As director of the Public Risk Management Association (PRIMA), James Coyle
has a lot to say about a field he calls "dynamic."
"It's never static. You're dealing with new issues every day, every week,
every month. And it's a growing, evolving field, a very exciting occupation
to be in right now," he says.
Coyle says risk management has come a long way since it first arrived on
the business scene in the early 1970s.
"We're in a very nascent point in this. The discipline has only been recognized
for the last 20 years. Things have changed a lot since the early days when
it was all insurance," he says.
"Now we're talking about risk management across the entire spectrum. And
so many of the things that risk managers deal with change themselves. In other
words, it's not like you just build a building and it just stands there. They
have to be concerned about potential safety and loss issues every day.
"If you've got firemen going out on a job or policemen going on a high-speed
chase, or you've got workers out doing heavy kinds of work -- anything related
to the functioning of a level of government or corporate body is what they're
responsible for. It's constant and it's always changing. You're always dealing
with new people, new circumstances and new challenges."
But Coyle admits that the job can be demanding and stressful, especially
in the public sector.
"It's a high-stress position in which you have a lot of direct responsibility
for things," he says. "A risk manager has to make sure that his community
is well protected. They have to make sure the right kind of insurance and
programs are in place when these accidents or disasters occur.
"If someone is killed or seriously injured on a job and it had to do with
a safety procedure, you take that very personally," adds Coyle. "Especially
if it leads to the community being faced with some kind of legal suit. In
this litigious society we're in today, risk management has become important.
Because you're talking millions of dollars of potential losses based on suits
and settlements."
When it comes to big cash claims, risk managers get by with a little help
from their insurance underwriters. Silvana Facciolo is an account executive
in the insurance industry. She's trained in risk management and works with
risk managers across the country every day.
"Each of our large accounts...have their own risk management departments
in the major urban centers. We have underwriters all over, operating in remote
areas. They then require our services to look after the claims on their behalf
and determine that a fair investigation is done," says Facciolo.
"We look after insurance claims on the risk manager's behalf when they
can't investigate themselves," she adds. "So we work with both the insurance
company and the risk manager. We just report on the claims part
and let the risk managers issue the payments where they're due."
Ruth Unks is a risk manager for the Maricopa County Community College District
in Phoenix, Arizona. She says the size and complex nature of the jurisdiction
means a lot of potential risks have to be monitored.
"We have some huge property risk from all the different colleges and campuses
that we have. We want to make sure that those buildings are safe and insured
because we have some liability risk," says Unks.
"We have over 250,000 students passing through our doors on an annual basis.
We want to make sure there's no hazards there which could cause problems for
the students where they might get hurt.
"We also have over 1,500 contracts which are signed each year," she adds.
"I'm involved in helping to review those contracts to make sure the district
is protected, that we're not giving away any rights or obligations there.
So it's quite a large exposure risk with the community college district, because
of the sheer volume of people."
Despite the job's overwhelming responsibilities, Unks says she enjoys working
with all the people her work introduces her to.
"The most rewarding part of the job is really just the great interaction
with all the different levels of employees -- everyone from the janitor to
the chancellor," says Unks. "I'll go out and meet with several different groups
of people, discuss my proposals with them, get their input and hopefully implement
risk policies that work for everyone."