In today’s society, it seems like an obvious idea that every company has an effective process in place to protect their employees and themselves from liability associated with workplace incidents. However, sometimes the costs of implementing such processes can weigh heavily on the decision to move forward with a new product or service. Here are some tips on how to sell your decision makers on the necessity of having a secure and consistent process in place to be aware of and investigate workplace incidents.

  1. Think about what outcome you want and how what you are proposing can make your workplace better for both employees and management. 

Workplace incidents can cost companies hundreds of thousands of dollars in numerous ways whether it be settlements, lost productivity or losing good employees because there is not enough trust in the company. There are new programs and systems that utilize technology to make investigations more efficient and consistent and while the cost of these programs may not already be a line item in your budget, they should be weighed against having to pay a large settlement, the cost of back filling positions of good employees who decide to leave and how much time will be saved  with an automated  process.

  1. When building your proposal, realize who your audience is and what benefits this proposed endeavor will provide for them as well as the company as a whole. Sometimes proposals are more about educating your audience. When you’re presenting to someone who has possibly never conducted an investigation, what would you like them to leave having learned? How can you speak to them, so they will understand your viewpoint? It all goes in to knowing your audience and your own goals. For example, if you’re trying to sell them on a product that streamlines investigations and the Chief Financial Officer is your roadblock, try to include statistics on the money saved by having such a product in hourly wages through automated efficiencies or simply a comparison of a past settlement to the subscription cost.
  2. Test out your proposal.

Before heading in to sell to the decision makers, try and catch one or two of them to test your proposal and adjust where necessary. Testing can give you valuable feedback on what to expect before going into a presentation. You don’t have to run through your entire proposal but if you can catch one or two people for a few minutes and give them a couple of points you feel are important to your case, they may be able to give you feedback on certain language you may want to use, or their body language can yield whether your presentation held their interest. This may also allow them to think through the proposal ahead of time so you will have at last one or two people on your side going into your presentation.

  1. Stay calm, control your presentation and utilize opportunities for further discussion.

It’s important to stay calm. If you believe in what you’re trying to sell to management, it will come across as such. You want to make sure you’re prepared with all obvious answers to questions and make sure you control the time and stay on track during your presentation. If a question is asked and you don’t have an answer, don’t panic. Just let them know you will get back to them with the information in a timely manner. That will open the door for further communication on the subject and allow you to keep the idea fresh in their minds.

If you would like a proposal template to help you prepare to present your project for budget approval, email Corie@goinvestiPro.com.

To learn more about new tools that are available to help calm the fear and chaos in workplace investigations, and make you the hero by improving your company culture while increasing liability protections, go to GoInvestiPro.com.