cigarette butts are taken out of work facilities.
• Office equipment, carpets, and furniture last longer.
• The risk of fires is lower.
• It may be possible to get lower rates on health, life, and disability insurance coverage as fewer employees smoke.

An organization that promotes a Culture of Safety and Health will have a positive impact on some employee’s comfort at work and the willingness to work at a particular organization if their lifestyle aligns with the organization polices on promoting a healthy lifestyle. Alternatively, someone who smokes, might not be as amenable with the no smoking polices and smoke free zones. However, the HR manager can provide resources to the employee about the organization’s employee assistance program, EAP. To reference Unit 9 Benefits- This benefit is intended to help employees with personal problems that could affect their performance at work. The EAP usually includes, covered counseling and referral services. This type of program can assist employees with addictions, emotional issues such as depression, stress management, or other personal issues.

Promoting a culture of Safety and Health doesn’t only happen by requiring training sessions every year; it occurs by creating an environment in which the employee can recognize the resources available them with regular Benefits communication from the HR Manager. As an HR Professional, other possible techniques that can be implemented to have a safe and healthy work environment can include the following:

• Commit the resources (time and money) necessary to ensure a healthy work environment.
• Involve employees in safety and health discussions, as they may have good ideas as to how the organization can improve.
• Make safety part of an employee’s job description; in other words, hold employees accountable for always practicing safety at work.
• Understand how the health (or lack of health) of your employees contributes to or takes away from the bottom line and implement policies and programs to assist in this effort.

Work Cited

Wallace. Gregory. Target credit card hack: What you need to know

https://money.cnn.com/2013/12/22/news/companies/target-credit-card-hack/. Accessed Nov 13, 2020

Blinder,Alan. Perlroth, Nicole. A Cyberattack Hobbles Atlanta, and Security Experts Shudder

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/us/cyberattack-atlanta-ransomware.html. Accessed Nov 13, 2020

University of Minnesota, M Libraries. Chapter 13 Human Resource Management

 https://www.oercommons.org/courses/human-resource-management-3/view /. Accessed Nov 13, 2020

Taylor, Hugh. What Are Cyber Threats and What to Do About Them

https://preyproject.com/blog/en/what-are-cyber-threats-how-they-affect-you-what-to-do-about-them/. Accessed Nov 13, 2020

Ishraq Uddin

BUS 311-1900

     Before Coronavirus took a toll on the world, companies did not have to take a extra safety precaution. Many companies have to stay extra safe and clean, so customers and their employees do not get sick. Some of the “new” risks companies are facing in 2020 is a lot of financial loss. Many companies are losing customers, due to COVID-19. When someone orders anything online, those companies that ship products to different states, or countries have to follow regulation that the president states. If there is no universal shipping, companies lose profit from that. In prior decades, companies did not have to worry about the fact they can’t ship to a particular country/state, but now since there is a lot of regulation due to COVID-19 they have to obey the rules which may result in some major losses in their company. Another risk companies are facing in 2020, is Government accountability and transparency/corruption. Transparency is so important for our government because it allows citizens to be notified about what the government is doing. The government has a lot of responsibility for this world, and as of right now with the president we have now he has not been making good choices relating to COVID-19. Every time the president doesn’t take a situation seriously, many people get sick and then they tend to lose their jobs and companies become a mess due to less employees and less customers. In order for companies to be thriving, and successful they would need the government to be more open minded about the situation we’re facing today, and notify citizens about real world situations and how we can prevent them from letting our world get back to how it was a couple months ago. These new risks are so important to focus on, because it will bring everyone together and not only will companies profit from this but also the world. These issues are so important, so people know how to achieve transparency. The only way to achieve it, is when you enable others to understand and how they work in an honest way. Organizations can prevent these risks from coming to fruition by identifying exactly where severe disabling and fatal exposures exist. They have to know where the problem is, and then solve how we can better from this problem. In order for companies to prevent risks from coming, you can do that by staying cautious about each situation. These new threats affect my comfort and interest to work at a particular organization by always knowing how the company treats its employees. If I am not comfortable, or I don’t feel safe in an environment it would affect me in whatever organization I would be in, and I would most likely resign if the companies seem not productive in any situation. I would need to know that my opinion in any organization matters, that’s what comforts me. It comforts me knowing my opinion and feedback matter in any situation. 

The biggest risk that companies are facing in 2020 is the Coronavirus. It has affected many businesses and the economy to go down. This is important to focus on because it has risks for the employees and the customers and the companies have to think about their reputation, and profits. Also with the pandemic continuing to peak in markets and overall, it’s now more important to focus on the ways to prevent it and take precautions for the safety of employees and the customers. Moreover, in the midst of this uncertainty, the steps for reopening and reinvention of organization or companies remain unchanged, but they now must consider how the pandemic’s recurrence is impacting their recovery strategies. Organizations can prevent these risks by creating some guidelines for the employees and customers to follow. This can include not being in close contact with someone and keeping your distance from others. If companies don’t do anything beneficial for their employees in this kind of situation, then it can affect the reputation in employees’ view. These threats affect my comfort because since this pandemic, we are advised to work remotely. I wasn’t very comfortable at first but with time, I got used to it. Sometimes it doesn’t feel right to be working from home because there’s so much distraction. But also, we can’t go to the workplace or schools since it’s a big risk to take as the Covid cases keep increasing.                        

This year “2020” has been very difficult for a lot of people to adjust to as each month there’s a new problem the world faces . Back in March we were faced with COVID-19 having the whole world shut down . Many companies weren’t prepared for the financial risk they were going to be faced with during this time . Being that a pandemic hasn’t happened since 1918 everyone had to come up with new policies and procedures. Such as stores and restaurants where the procedures taken place where mandatory face masks and temperature readings. Having these policies in place helps protect  everyone from this deadly virus going around . Most companies have allowed  for staff to work from home , or offer employees to rotate their schedule. Although this threat affected  a lot of people being given the  decision to physically come into work or work from home has helped a lot. In my case my organization relocated to a different site for staff to work from and I decided to stay home with no pay. Due to the chances of me catching the virus when cases were extremely high.

Jamel Assignment 10 Safety, Health and Risk Management

Many risk factors exist in today’s society for operating business owners and employers trying to stay in business and be profitable. Businesses often look to maintain the integrity, and credibility of the organization, while not risking lives as a cost to run the business. Through the years with the enhancement of technological advancements, a larger number of businesses solely depended on technology to function. This coupled with the likely hood of health risk environmentally on a local and global scale. A functioning business in 2020 has a lot more worries and risk factors today than those that existed decades prior. Today I will discuss some of the risk factors associated with today’s economy and how businesses can use risk managers as a protocol to protect not only the business but the communities it serves. I will also discuss whether or not certain risk factors can be avoided and if these risk factors will deter candidates from seeking employment by an organization as a result of modern risk factors.

As a retail specialist who has worked in the front line of protecting and bettering the retail shopping experience for years. I’ve seen the implantations of technology completely enhance and change the full operations of a business and help the company grow to see massive profits that warrant possible decades priors. I’ve also seen technology destroy businesses that once existed in what was a seemingly untouchable space in the marketspace. One of the risks I’ve seen firsthand is the use of technology to take and store consumer’s personal information. For me, this was a huge risk with many major companies experiencing hackers tapping into their data banks and stealing the information at the expense of the consumers who often have no idea of such breaches of companies who swore to protect the clients’ personal information. I was blessed to work for a company that truly valued the safety of customer’s information and took pride in staying ahead of the curve with security technologies. Businesses often offer lines of credit as well as store consumer info for mail list purposes. If this is not handled correctly this can destroy a business. To mitigate the risk of stolen consumer information the company uses old IBM software on a closed network that doesn’t operate online in pos. They also implanted a three-step screening for all credit applications and credit card purchases with evolves a screening by manager on duty and rigorously credit approval process when the customer often needed to be varied by the bank lender prior to using or receiving credit approval. Although the process was tedious and took a lot of time out of your selling day it felt good knowing we did our part and hand the business the correct way. Working for a company that knowingly doesn’t protect its consumers from the flaws of technology is embarrassing and would not only deter candidates from seeking employment by such a company but can also have costly consequences for such a breach if internal negligence is proven to be the reason why it has occurred. I immediately think about Wells Fargo and their massive class-action lawsuit for a similar breach and how those internally who allowed this now have such a nasty public stain on their names as well as how it hurt the reputation of the business.

In light of recent times, one huge risk to a business is the threat of a health scare or air born illnesses. Although this is technically not a new risk. After 2020, business in the U.S probably won’t ever be the same. Most businesses that survive the pandemic will be called to hold higher standards in being sanitary and clean within the organization to protect employees and consumers. Although the risk factor of air born illness always existed. Making sure your business can function without putting consumers at risk if such an event occurs in the future isn’t such a far-fetched idea anymore. Business owners now see the importance of building a business that can pivot and transition into what is needed and recommended to operate in such a climate. One essential risk prevention a company can take in this case is to mobilize your business to have more than one way to operate. If you’re a brick and mortar have an online option. If you never budgeted to purchase sanitizers and cleaning products implement this into your purchase log, lastly be prepared to pivot and function at a lesser compacity that doesn’t put anyone at risk of infection but allows the business to still be profitable. A business should always have a contingency fund set up that should be readily available for an unforeseen event that may occur. We now see that this idea of a deadly disease can absolutely happen and can be detrimental to a business that is not set up to run in another way beyond the everyday structure of the business. I don’t think that any business that doesn’t value the safety of its employees and its consumers deserves to be able to do business in the states and would absolutely prevent me from working for such an organization. Most working-class people are not living for themself. They go home to a family that doesn’t deserve to be placed at risk of catching an illness because of a business’s negligence to properly protect its staff and consumers at all costs.

One Last risk I will mention is the power of social media and negative input about the business and how important it is in these times to train your staff on how properly handle isolated situations that can hurt the business. In today’s society, social media is slowly becoming recognized as a huge risk factor for most businesses. With consumers having the ability to walk around with cameras on them all day every day the growing risk of poor service being documented and published to millions can be crippling to an organization’s reputation and credibility. With the power of social media, a consumer can now record a whole transaction and publish it to millions in a matter of seconds. This can be a good risk and a bad risk. The problem is when it’s used to expose wrongdoing or mishaps it spreads like wildfire and can kill the business’s opportunity to cater to an untapped consumer base that now has a negative view point on the business and is supported with documented proof, reviews, pictures, audio and or video. Decades ago, social platforms like Instagram, Yelp, Facebook, YouTube, blog sites, and google didn’t exist. One way to mitigate the damage of a bad social media presence is to properly train your staff to handle a difficult situation. Implement a chain of command but empower your staff with the necessary tools to resolve the matter. Encourage your employees to ask customers to document positive interactions that help organizations build positive rapport. Business who are careless to the power of social media and don’t offer proper protocol in place to deal with tough situations is extremely irresponsible and bold. I think of one situation that supports this notion of how social media can hurt an organization. First, is a Starbucks situation that happened in recent times where two African American males were recorded being arrested and removed from the store after being racially profiled and having the cops called on them for sitting in the restaurant and refusing to leave while waiting for a friend to arrive. The backlash was all over social media news feeds as consumers of all races and creeds displayed anguish and discomfort in the matter and refused to patronize the store until Starbucks the Corporation fixed the problem and released a public statement granting clarity on why this happened. Ultimately the manager was forced to resign and the incident ended up costing Starbucks 12 million dollars as they were forced to close the store for a day to provide company-wide training to better handle the situation in the future. I can’t say this would prevent me from working for a company, however, I would certainly lean toward seeking employment from a business that has a great social track record for employees and consumers alike.

Social Media Presence, Public Health Risk Acknowledgment, and Data Security Protection are just a few amongst many risks in modern times. Those businesses that do these things well give themselves the best fighting chance to stay in business and be impactful. Organizations that aim to protect and value its Consumers & Employees have the ability to stand the test of time and often gain the support of their communities and tend to stay in business for years to come.