Have You Ever Considered These Areas Of Risk?

When we talk to construction companies, we never focus just on the construction operations side of the business. We are well aware of the fact that construction companies are businesses and face the same general risks that any other business would face. But have you ever considered those general risks when thinking about your risk management needs? We would be willing to bet that most construction company owners focus more on the big and expensive equipment they use, than the dangers lurking in their office.

Protecting Your Network

What would happen to your construction business if a hacker ever got into your computer network? Since today’s business climate makes it impossible to cut off access to the Internet, you have to assume that there is a real risk that your network could be compromised someday.

We always recommend that clients get the security of their networks analyzed by an expert organization at least once a quarter. We always hope that our customers will hire an outsourcing IT security company to address issues as they come up, but we understand the financial impracticality of that for our smaller clients.

Protecting Your Information

Most construction companies prefer hard copy records over digital files, which means that every construction home office is filled with piles and piles of important papers. What would happen if you had an employee start to steal that information and give it to the competition? What would you do if you had no digital backup of those files and they burned in a fire?

We find it interesting that construction companies, which are engaged in one of the most dangerous industries in the world, refuse to plan for worst case scenarios. You need to have contingency plans in place and have ways developed to protect all of your hard copy and digital data.

Employee Theft

We have construction company clients of all sizes, and we know that every corporate environment is different. But no matter how big your company is, you are taking a risk every time you issue a laptop or tablet to a new field supervisor. When employees steal items ranging from pens to computers, that is money being taken out of your pocket.

The pace of a construction company office is fast, and many things can often go unnoticed. We always encourage our customers to be vigilant about employee theft and take the actions necessary to protect their company’s assets.

Employee Turnover

It is two days before payroll has to be submitted to your payroll company and your lead payroll accountant quits. Worse than that, your accountant quits without telling you. What happens if payroll does not get deposited? How long will it take you to fill that key position?

You cannot assume that your employees will always show up for work each morning, but you are obliged to expect it to run your business properly. Part of risk management is identifying which employees could hurt your business if they suddenly left the company, and have plans in place to replace those employees immediately.

Risk management for construction companies does not just apply to the big equipment found on the job sites. It also includes making sure that the administrative end
of the company is always running smoothly, and that there are plans in place in case something goes wrong.