Announcing the Risk Surveyor

Quite a number of people have been wondering about what I do, so I thought entries about what I do on the job could be somewhat educational. I like what I'm doing so far, the pay is not that great but I'm thankful for where I am and the events that led me here. Guess it goes without saying that there'll be exciting days up ahead.

Taken from www.prospects.ac.uk,

Job Description

Insurance risk surveyors, also known as risk consultants, risk control surveyors and risk control advisers, work for general insurance companies, brokers, or firms of specialist surveyors. Their main role is to advise about risk, based on technical knowledge and good practice.

Surveyors undertake detailed risk surveys of the property/site to be insured and advise clients and insurance underwriters about appropriate improvements to reduce the risk. This involves visiting a wide variety of locations and businesses from retail outlets to large-scale petrochemical plants and producing detailed reports, which help inform underwriters about the acceptability and quality of a particular risk.

(I was told that risk surveying started in the UK and that a document detailing the job description was kept at one of the museums in the UK)

So what do we actually do?

Surveyors spend about half of their time visiting clients and conducting detailed surveys of the sites to be insured(which means I get to travel often, yay!). They often specialize in specific areas, such as:

• property;
• business interruption;
• crime;
• liability;
• fire protection systems.

Surveyors specializing in property assess the risks associated with fire, explosion, storms, flooding and malicious damage to a building and/or contents based on the processes and activities that take place and other features specific to the location. Surveyors specializing in liability assess the risks to which employers or other individuals are exposed based on the processes and activities that take place (I get to a certified busybody, poking my nose into other people's businesses, literally)

All surveyors are expected to be competent in the main areas listed above, but may take on the support of specialists for complex cases, for example those that showed a heavy liability risk.

Typical work activities involve:

• collating and assessing risk information on site;
• using templates to record assessments and collecting photographic evidence;
• preparing and proofreading detailed reports, either on site, at home or in the office (reports include recommendations to the underwriter, e.g. additional fire exits, installation or replacement of sprinkler systems or burglar alarms, health and safety improvements, installation of CCTV cameras, etc) (knowing how preventative systems work ain't such a bad thing)
  
• advising clients on site and discussing with them opportunities and requirements to improve the level of risk, or persuading them of the need for risk improvement programmes;
• allocating quality grades to the client once improvements have been completed;
• accompanying underwriters on site visits to help with their training and development;
• liaising with other professionals, e.g. underwriters, brokers, client representatives, inspectors of health and safety and fire officers;
• keeping up to date with technical aspects affecting risks, e.g. trade processes, legislation, hazardous materials (that means lots of reading)
  

As of April I'll be 'graduating' from just tagging along with my seniors for surveys and I'll be granted permission to conduct surveys on my own. Excited and nervous at the same time, I'm still doubting my capabilities. I'll be making my first outstation trip this week too! All the way up north to Sungai Petani, Kedah. I'd most probably make like a tourist and be snap-happy with my camera.

I've completed and submitted a report I was doing for WWF - the Wildlife Fund, not the wrestling one!. I reckon I'd still have to do some amendments when the feedbacks come in but at least the bulk of it is done and I'm just plain glad. It was tiring but it was well worth it. It was very eye opening and educational to say the least. To celebrate I had a blast over the weekend. I finally had free time to go paint the town red. I was hoping to go for a swim but the weather kept me from doing so. It has been raining every evening for the past week or so.

Looking forward to an exciting month!