Office of Risk Management

Craig Ambach, Director

news

AEDs
Automated External Defibrillators (AED) are becoming more and more popular in today's society. They are being placed in malls, schools, and even in the workplace. We have fielded a number of questions regarding use of an AED in your workplace. We have updated our Risk Bulletin #46 to outline some guidelines that should be considered prior to placing an AED in your workplace.

The following link will take you to Risk Bulletin #46: Automed External Defibrillators

Rental Vehicles
The Office of Risk Management has fielded a number of questions pertaining to coverage for State employees renting vehicles.

In any accident in which an employee is found liable for damages, including property damage to a rental vehicle, coverage is afforded according to the terms and conditions of Public Entity Pool for Liability's (PEPL) Memorandum of Liability Coverage to the Employees of the State of South Dakota while the employee is on state business. If an employee extends a business trip for personal reasons and continues to use the rental vehicle, PEPL does not offer coverage for that period of personal use.

Did you know...
Hands-on training followed by employee demonstration works best. A Tulane University researcher pored over years of safety training and its results. The most effective training had this four-part sequence:

• observation of a role model, demonstrating safe practices
• dialogue between the trainer and trainees to get employees thinking about the actions they should take
• opportunity for the workers to perform the tasks themselves, and
• feedback from the trainer on employees' performance.

Many safety training programs already include hands-on demonstrations. But maximizing those demonstrations depends on the second step: getting workers to talk about what they observed.

That dialogue is important because it links the demonstration workers observed to thinking about the actions they would take in a similar situation. It forces trainees to link certain events in the workplace with their own actions.