The Allied Risk Management Program

Risk and Compliance now has a clear focus with considerable consequences for the licensees. A clear business strategy and an implementation plan is required to manage your Risk and Compliance obligations consistent with best practice principles and for operational and administrative accountability. As the licensee is now liable for the acts of employees, your front-line staff become your greatest asset and liabilities depending on their skill, understanding and management of incidents, especially the prescribed offences covered by the act.

The Allied Risk Management program is a precursor to the Duty Manager Training (Risk & Compliance) course. A clear framework of your business strategy and an implementation plan is developed to manage your Risk and Compliance underpinned by best practice principles focusing on a system of operational and administrative accountability.

It is used in preparation for the staff training component, by reviewing localisation requirements for the specific venue. It is industry specific with a comprehensive process of accountability, training and reporting that addresses inefficiencies and better manages compliance in keeping with new legislative requirements.

The Allied Risk Management program was put to scrutiny through the court system with the prosecution of Michael Lavorato, the first CEO (Campbelltown Catholic Club) to be charged under the new Liquor Laws in 2008.  The Risk Management program as described was part of the system that was established at the Campbelltown Catholic Club which Magistrate Pearce found in favour, stating “considerable amount of evidence of the procedures that have been adopted as well as the training of staff and managers”….”the club had taken all reasonable steps”. Campbelltown Catholic Club has moved from being a Category 1 venue to a Category 3, with 8 incidents last quarter.

The Allied Risk Management program has a number of platforms to consider when deciding on the framework for best practice. The review of your existing risk strategies will identify your current position and moving forward some of the decisions you will need to consider are:

  1. Identify the level of risk the venue is prepared to work with.
  2. Review the existing operating frameworks which includes:
    • Venue Management Plan
    • Alcohol Management Plan
    • Incident Management Guidelines
    • Confrontation Management Principles
    • Systemised and Structured Reporting
    • Pre / During and Post Incident Management
    • Complaints Management Guidelines

Once the structure of your strategy is defined, it is then appropriate to incorporate into the second implementation phase through the management training.

The following components can then be addressed in the Duty Manager Training Module

  1. Training of front-line staff and management to deal with incident and authorities. A clear understanding of customer and confrontation management principles and empowering the managers to take ownership and make decisions to address civil and criminal liability matters. The ability of a manager to report effectively in the right structure, context and content and clear and defined outcomes will provide the internal efficiencies and the strength of evidence required when negotiating with your licencing police or comparing BOSCAR statistics.
  2. “Coaching & Mentoring for individual managers” & Reviewing of weekly reports:
    Putting front-line staff / managers through a single or even a structured course does not provide the lifetime skills and a complete understanding or application of their legal, operational and administrative responsibilities. The weekly, review sessions are where the real learning begins and the manager is trained to present reports in a sequential, factual and analytical manner and include:

Reports are submitted and checked for structure, relevance, context, content, interpretation of procedures, appreciation of legal considerations, outcomes and recommendations the manager is trained to identify, isolate, manage and report on incidents.

Through the coaching process the manager is better able to communicate, manage, coordinate and delegate when dealing with incidents – particularly incidents that are likely to become a matter of a complaint or lead to civil or criminal liability.

Patron Management Systems:

Adding value to membership is one strategy for patron behaviour modification. Member inductions, education and citation programs all contribute to add value to membership and reduce incidents. Analytical and statistical assessment of patron behaviour, entertainment models, dress regulations or correlation thereof and reporting and reviewing of member / patron educational and enforcement strategies, create awareness and qualify the behavioural standards and expectations pre-events.

There are many other considerations to include in your Risk and Compliance Management Program, which the Director General will certainly take into consideration if the venue is subjected to Second or Third strikes under the disciplinary scheme. The Allied Risk Management program is localised to the specific venue, is industry specific with a comprehensive process of accountability, training and reporting that addresses inefficiencies and better manages compliance in keeping with the new legislative requirements.

For more information on our Risk & Compliance Training program contact us on (02) 9635 0477 or email: