EASY AND EFFICIENT RISK MANAGEMENT.

Running a company is a risky business. Go2Sure director Raoul Willemsen knows that all too well. That is why his company strives to help other entrepreneurs manage their business risks. Their latest innovation makes risk management more efficient and easier to implement.

Checklist

Although you are required to conduct a risk assessment and evaluation (RA&E) as soon as you begin hiring employees, 80% of SMEs do not have an approved RA&E. “In that case, you are not compliant with the law,” Raoul explains. “It also means that you lack insight into the business risks for your employees.” As a specialist in risk management, Raoul wondered how this was possible. “It is not like every SME business owner is out to fight the government. We learned that many entrepreneurs fail to understand the added value of an RA&E. They tend to look at it as a paper tiger. A whole lot of administrative busywork for a list you have to check off once every four years. That is too bad, because insight into your risks allows you to mitigate them to work safer and avoid unexpectedly high costs.”

Raising awareness

To solve this issue, Raoul came up with an app that breaks down the RA&E into chunks and presents the right questions to the right people at the right times. This simplifies the process of filling out the RA&E and ensures an organization’s RA&E is always up to date. “We ask the right questions to the right people at the right time and in the right place,” Raoul says. “Employees receive a notification to answer a question from the RA&E at relevant times. This makes the survey more manageable and allows multiple people within the organization to contribute. After all, having only one person answer questions about an organization’s various safety aspects doesn’t make sense. Think of a hospital, for example. With our app, the receptionist can answer questions about physical violence at the reception desk, the caterer answers questions about food safety, and the X-ray technicians handle questions about nuclear physics. This makes the RA&E feel more relevant. A person baking bread rolls all day doesn’t care about nuclear physics and has no insight into the relevant risks. The app helps to establish a more comprehensive overview of the situation and gets the entire organization involved in risk management. Once all questions have been answered, the app will also offer tips to improve the situation if necessary and present an objective ranking of the risks. This helps to raise awareness of these risks throughout the entire organization.”

Structurally making time for innovation

Raoul and his team participated in the Innovate GO program to ensure they had enough time to work on their innovation. “That was very useful to us for several reasons. The program forced us to step away from our day-to-day issues, letting us focus on the innovation instead. We were also taught a method that helps us structurally make time for innovation. What really made the program invaluable for us was our coach, Marike Boertien. We were free to be critical of each other and worked very seriously together. That was really wonderful. I am thrilled to be part of the program’s advisory council now. This ensures innovation stays top of mind for me.”

Far from over

The team has been working on their app for six months now and the initial results are starting to come in. “We primarily operate in the construction, OHS, and sports sectors. More and more national and international organizations recognize the importance of risk management. For example, a large number of contractors in the Netherlands work with us on building inspections, we have a leadership position as a quality assurance instrument for software, municipalities and safety regions use our solution, and we have signed an exclusive contract with Centric for oversight concerning the Environmental Planning Act. This also creates new opportunities to roll out our app on a larger scale. We are gradually exploring possibilities to break into the international market. As a born risk manager, I cannot help but see the risks of such a move, which we will have to assess carefully. However, I also recognize the opportunities and possibilities. Our work is far from over.”