Within your facility, the safety of your members and staff is in your hands. Recently, Brian Rawlings discussed the importance of setting the tone on safety in the webinar “Creating a Risk Management Culture.”
According to Rawlings, there are a variety of ways you can set the tone, including making safety an integral part of your day-to-day activities. You can lead by example by walking the floor and picking up misplaced dumbbells, having a safety topic included in staff meeting agendas, and even leading a risk management committee that’s focus is on the safety of those within your four walls.
“Doing those types of things demonstrates that you are making [safety] a priority, and therefore infiltrates down throughout the organization that this is indeed a priority at the club,” said Rawlings.
Rawlings is also a staunch proponent of having written policies and procedures on risk management and safety protocols. If things are written, documented and presented to staff as part of their onboarding process and ongoing training, this further creates a strong risk management culture.
Likewise, any incidents must be properly documented — and stressing to staff that incidents are documented — should be an additional priority. Otherwise, if a case goes to court, the club could be at risk.
For further insight on creating a risk management culture, view the recorded webinar here.
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
