When someone gets hurt at your company, your first instinct is to panic. However, as a business owner, it’s your responsibility to stay calm. Ask yourself these questions to assess the situation and determine your next steps.
1. Do Any Problems Need Immediate Attention?
Sometimes, accidents result in minor injuries or issues that don’t require immediate attention. In other cases, you need to drive someone to the hospital or call an ambulance, or an Air Ambulance 1. For the most severe situations, you must evacuate your building and escort your employees and customers to a safe location. Always look for and address life-threatening situations such as excessive bleeding, head trauma, and unconsciousness before taking care of anything else.
2. Who Is Liable for the Problem?
Once you’ve dealt with the issues that can’t wait, it’s time to focus on logistical and legal issues. Depending on the amount of damage, you probably need to call your insurance company, which needs to know who is liable for the accident. Sometimes liability is obvious; in other cases, you need the help of an independent investigator to determine fault. For example, if an employee hit another worker’s car because he or she was not paying attention, then the driver is at fault. However, if your building created an unsafe situation, you need the help of forensic engineering Denver CO to determine who is liable.
3. When Can You Resume Business?
As soon as possible, you want to resume your business’s operations. Work with your insurance company, the investigators, lawyers, and any other involved parties to determine how soon you can safely get back to work.
By asking yourself these three questions when an accident occurs, you give yourself a course of action for the next few hours. Once the emergency has passed, assess your response and determine how you can improve in the future.