During a presentation at the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association’s 2023 Marketing and Operations Summit, RumbergerKirk partners Sally Culley, Justin Guido and Carie Hall shared ways to reduce the risk of employee or customer injury occurring in the workplace and discussed how to be prepared with a strong defense to potential lawsuits if injury should occur. They discussed what important policies, procedures, and best practices will help protect businesses and identified key policies to be included in employee handbooks, safety features and training, and provided essential tips for quickly and proactively responding to injury events and preserving critical evidence.

Key takeaways shared:

• Incident response and safety management are integral to successful business operations.
• Key steps to responding to an injury-related incident on the premises: attend to the injured guest, isolate the incident location, memorialize the incident and remedy the hazard.
• Positioning for defense in a lawsuit begins at the incident scene.
  • Deploy your “control team”, a small nucleus of management level employees with experience in incident response.
  • Keep the conversation focused on the guest’s well-being and away from the cause of the injury.
  • Obtain a signed, written statement at the incident scene. This is the best time to obtain an unvarnished account of the incident.
• The risk of an injury event can be minimized through a safety-conscious culture, comprehensive employee handbooks, and intentional and effective training of employees.