Category: Risk Solutions

Australians want our aged care sector to thrive. A sustainable, effective, professional, well-run industry means older Australians benefit from quality care – something we may all need, someday.

To be successful in business means to have a purposeful and confident attitude to the future, in order to continue to serve the vulnerable, to remain insurable and to be resilient. But this doesn’t just happen automatically.

The key is to take a consistent and effective way to managing risk across the whole business – that’s what is known as Enterprise Risk Management (ERM).

Over the last 18 months, Ansvar has conducted Risk Health Checks and deeper dive Risk Maturity Quality Reviews for aged care providers across Australia. These equip boards, CEOs and senior managers with information on the effectiveness and capability of their risk frameworks, the suitability of their current approach, and opportunities for improvement.

Our reviews routinely find Standard 8 audit assessments are not picking up key gaps in enterprise risk management, which can place providers at governance and insurability risk if relied upon for assurance.

Through our work with aged care providers, we have identified six common gaps in risk management frameworks. By focusing on these areas of concern, providers can make a significant difference to their operational performance.

 

Gap 1:  Risk frameworks not aligned to strategy

At its heart, ERM is about helping you achieve your objectives. Your framework should be assisting you to identify key risks to your strategy and the actions required to manage them. By managing these risks, you are more likely to improve performance, reduce harms and focus on what really matters to the community you serve.

 

Gap 2: Risk register is full of issues rather than emerging risks and opportunities

Too often we encounter risk registers that are in fact a list of issues or known problems. Addressing current business problems is still necessary but you might miss emerging risks or opportunities coming over the horizon. Nobody likes being caught off-guard and unprepared. Does your risk register help you make decisions about the future? It should.

 

Gap 3: Risks controls not adequately analysed 

Risk is dynamic and can change over time. It is important to periodically assess how well your risk controls work and to identify the ‘key controls’ (the ones that make the most difference) as these require higher priority focus. As people, processes and systems change, some controls may no longer be effective. For example, in home care, using a traditional system you may not know if a staff member attended their job, until you receive a complaint, but by incorporating real-time software into your systems, you can be notified immediately if a staff member doesn’t sign in.

 

Gap 4: Overlooking the big risks

There are five big risks that should be on the radar of all aged care providers:

• workforce
• governance, including clinical governance
• safeguarding from abuse
• consumer-focused models of care
• financial sustainability.

 

Gap 5:  Lack of clarity with board structures and roles in ERM

Having a clear structure to govern the risk framework and having the appropriate capabilities and level of curiosity to monitor risks are critical facets of a successful business. Board committee and sub-committee charters are often too vague when it comes to clear roles and accountabilities with risk management and too focused on leaving it to ‘the Audit and Risk Committee’.

 

Gap 6:  Risk culture is left off the agenda

Humans manage risk, yet so much of the risk consideration focuses on processes, spreadsheets and heat maps. The risk framework must support a positive risk culture, whereby awareness, attitudes and accountabilities regarding risk management are aligned. When is the last time you assessed your organisation’s culture for its influence on ERM?

 

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Stephen Ratcliffe, Senior Enterprise Risk Management Consultant at Ansvar Insurance

Adriaan joins fellow Senior Risk Consultant Anthony Black in Diana Borgmeyer’s team in helping to spread the word about Ansvar’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) practices and framework.

The South African-born governance expert brings over 21 years of experience in the insurance broking industry to our specialist for-benefit insurance organisation.

For the last two years he has provided specialist advice on governance to boards.

And for 15 years Adriaan has been a part-time lecturer to the Australian Institute of Company Directors, focusing on strategy and risk.

Adriaan believes we are now entering a hardening market.

“For example, with Directors and officers insurance, in some cases premiums have trebled. The claims coming down the line are is in excess of $1.5 billion, but the premium pool is less than $300 million,” Adriaan says.

He says the dramatic rise in class actions are against directors is a major challenge.

Another big challenge is to provide support to both the government and the for-benefit sector in the roll-out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

“Risk management is not about risk avoidance, it’s about grasping risk, embracing it but managing it effectively and conscientiously and with great responsibility.

“I use the Bradman analogy: ‘High performance but with great care and diligence’.

“We in the for-benefit sector have a duty to those who are dependent on us to manage their scarce resources as effectively and efficiently as possible.

“Experience has shown organisations that have good governance standards enjoy higher performance outcomes.”

Adriaan believes Australia leads the way in setting those governance standards.

“The Australian standard of risk management has now morphed into the international standard,” he says.

“The Australian standard of governance is arguably the best available – because it is principle based as opposed to the prescriptive approach followed in the US (Sarbanes-Oxley) .”

Using those principles, Adriaan believes he and the Ansvar risk team are best placed to help the for-benefit sector navigate the enterprise risk management challenges ahead.

For more details on our Enterprise Risk Management offering please click here

TOPIC: Managing Risk and Maximising Opportunities – Challenging the way we have thought about risk management in the Aged Care Sector

Too often we think about risk as mere compliance. Focused on what might go wrong, and not on what must go right.

Ansvar recently hosted a forum targeted at aged care providers in Mount Gambier, South Australia, where Ansvar Specialists discussed ‘Managing Risk and Maximising Opportunities – Challenging the way we have thought about risk management in the Aged Care Sector’.

The session challenged aged care providers to refocus their risk management; in times of greater complexity and uncertainty, traditional approaches are no longer adequate.

-Be part of new thinking and approaches with risk;
-Explore its important role in governance and leadership and in the context of aged care
-Share experiences and take away improvement opportunities.

Ansvar speakers who conducted the forum were Anthony Black, Risk Solutions Consultant and Nick Henley, SA/NT State Manager.

-Anthony is a passionate advocate of the value of risk management in good governance and achieving objectives. As a former nurse and health service executive, he understands the challenges and uncertainties of managing complex services particularly in the aged care sector where he has held management roles.

Anthony takes a practical and tailored approach to risk management; designed to shift focus from traditional methods to more strategic thinking and approaches.

-Nick is a senior insurance professional, who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role with over 25 years in the industry having previously worked for Allianz, Lumley, and QBE – UAA together with various broking roles.

Participants shared experiences with risk management and ways they approached risk management in their organisations. The reasons to rethink and improve risk management were presented and discussed. The current risk environment for Aged Services was identified and thoughts shared about the “next big things coming” and the importance of risk management with dealing with these.

There was strong interest in how to lift risk management to a more strategic level and how to change risk cultures, so that risk management becomes more proactive, future orientated and linked to organisational objectives.

Four areas of focus to improve risk management for aged services were presented and participants identified opportunities to improve their own organisation’s risk management framework.
-You can view this element of the presentation here

 

We received very positive feedback from the attendees and we plan on conducting similar forums in regional areas throughout the year.
If you would like to discuss any of the items mentioned and possibly arrange a consultation or workshop please do so on: Anthony Black ablack@ansvarrisk.com.au or Nick Henley nhenley@ansvar.com.au

As the newest member of the Ansvar Risk team, Anthony will lead the use of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) practices and frameworks for Ansvar’s specialist customer sectors.

He’ll work with customers to ensure that their risk management adds value through building risk awareness and capability, improving performance and assisting organisations in achieving their objectives.

Anthony spent the last six years as a senior risk adviser in the health, education and community health areas within the Victorian State Government.

Before that, he spent 10 years in health services management. Anthony started his career as a nurse – so he understands the challenges associated with running complex health services from top to toe!

“Risk management has always been fundamental in my career. As a nurse it was part of the everyday, and as leader it was both part of the everyday and longer-term. I understand and appreciate the challenges of providing services, and I want to bring my experiences and knowledge to the table to support organisations with the work they do,” Anthony says.

“In my experience, organisations often do not maximise the effectiveness of risk management, nor link it strongly to achieving strategic objectives. Not from a lack of trying, but often because the risk framework is compliance oriented, cumbersome and focused on incidents and issues.

“Ansvar Risk’s frameworks are focused around social and human considerations, and is purpose and goal focused. Our enterprise risk management practises are an enabler; a framework that, when implemented well, helps organisations make better decisions and be more resilient. It encourages boards and management to consider both their internal and external vulnerabilities, and appropriately assess risk.”

Anthony has identified four events which are game changers for the care sector in assessing risk this year.

They are:

-The new National Standards for Childcare
-The Royal Commission into the Institutional Response to Historical Child Sex Abuse
-The development of the new Age Care Quality and Safety Commission, and
-The National Disability Insurance Scheme

“These represent four enormous contextual changes for our sector,” says Anthony.

“It means that people responsible for making decisions have to give consideration to the uncertainty that arises as a consequence of these four significant developments.

“This is where risk management becomes an essential component of the governance tool kit.

“I’m keen for our customers to know that understanding their risks saves time and resources and directs effort towards what’s important. Knowing your risk helps draw attention to what specific actions need to take place to achieve objectives and challenges the old ‘we have always done it that way’ attitude.

“I think what sets Ansvar Risk apart is that we view ERM as a team effort. I enjoy working in and with teams, so we consult with people from across an organisation to really understand and assess risks. I believe that everyone has something valuable to contribute and diversity of ideas should be embraced.

“Bringing people together encourages new ways of thinking, drives innovation and improvement. This supports our customers to properly scrutinise risks against strategic objectives, make sound decisions, optimise performance and make organisations more resilient.”

For more details on our Enterprise Risk Management offering please click here

Meet Matt Holland, Ansvar Risk – Technical Lead, who has been pioneering reality capture as a better way to capture data and information to help organisations identify and reduce property risks.   

As a weekend gamer, Matt could see the benefits of drone and camera technology on changing the way that insurers conduct traditional site surveys to capture information. His hobby, together with 20 years’ experience in insurance and risk management, seeing first-hand what happens when risks are unidentified or poorly managed led him to explore reality and data capture opportunities.

“One of the most exciting advances in site surveys is the evolution to reality capture and modelling. The use of drones together with lasers and photogrammetry, has truly evolved the service. It enables identification of targeted and specific information that supports good risk management decision making,” Mr Holland said.

 “Risk management, and specifically completing risk quality surveys enables our customers to seize opportunities or avoid unnecessary interruptions or impacts on their business. The process provides environmental information that helps organisations understand what may impact them or their assets, and actions they can take to help build their organisational resilience.

Ansvar started using drones for site surveys about three years ago, to address the ongoing issue faced by many of their clients from damaged roofs – faith-based buildings traditionally have high roofs which were hard and expensive to access.

Overtime, Ansvar has built robust modelling as well as developed their peoples’ skills to analyse information and provide greater context and understanding of the consequence to customers. Now, under Ansvar Risk, they offer Risk Quality Surveys that are completed in about an hour on site which is far more efficient and cost effective than traditional survey methods. 

Mr Holland commented: “What I find exciting about the technology is that it allows us to access roofs and hard to reach places so that we can fully understand what’s happening at a site. It provides an unparalleled level of detailed information about the current state of assets. This supports customers with informed decision making, and the ability to address risks as they emerge. It therefore results in fewer insurance claims, and lower insurance premiums as the property is better maintained and issues addressed before they cause damage.

 “While, flying a drone is a little like a real-life video game, there’s also lots of complexity and responsibilities to balance. The biggest challenge is being fully aware of your surroundings at all times. That means being aware of people, weather, line of site to the drone, site instructions, birds, other aircraft, power lines and vegetation. And you need to do all this while trying to get camera and drone in the right spot, so you can capture the required images and information.

“While risk quality surveys provide vital information, fundamentally risk management is about small incremental changes, it’s a step change process. When organisations make small ongoing and consistent changes they create a lasting impact. So, creating a culture that embraces risk management concepts and incorporates this into decision making is key,” he said.

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What are Ansvar Risk Quality Surveys?

Risk Quality Surveys is the collection of data and information on assets such as buildings, vegetation or grounds. It often uses a combination of drones, laser technology and photogrammetry, or 360-degree cameras to quickly and effortlessly capture images from all aspects of a building or large area.

Risk identification is then performed using a series of customised tools to help determine what can happen and how it may happen. For example, the process may identify potential property and liability risks such as uneven floor surfaces, chemical storage or even people risks such as the employee screening procedure.

The data can also be geo-referenced enabling flood and storm path modelling which can be factored into the sums insured evaluation.

Real-time digital capture is responsive. Risk Advisors can immediately see current issues or potential risk exposures while they are completing the survey and can show this this to customers.

For more Risk Quality Survey details and drone footage click here

Meet Diana Borgmeyer, General Manager, Risk Solutions at Ansvar – the woman leading the evolution of risk management services for the faith, community, care, heritage and education sectors in Australia.

Diana has built a 20-year career in risk management by keeping her sense of humour and believing in the business and personal value that comes from knowing, understanding and managing risks. She likes to challenge the norms and is forever a change agent.

It is this attitude that led her and her team at Ansvar to evolve standard risk approaches and develop a new, robust and relevant risk management solution. The new solution, to be delivered under Ansvar Risk, includes Enterprise Risk Management, Risk Quality Surveys and Online Risk Tools that support customers in managing sector specific risks.

“Speciality sectors have limited access to relevant risk management services. Risk modelling currently available is often driven out of the finance sector, and while financial risk is important, our sectors face considerable human and social risks which need to be managed and modelled differently,” Ms Borgmeyer said.

“Using relevant information, data, frameworks and tools, organisations can learn to effectively manage risk, and therefore are more likely to prevent harm. When risk is understood and managed well it provides greater certainty and enables people to act with confidence.  

“Identifying and managing risks supports organisations to deliver on their purpose and objectives, so it’s actually a very positive thing to do. It ensures they address the things that could get in the way of them achieving their purpose.

At Ansvar, the team believes that keeping organisations resilient and people safe isn’t just about providing insurance cover and compensation. It’s also about supporting customers to be proactive through education and the provision of specific risk management tools.

Ms Borgmeyer also commented that: “Ansvar Risk services are about looking forward, making sense of incomplete information, projecting and assessing scenarios and being solutions focused. Risk management helps customers use information and data to enable robust decision making, and helps organisations live with the uncertainty and constant change that exists in today’s world.

Ansvar will partner with brokers to deliver enterprise risk management and risk quality surveys to our customers.

“Our brokers want to deepen their relationships with customers and supporting customers to think through both their risk and insurance solutions as part of an integrated proposition will help this.

“It will demonstrate greater value and ultimately good risk management can lead to reduced incidents that cause harm and therefore reduced premiums for our customers” she said.

Ansvar announced it will provide new contemporary and robust risk management solutions including Enterprise Risk Management, Risk Quality Surveys and Online Risk Tools, under the banner of Ansvar Risk.

Warren Hutcheon, Ansvar CEO, said: “We understand that helping keep organisations resilient and people safe isn’t only about providing insurance cover and compensation. It’s also about supporting, educating and providing specific risk management tools so organisations are fully equipped to manage risks.

“This philosophy, a growing customer need and advances in technology lead to the creation of Ansvar Risk,” Mr Hutcheon said.

Customers from across faith, community, care, heritage and education are seeking enterprise risk management as well as simpler, faster and more cost-effective site quality surveys that provide comprehensive evaluation reports. These services support customers in managing the rapidly changing risks occurring in service delivery and funding environments.

Diana Borgmeyer, General Manager Risk Solutions, said: “Speciality sectors have limited access to relevant risk management services. Risk modelling currently available is often driven out of the finance sector, and while financial risk is important, our sectors face considerable human and social risks which need to be managed and modelled differently.

“Ansvar Risk has been developed to deliver its risk services from the human and social perspective first, and then a financial perspective. Our solution provides customers with a balanced risk approach.” Ms Borgmeyer said.

Ansvar Risk will provide:

1) Enterprise Risk Management: the practice of identifying, managing and prioritising organisational risks. It encompasses strategic workshops, frameworks, tools and e-learning modules to embed sound risk management practices.

2) Risk Quality Surveys: the fast and accurate way to undertake site inspections, collect data and evaluate sum insured calculations to enable informed risk management and insurance decision making. Risk quality surveys often use drone technology to effortlessly capture images from all aspects of a building or large area.

3) Online risk tools and resources: the fact sheets, checklists and incident reporting tools that help customers better understand and manage their risks.

Ms Borgmeyer commented that: “Ansvar Risk have invested in both building our people expertise and acquiring the latest drone and camera technology to ensure our risk management solutions meet the needs of our customers both now and in the future.

“Our people will work with our brokers and customers, using the latest frameworks and technologies to capture data that helps identify risks that can be addressed through risk management interventions. Ultimately this will lead to reduced incidents that cause harm and therefore reduced premiums for our customers.”

Ansvar Risk strongly believe that these robust risk management solutions complement the insurance services we provide via our brokers, and the solutions will provide additional value and relevancy for our partners.

For more information on Ansvar Risk visit ansvarrisk.com.au

MEDIA RELEASE

Ansvar providing thermographic assessment certification for all its risk assessors

Ansvar Insurance, Australia’s leading insurance provider for the Care, Community, Education, Faith and Heritage sectors has announced that all of their risk solution advisors have now obtained certifications in thermographic technology demonstrating the progressive adoption of technology across the business.

Thermographic cameras provide an innovative technology that goes beyond pre-emptive precaution. Electrical fires can cripple the infrastructure of any business but for a not-for-profit entity the impact goes further than just the business itself; it diffuses into its community. This is why the Ansvar team has invested in thermographic training and technology.

Thermographic technology provides a visual of heat patterns allowing risk solution advisors to see behind the electrical board, highlighting any potential electronic faults. With electrical problems being a major cause of fires, prevention is key. Using a thermographic camera allows for rapid assessment and identification of potential electrical issues which enables organisations to take critical preventative measures. Ansvar is taking their investment one step further and reinforcing its commitment to both the technology and its customers by qualifying the whole risk assessment team.

“The purpose of prevention is often perceived to be about saving the insurer money. However, Ansvar’s investment in thermographic technology is not just a consequence of face value preventative elements. Ansvar’s intention is to use the thermographic technology to assist our customers in realizing their overall objective:  which for the care, community, education, and faith sectors involves caring for and protecting their communities, “said Diana Borgmeyer, Head of Risk Solutions at Ansvar.

Fires can cripple the infrastructure and result in operational losses and stoppage of services. For Ansvar’s specialty sectors this can have a devastating effect on the communities that rely on these services.  It is not only the business that suffers, so it is crucial Ansvar remains vigilant and efficient at identifying problems and resolving them before the customer is affected.

“It’s not just about having toys – we are looking for opportunities and the incorporation of the latest technology in the right places to best service our customers and provide them with the value of care and service they have come to expect from Ansvar,” said Diana.

Ansvar’s risk and support solutions are continually evolving to ensure the company can provide contemporary risk management products and services to help clients manage their unique risk exposures.