NRL Sexual Misconduct Claims – Another example of Reputation Risk in Sport

More allegations of serious sexual misconduct have once again the potential to seriously damage the NRL’s reputation. In a difficult economic environment, allegations of group sex and sexual assault, as made in last night’s ABC TV program, Four Corners, may have serious implications for the game’s brand and de-tract from the value proposition offered to sponsors of the sport. Managing such crisis and events that seriously threaten one’s reputation is always difficult. Reputation is usually gained over time but can be dashed very quickly. Great care will now be needed to minimize the consequential loss resulting from the crisis. Reputational risk management is an area growing in significance in the sport, venues and events industries. When crisis management is poorly executed it can cripple an organization and its goodwill. An organisation’s reputation is arguably its most valuable asset and needs careful nurturing and effective risk management.

Brand, Reputation and Relationship Risk

Ask any CEO of a major venue, event or sport; their organisation’s reputation, its brands and its relationships are some of their most important assets. A loss of these can spell disaster for the business, particularly in a world of shrinking revenue’s, participation rates and market share. So what are these issues and why are they important?A brand is a collection of associations connected with a service, entity or person. The brand is sometimes described by marketers as the personality traits behind a product or service. If we were talking about the personalities of a brand these traits might include:

• Their name, look, hairstyle and clothes, (i.e. a venue’s name, logo and building presentation); and
• Their behaviours like a sense of humour and simple approach, (i.e. a sport that is fun and simple to use)

A reputation is based upon people’s experience in using the brand. (i.e. whether the sport or venue is safe to use).

Our relationships are critical; with our customers who buy tickets, with our suppliers who are reliable, with the media who support us, and our industry who respects us.

Anything that threatens our brand, reputation or relationships is a risk to the business and should be taken seriously. A risk-based approach to image and reputational risk to manage these threats is important to identify and prioritise these threats and direct resources toward limiting the chance of the threat or its impact. This requires the risk management discipline to be applied to marketing and overseen by the organisation’s Executive to understand the risks, and use tools like Enterprise-wide risk management and crisis management planning to help.

Reputational Risk – Important Considerations Linked to Safety

For many safety professionals, safety risk is defined as the level of injury or fatality resulting from a hazardous occurrence. Yet if you asked the public to define safety risk, they may see things quite differently. The safety professionals definition fails to take into account all the factors that invoke an emotional response such as fear, fright or anger which collectively make up factors contributing to a more significant reputational risk through ‘public outrage.’ In a reputational sense some practitioners argue that the following definition exists:

Risk = Hazard + Outrage

The irony is that most safety professionals pay little attention to the outrage when considering risk, and the public often pays less attention to the actual hazard. Bird flu was such an example where the fear created amongst the community, far outweighed the reality of hazard.

Experts in risk perception have identified the following variables as some of the contributing factors to this outrage phenomena:

• Control - The level of control one has over the hazard – e.g. driving the car feels far safer rather than being a passenger
• Fairness - Where there is a perceived level of unfairness in the treatment of one group over another
• Morality – Where there are some risks which are not only unacceptable but perceived as evil – e.g. child molestation
• Trust – Where we feel more empowered and believe as true information about a hazard when it comes from a reputable source

Concerns for these factors are important when making decisions regarding safety hazards and the choices available between alternatives in risk management.

Considerations such as these should be at the forefront of all managers and Executives in high profile public and private organisations, major event organisers and large venue operators in the way they communicate risk with their external stakeholder. Failure to do so can be exceptionally damaging to the brand and the bottom line.

~ Wayne Middleton - Reliance Risk, the Risk management specialists

OHS Harmonisation – National Approach to Safety

In conjunction with Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Reliance Risk is hosting a free after hours seminar in Sydney on the upcoming changes to the OHS legislation in NSW. The changes, due in 2011, will see a national ‘harmonisation’ process across all states to fall under the one regime. Of particular interest to venue managers and event organisers is the increased onus on managing safety risk for all people under their control (including the public) and an emphasis toward Enterprise-wide programs to help manage safety.This seminar will be held on the 24th of March at, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Level 32, Gover Philip Tower.

If you’d like to attend please RSVP to Renae Lewis, on 02 9210 6896 or renae.lewis@corrs.com.au.

For event risk management consultation, contact Reliance Risk.

Terrorist Attack on Sri Lanken Cricketers – A reminder of the risks

Yesterday’s terrorist attack in Pakistan serves as a stark reminder of the inherent terrorist threat that exists for high profile major sporting events. A total of seven players and coach were hurt in a gun and grenade ambush in the Pakistan city of Lahore which left at least eight other people dead.

Since the 1972 Munich Olympics where 11 Israeli athletes and officials were murdered in a terrorist attack, major sporting events have represented a high profile target for terrorism. This was reinforced again with the 1996 Atlanta City bombing and more recently in Australia with the alleged 2005 plot by home grown groups to attack the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the AFL Grand Final.

Security risk management and for larger major events, anti-terrorism planning, continues to be an important part of any major event’s risk management planning.

Are Slips, Trips and Falls a Problem For Your Venue?

Do slips, trips and falls represent the majority of incidents and injuries reported in your venue? If not, you are either:

1. Lucky

2. Diligent; or

3. Ignorant

From our experience slips, trips and falls represent somewhere between 40%-60% of all injuries and safety incidents for most public venues and events. From research into the Sydney Olympics, 41% of all incidents recorded by SOCOG were slip or trip related with almost half of those requiring medical treatment beyond an initial first aid at the venue.

But this injury category is not limited to public venues and patrons are not the only ones affected.

Frequency and Seriousness

The frequency and seriousness of injuries sustained through slips, trips and falls by employees is also well documented. In 2001 European workplace safety experts noted that inadvertent slipping was responsible for 12% of working accidents in France and 5% of serious accidents for people more than 60 years of age . In 2004, the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety in the US reported slips, trips and falls as the second highest cause of workplace injury costing the US economy approximately US$5.7 billion annually.

According to Workcover in NSW, during 1999-2000 slips, trips and falls represented approximately 20% of all reported non-work-related injuries. In 2006 the UK's national Workcover equivalent, the Health and Safety Executive reported that slips and trips represented 50% of injuries that affect the public, 33% of all major workplaces and 20% of injuries requiring more than three days off work.

Costs

The serious nature of some slip and fall injuries would suggest that this is an area venue managers should always take an interest in. In NSW in 2004/2005 total direct costs resulting from slip, trip and fall related workers compensation data was approximately $110 million. The average cost per W/C claim was about $18,900. Research from the Sydney Games estimated a total cost of slip and falls for 206 temporary and permanent injuries was approximately AUS $3.4m across the Games period.

Are Slips, Trips and Falls Preventable?

So if you are thinking that people are inherently clumsy and will slip and trip regardless of what you do………think again.

Slips, trips and falls experts claim that many people consider slips and trips as non-preventable incidents and thus give them little risk management attention. In a 2000 study, the CSIRO found that 86% of all slip and trip-related public liability claims were indeed preventable.

If the causes of slips and trips are treated as system failures, then identifying such failures and investigating root causes of slip and trips incidents can improve the effectiveness of pre-event risk assessments and reduce the chance of injuries.

Causes

So to mitigate slip and trip hazards it is useful to understand what they are and what causes them.

A slip is defined as a loss of footing, which results in an unforeseen and out of control slide of the foot. It is the outcome of a lack of friction between foot and surface. A trip could be categorized as a loss of footing resulting from an unforeseen variation to the walking surface. While this may be reasonably self-explanatory, when system causes of loss of friction are considered researchers have identified four factors:

1. An individual's impaired mental or physical condition;

2. A slippery surface area;

3. A flaw in the design of the area; or

4. A foreign body or matter on the walking surface.

Mental and Physical Condition

The profile of staff and patrons with regard to their mental and physical condition should be an important feature of every pre-event risk assessment. Complicating factors may include alcohol consumption, expected footwear and age. Some studies have found that uneven flooring surfaces were the single most significant factor in slip and trip injuries sustained by the elderly.

Slippery Surface

Other studies have identified surface variation and texture, lighting, surface moisture and lack of consistency as key contributory factors. This has obvious implications for selecting venue locations for outdoor events; for the installation of overlay across pedestrian thoroughfares, and for monitoring of cleaning systems during events.

Changes in Thoroughfare Elevation

During the Sydney Games more than 50% of all slip and trip incidents occurred on steps at venues and on kerbs immediately outside venues.

Who's Getting Hurt?

Gender issues:

A post Games medical study after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics reported more injuries sustained by women than by men. From the Sydney Games, approximately 65% of all slip and trip incidents were reported by women. Before jumping to any conclusion you may think I am drawing between women and injuries, the research is inconclusive. This may purely suggest that women are more likely to report injuries than men.

Constituent Groups

Interestingly, from the Sydney Games, the Games workforce (i.e. including staff and volunteers but excluding contractors), sustained more injuries than spectators from slips and trips. This suggests that staff may be as likely, if not more likely, to sustain slip and trip injuries than the public. This has implications for staff induction and ongoing hazard management during both event and non-event times.

What Can you Do?

To manage slips and trips you should:

• Undertake regular physical inspections of pedestrian and staff thoroughfares throughout your venue/s (including all emergency exits);

• Monitor crowd movements during heavy flows and identify locations where high crowd densities and uneven surfaces combine to increase the consequences of a fall during high crowd flows;

• Ensure slips and trips are included in your pre-event risk assessment with special consideration for the crowd profile and their probable mental and physical condition;

• Document the outcomes of this risk assessment. State OHS laws require you to mitigate slip, trip and fall hazards. To prove you have done so should include a documented risk assessment.

• Investigate all incidents. Understand the system failures that led to these incidents and address the cause not the symptom.

• Collect quantifiable data. Understand where trends are occurring and make risk-based decisions based upon system causes of slip and trips.

Legal Action Against Event First Aid Treatment

Current legal action in Victoria sets to shine the spotlight on the level of medical care provided at events.

In the Victorian County Court, a woman is suing Surf Lifesaving Australia and the Lorne Surf Life Saving Club for damages resulting from injuries allegedly sustained while receiving treatment from St John Ambulance volunteers. The woman was competing in several events during an international surf lifesaving championship at Lorne, Victoria in 2006 when she was treated by volunteer first aid officers for a shoulder dislocation. The writ claims this treatment provided by volunteer first aid officers exacerbated her injury, was beyond their capabilities and constituted unlawful assault and battery. This case emphasizes the need for all event organisers to:

1. Conduct a thorough event risk assessment prior to the event
2. Match the capabilities of medical services and first aid with foreseeable injuries likely to occur at the event; and
3. Ensure medical and first aid staff have clear protocols for dealing with injuries that are beyond their trained level of competency

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