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For years we’ve discussed why and how building an emergency response team and plan is important, but some still have questions. For example, some business owners ask about the 
reasons a business would need one for mold, implying, “Shouldn’t our customers be doing that instead?” While, home owners have asked questions similar, like, “Shouldn’t our contractors be organized to handle these things?” Let’s look at this through, first, the appropriate lens (and, yes, there are several to peer through):
The Cost of Damages on Home and Business Owners:
First and foremost, in my opinion, is the health and safety of all occupants of a building. These could be your family, your employees, your customers, other contractors (besides yourselves), and your pets. So, the first lens one needs to look through is the lens of safety and health. Now, this lens is one that could – and should – be applied to all of the following, given negative consequences to safety and health can increase the liabilities of all of the following as a byproduct of its condition (i.e., when there is a safety and health problem the costs of all of the following goes up).
Cost. The cost of damages is often reviewed in many business plans – when there are damages understood by the planning staff to review; however, these costs (understood and reviewed) are often limited in scope to money (e.g., workman’s compensation fees, material resources’ repairs or replacement, and the like). They often miss the human resource costs, like (1) time away from work and slowed productivity as a result, (2) medical costs associate with a safety and health issue, or (3) any of the perspective costs of their customers or networking partners. Which leads right into the next lens. . . .
Competitiveness. Who reading this would hire a company to do work for them that has a reputation for doing things in an unsafe or unhealthy manner? Not many, I’d imagine. So, why should we as business or home owners not be concerned with who might do the work on our buildings? Think of it this way: If I asked you to describe the safest customer service experience you’ve ever experienced and the worst, which would be easiest to describe? For most people it’s the negative experiences. Do you, as a business, want to be known as that negative experience? And, do you, the home owner, want to be stuck with another negative experience?
Compliance. This is probably one word hated by business owners, managers and some home owners. It’s psychosomatically tied to some government regulation that makes things harder, longer and more expensive to achieve. But, it doesn’t have to be (at least not in the context of what we’re talking about here). When compliance to laws – even industry-based laws – is failing, everyone suffers. Customers’ risk to safety and health issues increases as do workers and the environment; and, business suffer fines, public humiliation and more, adding up to burdens so heavy they could close a business.
“Necessity never made a good bargain.”
~ Benjamin Franklin
Waiting for others to be prepared can be dangerous and can be morally wrong:
How would you feel if your family or your employees were counting on you to handle damages in your building and your lack of preparedness caused you to hire the wrong person or authorize the wrong work, injuring one or more of them? How would you feel if it cost your business unnecessary fines, fees, materials or other costs? How would you feel if your lack of preparedness created a sense of distrust in you and your company?
These are serious questions to consider; ones you don’t want to be pondering after a negative event takes place. So, don’t put them off until necessity demands your prompt action. Leaving these things unaddressed until a need can create legal liabilities in addition to the governmental investigations, fines and disclosures to the public, create distrust in the community you serve, your family and/or your employees, or any number of other negative outcomes.
Don’t take chances, gain empowering Solutions – today!
