At Your Service

Liability when "The Weather Outside is Frightful"

This was originally posted in December 2010, but we feel it is an important enough topic to share with you again as we begin a new year, and a new snow season!

 

As I write this, there is a Winter Weather Advisory across half the nation and it brings to mind a very popular risk management question:

Is my business liable for slip and falls in ice or snow?

The answer is maybe, depending on the circumstances. 

According to Kelly Maheu’s article, “The Politics of Shoveling” in the March 2010 from Claims Magazine, “In many states there is a `natural accumulation’ rule under which a property owner has no duty to remove or warn of the natural accumulations of snow, ice and freezing rain dangers. He is also not liable for injuries caused by natural accumulations of snow.  Generally, this rule applies to private homeowners, business owners, and municipalities alike.”

In Ohio, homeowners and business owners have no duty to clear snow and ice from driveways, sidewalks or parking lots. Homeowners and business owners, however, are liable for unnatural accumulation of snow and ice and will be responsible for injuries, according to Ohio attorney, Brett Goodson, in his February 2009 The Injury Board Blog Network post.

Be aware, however, that this rule does not apply to every state and even when it does apply, a person seeking liability has to prove that conditions were caused by a condition of the property.

“… A person seeking to prove liability must show that a defect in the condition of the property — say, a blocked drain or poor grading around the building - was the source of the accumulated snow or ice,” says Maheu. If the business owner fails to exercise reasonable duty of care for customers, he/she may very well be held liable.

Consider a variety of potential risks

Mindful business operators shouldn’t limit their focus to conditions on the ground when considering perils of bad weather. A clogged gutter or drifted snow on roof edges can cause equally dangerous conditions. Accidents caused by ice cycles and undetectable black ice often result in claims of negligence.

“Missouri law regarding the liability in slip and fall accidents, sometimes called premises liability, rests on the determination of what is ‘open and obvious’ and if the property owner had knowledge a dangerous condition existed, yet did nothing to rectify it,” says attorney Jason Krebs of the Krebs Law Firm LLC in his January 2010 Springfield Injury Law Blog post.

As a best practice, you should be vigilant in identifying potential snow and ice hazards and eliminate or minimize them to the extent possible. If you are unsure of liability or coverage, contact your insurance carrier. If you use a contracted service for snow removal, make sure there are indemnification provisions and that the service provider is adequately insured.  Ignoring the dangers of winter weather or leaving customers to fend for themselves may come back to “frost bite” you.

 

Mark Farrell is the group hospitality operations leader at Westfield and oversees a variety of businesses owned by Westfield Group. In addition to corporate dining and event planning operations, Mark is responsible for the Westfield Country Club, a 36-hole private golf facility, the 64 room Westfield Inn, and 360-seat Blair Conference Center.

 

Featured Customer: Famous Five Dining

It was a life-long dream for Mike and Tamara Lister to own a business with their college and high school best friends, Doug and Laurel Renegar. In 2001, their dream came true as they opened the first of five Famous Dave’s barbecue restaurants in Tennessee. The couples share their business and personal lives together through their faith, family and company.

Read the story of Famous Five Dining's relationship with Westfield, and share your story on our Facebook page.

Tips to Protect Your Restaurant from Fire

The United States Fire Administration reports that between 2007 and 2009, an estimated 5,900 restaurant building fires occurred in the U.S. causing 75 injuries and $172 million in property loss.  The good news is that there were no fire-related deaths, although the potential exists.  The National Fire Incident Reporting System categorizes building fires into two severity classes 1) confined fires, which are confined to certain objects or types of equipment and 2) nonconfined.

Confined fires account for about 57% of restaurant fires with nonconfined fires accounting for the remaining 43% of restaurant fires. 

When do restaurant fires occur?  The highest frequency is during the late morning hours, between 10 and 11 a.m. 

What’s the primary cause of restaurant fires?  This won’t surprise you, cooking, is the leading cause of restaurant fires.  The vast majority (91%) of these fires are small confined fires a small amount of damage.  Electrical malfunctions and heating systems are the next highest cause of restaurant fires, both at 8%.  The risk with electrical fires is that they spread and are typically large, nonconfined fires.  Beyond electrical fires, the other common causes of fire are carelessness or other unintentional actions and equipment mis-operations and failures.

Where do nonconfined fires start?  Primarily in cooking areas and kitchens (41%) and less frequently on the roof (6%) and in walls (6%). 

How do nonconfined fires start?   Heat from powered equipment is the leading cause of these types of fires, which includes electrical arcing and radiated or conducted heat from running equipment.  The most common equipment to ignite fires are deep fryers (9%), ranges (7%) and other kitchen cooking equipment (5%). 

What are the contributing factors to igniting a nonconfined fire?  The top three factors are:

•            Misuse of product or material (28%)
•            Electrical Failure, malfunction (27%)
•            Operational deficiency (23%)

 What can be done to reduce fire risk?

• Staff training and awareness to keep combustible materials away from heat sources.
• Fire extinguishers strategically located and staff trained to use them.
• Install alert or suppression systems to monitor heat and smoke to notify as soon as possible.  Automatic extinguishment systems, such as sprinklers and hood systems.
• Safe storage practices – store away from heat sources/ductwork, keep exits clear.

Click here to review Westfield Insurance’s Fire Prevention Checklist for Restaurants to see how you stack up on preventing fires at your restaurant.  

Kris Hawk is the business development leader for corporate hospitality at Westfield Insurance. She develops and implements marketing plans for Westfield Country Club, Blair Conference Center, corporate dining and Westfield Inn.          

 

 

 

Review  Westfield Insurance’s Fire Prevention Checklist for Restaurants to see how you stack up on preventing fires at your restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ohio Turfgrass Professional of the Year & Golf Professional of the Year

The Ohio Turfgrass Foundation (OTF) announced the winners of the 2011 Profesional of the Year and Professional Excellence Awards. Congratulations goes to Westfield's own Mark Jordan, CGCS, the natural resource leader at Westfield Group Country Club. Jordan was named the 2011 Professional of the Year.  He is a past president of the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation and continues to play an active role in the Foundation.  He is also actively involved in the Northern Ohio Golf Course Superintendent's Association (GCSAA) and is a candidate for the board of directors for the national GCSAA.  Over the past year, Mark played an instrumental role in passing Senate bill 51, declaring the last week of May as "Ohio Turfgrass Week" and has been heavily involved with the "We Are Golf" campaign, where he joined other professionals on Capitol Hill to discuss legistlative matters affecting the golf industry. 

Mark's career at Westfield Group Country Club spans 23 years, where he has served in several different capacities at the Club, including general manager, and has served as superintendent for the past five years.  Mark was selected from a field of 40 nominations and will formally receive the award at the OTF Annual Conference on December 6th in Columbus, Ohio.

Congratulations also go to Chad Seymour, head PGA professional at Westfield Group Country Club, who has won, for the second time, the Golf Professional of the Year award, the most prestigious honor awarded by the Northern Ohio PGA Section.  The award recognizes Chad's overall performance as a golf professional, his support of the PGA and the local Ohio section, his leadership, image and ability to inspire fellow golf professionals, and of course, his success in promoting the game of golf.  Chad first won the Golf Professional of the Year in 2005.  Chad recently completed a two-year term as the president of the Northern Ohio PGA section and now serves as honorary president.  Congratulations on earning this recognition for the second time!

The Ohio Turfgrass Foundation is an association dedicated to promoting the turgfgrass industry in Ohio, to encourage the further study, research and education of turfgrass science and to speak on matters of policy affecting the turfgrass industry with the goal of providing better turf for everyone.

Northern Ohio PGA section is one of 41 sections throughout the U.S. that comprise the PGA of America.  The purpose of the Section is to promote the enjoyment and involvement in the game of golf in its region and to contribute to its growth by providing services to golf professionals and the golf industry within the Section.

Protect Your Business with Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI)

Learn how to protect yourself and your growing business against the increasing number of of workplace-liability claims - claims for sexual harrassment, age and racial discrimination, wrongful termination, negligent evaluation, and failure to employ or promote, to name a few. 

Brad Toft, Restaurant Insurance Specialist at Kinker-Eveleigh Insurance Agency, discusses protection available through the EPLI article, "Do You Need Employment Practices Liability Insurance?"

This article is reprinted with permission from Ohio Restaurant Association.

 

What to Do if You've Been Hacked

Are you a business owner?  How many times over the past year have you experienced a spike in blood pressure as you’ve read about the latest data breach from a corporation being hacked?  Ever wondered what you’d do if your customer or employee data was compromised?

via infosec.westfieldinsurance.com

Customers will Pay More for "Green" Hotels, Restaurants

Would you believe that customers are willing to pay more for hospitality services that are "green"?

I read an article at YoungHotelier.com called "Green Hotels – Marketing and Profitability Advantages of Environmentally Friendly Practices" about environmental consciousness (“being green”) being equally important in the hospitality industry as emphasizing value from a consumer perspective. An excerpt shows that customers will pay more green for "green": 

"A new study by Cornell University out this quarter demonstrates that consumers didn’t forget about environmental concerns during the recession; in fact, they are increasingly willing to pay a premium to patronize green restaurants and purchase green products. Almost 90% of respondents said they would pay more to eat at a green restaurant, and one third said they would pay up to 12% more. From a marketing perspective, this means that ‘green’ is again- and indeed, always was- a viable and profitable differentiating factor."

So how can your hospitality business go "green"? It may be simpler than you think.  The Buffalo Green Hospitality Initiative, an organization devoted to promoting a green experience for travelers in Western New York, offers the following list of "green" behaviors to consider. 

“Green” Behaviors for Hotels and Restaurants:

• Reduced electric and gas consumption through sensible purchasing of efficient products
• Lessening unnecessary use of lighting and heat
• Waste management
• Water conservation
• Use of indigenous plant life
• Use of non-toxic or low-toxin cleaning supplies
• Purchasing locally grown, organic food when available
• Leftover food donation to a local food bank
• Composting
• Offering reusable dishware and cutlery
• Use of linen napkins
• Offering reusable centerpieces to planners
• Offering condiments in bulk containers
• Back office paper and ink usage reduction

Hospitality facilities can be “green and mean it” with a little consideration and not a large expense. What successful “green” initiatives have you implemented in your business?

 

Christine Warner is the executive assistant of corporate hospitality operations at Westfield Group. She provides administrative support to the group hospitality operations leader and business development leader, and creates the promotional materials for facilities within the department.

Experimenting with Molecular Gastronomy

We were recently asked to expand our culinary horizons at Westfield. We were approached by an event customer to try and come up with innovative new culinary offerings, such as the Molecular Gastronomy trend. We were extremely fortunate to have Sous Chef Dan Johnson on our team. He had some experience with this culinary technique and was able to pull off some wonderful items for the event. I have asked him to share his experience in a guest author piece. - Chad Caplinger

Every Chef has had the same experience over and over again: “I have the BEST recipe for….” or, “Oh, you’re a Chef? I love the Food Network! Do you ever watch…(insert overrated TV show here)?”

With the proliferation of cooking shows and trends constantly flooding the television, everyone considers themselves a “foodie”. This of course poses a challenge for us in the industry. As Chefs and owners, how do we keep up with the times? How can we continue to impress our customers when we have to compete with not only our local competitors, but also with restaurants around the country? In an effort to satisfy a customer’s request, I believe I found the answer in one word: Innovation

I was approached with a request which I believe stretches to the edge of the culinary industry. A customer had recently visited moto restaurant in Chicago. This restaurant is known for its practice of molecular gastronomy. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, it refers to the science of cooking. Originally it was the research of the chemical reactions that occur while cooking food. As researched continued, cooks began to realize that they could manipulate food to fit their artistic needs, as well as to take food to levels never thought to be possible. And moto has embraced this trend, turning their establishment into more of a laboratory than a kitchen and dining room. Their main focus is to “trick” a person into eating something that doesn’t resemble food at all, from edible menus to sushi rolls made to look like a burning cigar. The customer enjoyed the experience so much, that he wanted his guests of the event we were planning (all 150 of them) to have a similar experience.

Innovation was the theme as I approached this task. While I had done some experimenting with molecular gastronomy before, I was still nervous as to whether or not I could deliver.  Something like this had never been done before here at Westfield. We didn’t have the equipment, no history or benchmarking to start with, and no idea what would work for a catering scale of 150+ guests. We did have the courses though: Salad and Dessert. So I started with a basic dessert. I aimed to please those that would be looking for something normal comparatively. I settled on a Deconstructed Strawberry Pound Cake. A square of pound cake, on one side a mound of whipped cream, on the other a macerated slice of strawberry topped with a strawberry foam (Can be made with a whipped cream charger). 

Now it was time for that innovation to come into play. I knew that I wanted to incorporate spherification into this project. This uses two different chemicals to encapsulate a liquid into a sphere. I used two sizes; a small sphere to make chocolate, caramel, and cherry juice “caviar” for the dessert, and a 1 ounce size to turn balsamic dressing into an “egg” for the salad course. The final result was a salad resembling a birds nest, using a hollowed red pepper as the vessel, mixed greens and shredded Phyllo dough as a crouton component. On top the dressing was placed, and the sphere allowed the guest to break the “egg” over the nest, thus dressing their own salad. For dessert I made what I call Sunday Shooters. I layered the previously mentioned “caviar” into a 2-ounce shooter glass, topped with whipped cream. The guest would pour this over a bowl of ice cream. But we can’t just have plan old ice cream, can we? It was time for some liquid nitrogen. 

Liquid nitrogen is surprisingly easy to get. The hardest part is buying it in small quantities. But what I found is that after experimenting with different recipes, and then the actual event, I used almost all 180 liters that I had purchased. You can get liquid nitrogen at most welding gas supply stores. Since it is a liquid at -230˚F, I used it to make instant freeze dried ice cream. I also had what I call “Reverse Fondue”. The guest dipped fresh strawberries and pineapple into melted chocolate ice cream, then into liquid nitrogen for about 5 seconds. The result was and ice cream crust around the fruit, and in essence a cold version of a regular chocolate fondue.

We cannot avoid the constant changing in foodservice trends, and we will always be fighting to continue to please our customers, and provide the unique experience they are looking for. I hope that this article has provided insight into an aspect of the culinary world you thought was out of your reach.With a little innovation and an openness to new ideas, we as culinary professionals can be sure to keep our customers intrigued, and ultimately coming back for more.

Dan Johnson is the Sous Chef at the Westfield Group’s Blair Center conference facility, and contributes to all locations on the Westfield Campus. Dan has 6 years experience in the hospitality industry; studied at The University of Akron, and has developed his expertise in food preparations and cooking, kitchen operations and food safety.

Social Media for Hospitality Businesses

I have a hard time wrapping my head around all the ways we can use social media to interact with hospitality customers.  Wiley Cerilli, CEO of SinglePlatform, published an article, "Social Media Marketing: 5 Restaurants That Get It", which actually provided concrete examples of the social media methods that the featured restaurants successfully used to connect with their customers, including:

• Posting events, recipes and interesting stories
• Running specials for fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter
• Effectively using contests to increase customer following and email campaign list
• Creating ways to strategically engage with customers, through how-to cooking classes, creating drinks, etc.
• Go beyond Groupon efforts and LivingSocial to really invest in building relationships with customers by offering a free item to customers who do what you ask - book a reservation, subscribe to your page, follow you.

I found the article to be helpful in thinking about meaningful ways to engage the customers that are not limited to strictly promotional efforts.  The article offered ideas that engage the customer to interact in some way.

How are you engaging with your customers?  How difficult is it to keep up your social media outlets?  What has been successful for your operation? 

 

Kris Hawk is the business development leader for corporate hospitality at Westfield Insurance. She develops and implements marketing plans for Westfield Country Club, Blair Conference Center, corporate dining and Westfield Inn. Her day-to-day operational responsibilities include planning and management for corporate dining at the headquarters in Westfield Center, as well as event planning, audio-visual services and training. She has worked at Westfield for seven years, and has expertise in event planning and operations management.  She earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Toledo in 1986.  Kris loves food, people and cooking. 

Fertilizer Harming Trees - DuPont Imprelis not Impressive in Midwest

From the recent Westfield Insurance Risk Factors blog post, Landscapers & Country Clubs Beware:

It was recently brought to my attention that a common weed prevention chemical, Imprelis, used by landscapers is causing damage and death to conifers/evergreen trees.  The product is being promoted by DuPont as "an environmentally friendly herbicide", but it appears that additional testing will need to be completed to fully understand how this chemical is affecting evergreens and the long term environmental affects of the use of Imprelis. 

The product is not available in retail settings, however, it is commonly being used by commercial landscapers and country clubs throughout the U.S.  Many commercial landscapers are starting to receive complaints and claims from customers due to death and damage of their trees. 

If you are a contractor utilizing this product, it is recommended that you reach out to DuPont to learn more. 

Here are a few links to recent articles published on this topic:

http://www.freep.com/article/20110728/NEWS06/107280512/DuPont-says-its-product-harms-trees

http://dailylocal.com/articles/2011/08/01/news/srv0000012879850.txt

http://www.emoneydaily.com/dupont-nysedd-makes-herbicide-announcement/69816523/

 

Lisa Mundt is a Senior Risk Control Representative for Westfield Insurance based out of our Duluth, GA service office.  Lisa has over 9 years of risk management and safety experience which she uses to provide top quality service to our policyholders.