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7 Tips to Mitigate the Risks of Summer Staff Parties

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With millions of employees continuing to work remotely part- or full-time, 2022 summer office outings may represent one of the first “all hands” get-togethers for many employers since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Indeed, 37% of respondents to spot surveys conducted by Seyfarth at Work reported that there had not been a need, opportunity and/or COVID-safe venue for everyone to be in the same space at the same time since 2019.

Two years is a long wait, and based on anecdotal reporting in the wake of June and early July events, some employees are perhaps a bit overexcited at the prospect of finally hanging out together.

Some summer outing horror stories that resulted in complaints and charges include:

• An East Coast video game development company’s festivities included ice-breaker activities of beer pong and “spin the vodka bottle,” with managers nudging uncomfortable staff to join in.
Result: two employees contacted a local enforcement agency looking to file a harassment charge.

• A West Coast tech startup’s party featured an impromptu game of “pin the tail on the interns,” involving strips of paper “tails” and tape.
Result: two interns left the organizations and several employees threatened suit.

• A Midwest pack-and-ship firm had insult rap battles that devolved into comments about aging and weight gain.
Result: a spate of internal complaints from employees, and even from a caterer who was setting up food on-site and overheard the derisive and potentially discriminatory lyrics.

Actionable Risk Management Take-Aways for Bosses:

A number of pre-event precautions can help reduce the risk of your summer outing going sideways:

• Scare your managers—just a little. Schedule pre-event “Respect Huddles” where you can remind those in supervisory roles that they all have potential professional and/or legal responsibility if things go wrong. Deputize them, so to speak, to watch out for risky conduct as the festivities unfold. Share simple scripts and responses your managers can use to “nudge” attendees back to a zone of respect.

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• Set limits for everyone on things like alcohol, how long/late the event runs, and an agenda of (appropriately) fun activities. Historically, drinking can be a gateway activity to all sorts of sordid interactions. To manage the risk, some organizations have found it very helpful to “ticket the tequilas,” meaning they provide the event food, but limit the alcohol, such as by using a drink ticket system.
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A strict event agenda helps prevent attendees from straying into murky territory with creative comments and conduct. Any planned games should focus on friendly collaboration, not physical contact.

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Assign a trusted internal party planner to carefully manage your party or outing agenda.

• Strongly encourage staff to bring significant others and kids, if interested. Having lots of little tykes in attendance tends to reduce all sorts of adult excesses and judgement errors. However, also be open to employee opt-outs. Stress the fact that no one is expected to attend—it is just as important as making sure everyone feels welcome.

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• Send a pre-event conduct memo to every employee at least once, and maybe even twice. Revisit your office respect rules, as they extend to and apply in the great outdoors as well, at least when your organization is sponsoring.

Tips for Everyone

For employees at any level, we recommend not thinking of the outing as party time, but rather as a professional event that just happens to be moving outside. These tips can help any attendee enjoy the gathering while avoiding risky situations:

• Set lower expectations for yourself on how “off-the-hook” the whole outing will be, which can help ensure that you’re not disappointed and are better able to maintain decorum.

• Stay away from casual banter that is ribald, risqué or involves sharing too much information.

• Social distance, for both COVID and conduct reasons.

RISKWORLD 2022: Q&A with Opening Keynote Michael C. Bush

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RIMS RISKWORLD is just a few days away, kicking off in San Francisco on April 10. This year’s opening keynote will be delivered on Monday by Michael C. Bush, the CEO of Great Place to Work and author of A Great Place to Work for All: Better for Business, Better for People, Better for the World.

Bush recently sat down for an interview on the RIMScast podcast, discussing how the pandemic has redefined satisfaction in the workplace and the critical steps that risk professionals can take to increase equity and happiness in their organization. Download the RIMScast episode for Bush’s full interview and check out a preview of his April 11th keynote below:

What will you discuss in the keynote address at RISKWORLD?
Michael C. Bush: We’re going to talk about making a connection in a way that [makes] people, employees and clients feel they are cared for. Physical and mental health is a top priority now and risk professionals play a role because there is data and policy to consider. But, if you approach it correctly, it can lead to organizational success even during a pandemic or the Great Resignation.

How has the definition of happiness or satisfaction changed against the backdrop of the pandemic?
MB: Prior to the pandemic, we could talk about happiness, satisfaction, engagement and empowerment in one context. COVD has changed that. We were suddenly in a world where people felt like really nobody cared, because they were living a life where there was so much uncertainty. They didn’t know what they needed to do to protect themselves or their family members—physically and financially. This left huge voids because there was economic insecurity on top of it all. People had to watch their communities suffer as small businesses shut down one after another.

Great companies realized this was a time to care. Therefore, they became the one thing that their employees could rely on. In our interviews, we heard stories of companies sending employees necessities like toilet paper during shortages, making deliveries to their parents and other instances that were happening at a personal level. Those lucky employees realized their employers actually cared about them as people and not just as an employee, and that led to happiness. The only silver lining from the pandemic was that humanity has surfaced in a way that has connected us all.

How do you view resilience? 
MB: We all have tough days. When a person is under pressure but knows that they have support or someone or an organization that can relieve that pressure and enable them to bounce back, that’s resilience. It can eliminate burnout, but there’s a difference between burnout and being burnt out. And we’re going to discuss that difference at RISKWORLD.

Fans of language and communication—or those looking to sharpen their skills—will find some really strong takeaways from your take on active listening. Now that so many professionals depend on remote capabilities to work, how has your perception of active listening changed or evolved?
MB: I’ve become a more intense believer in active listening, especially over the last couple of years. It’s not just making eye contact and not just me repeating the last thing you said. Listening is really about caring. When you listen to a person in a deep way, it is the ultimate show of respect—and not doing it is equally disrespectful. If all I’m doing is waiting for someone’s mouth to stop moving to grab tidbits of what they said to make my point, that is not listening, that’s just a spring-loaded response.

When it comes to being remote, try to dial in and focus on the person who’s in front of you on the screen. Put down your mobile phone and stop multitasking—chatting, posting and “liking” things on social media. 

Listening, in the way I’m talking about, takes practice. It involves emptying your mind and being humble enough to do that and not holding on to your own point of view so tightly. When your mind is open, you start asking questions and learning starts. Through that exchange, something unusual and great happens: people feel safe and will start to say more. You might help someone solve their problem, they might help you, or you might identify a new risk altogether.

Managing Sanctions Risk from Russia’s War on Ukraine

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Since Russia began attacking Ukraine on February 24, thousands of people have been killed and over a million people have had to flee their homes, presenting one of the largest refugee crises Europe has ever experienced. In addition to the tragic human losses, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered wide-ranging economic impacts. Among them, the European Union, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Japan and others have enacted sweeping financial sanctions on Russia in an effort to pressure President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict. These sanctions have targeted Russia’s financial system and its international financial connections by restricting transactions between Russian banks and those in other countries, most notably through the SWIFT global financial network.

The economic impacts of these sanctions will likely affect many industries around the world, whether organizations deal with Russia directly or indirectly through third countries. In a briefing yesterday, global risk consultancy Control Risks discussed some of the risk management considerations and steps companies need to take as the sanctions landscape continues to evolve. According to panelist Henry Smith, partner and head of business intelligence and due diligence in EMEA at Control Risks, there are five key areas risk professionals should focus on to address the risk facing their companies as a result of these sanctions:

  1. What are your nexuses to Russia (including outside Russia)? Organizations need to look at their touchpoints with Russia, including investors and shareholders, lenders and banks, direct and indirect clients, contractual counterparties, and goods and services sourced directly or indirectly from Russia.
  2. Which sanctions apply to your organization?
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    The applicability of sanctions will vary based on your sector, the nationality of the people within the organization, and the currencies you use. It is helpful to note that, currently, there is greater consensus among various sanctions regimes so you may not have to parse through conflicting degrees of severity—consistent sanctions against Russia are being imposed, at least across most Western countries.
  3. What risks are you exposed to? Conduct a risk assessment around which sanctions you are exposed to and whether there are any business activities, relationships or practices you need to end or change in some way. This involves regularly screening Russian counterparties against sanctions lists and undertaking detailed analysis of higher-risk relationships.
  4. How do you respond? Review the implications of any decisions on employees and on contractual obligations, both with direct and third-party clients. Consider any impact winding down activities in one area may have on other business areas. Be sure to engage with regulators, enforcement agencies, banks and insurers for guidance.
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  5. What do you do as sanctions regimes evolve? Sanctions will change in response to security and political developments over the coming weeks and months, so it is important to stay informed of any communications from authorities.
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    Review and read guidance from regulators, enforcement agencies, banks and insurers, and benchmark with industry peers to make sure you can still operate effectively.

Overall, when deciding whether to continue doing business with Russia, companies will need to consider both reputational and ESG-based perspectives as well as practical issues around your ability to do business, such as maintaining the working capital required to continue operations and ensuring that goods and services can still move through the supply chain.

Experts expect that the Russia-Ukraine crisis will have a long-term impact on the global economy and many effects of these sanctions may not be felt for weeks or months. Companies will need to remain vigilant in order to stay ahead of the risks.

RIMS TechRisk/RiskTech: Emerging Risk AI Bias

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On the second day of the RIMS virtual event TechRisk/RiskTech, CornerstoneAI founder and president Chantal Sathi and advisor Eric Barberio discussed the potential uses for artificial intelligence-based technologies and how risk managers can avoid the potential inherent biases in AI.

Explaining the current state of AI and machine learning, Sathi noted that this is “emerging technology and is here to stay,” making it even more imperative to understand and account for the associated risks. The algorithms that make up these technologies feed off data sets, Sathi explained, and these data sets can contain inherent bias in how they are collected and used. While it is a misconception that all algorithms have or can produce bias, the fundamental challenge is determining whether the AI and machine learning systems that a risk manager’s company uses do contain bias.

The risks of not rooting out bias in your company’s technology include:

  • Loss of trust: If or when it is revealed that the company’s products and services are based on biased technology or data, customers and others will lose faith in the company.
  • Punitive damage: Countries around the world have implemented or are in the process of implementing regulations governing AI, attempting to ensure human control of such technologies. These regulations (such as GDPR in the European Union) can include punitive damages for violations.
  • Social harm: The widespread use of AI and machine learning includes applications in legal sentencing, medical decisions, job applications and other business functions that have major impact on people’s lives and society at large.

Sathi and Barberio outlined five steps to assess these technologies for fairness and address bias:

  1. Clearly and specifically defining the scope of what the product is supposed to do.
  2. Interpreting and pre-processing the data, which involves gathering and cleaning the data to determine if it adequately represents the full scope of ethnic backgrounds and other demographics.
  3. Most importantly, the company should employ a bias detection framework. This can include a data audit tool to determine whether any output demonstrates unjustified differential bias.
  4. Validating the results the product produces using correlation open source toolkits, such as IBM AI Fairness 360 or MS Fairlearn.
  5. Producing a final assessment report.

Following these steps, risk professionals can help ensure their companies use AI and machine learning without perpetuating its inherent bias.

The session “Emerging Risk AI Bias” and others from RIMS TechRisk/RiskTech will be available on-demand for the next 60 days, and you can access the virtual event here.