NASHVILLE, Tenn.—For a risk manager, demonstrating and communicating risk management's value to others in the organization and making sure risk management is viewed in a favorable light can be essential to achieving the risk management mission.

According to a moderator of a session focused on demonstrating the value of risk management at the Public Risk Management Assn.'s annual conference, held this month in Nashville, Tenn., the profession can be especially important in budget-challenged times.

“These days, it's all about proving your worth,” said Mark Walls, vp-claims at Safety National Casualty Corp. in St. Louis.

Panelist Abbie Hudgens, workers compensation administrator in the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, said it's important that the risk manager understand the goals and missions of the organization, because the focus of risk management is on identifying and controlling things that could interfere with that mission.

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Another panelist, Sandra Bodensteiner, claims manager for the city of St. Paul, Minn., Office of Human Resources, suggested one place to start in demonstrating risk management's value is trying to align risk management's goals with every department's objectives and those of every level of management in the organization, from the ground up.

“If you have the people you're working with with you, you can actually find out what their needs are and you can become a resource to them,” Ms. Bodensteiner said.

Several members of the panel stressed the value of employing others in the organization and the community in the risk management effort.

“You cannot be everywhere at once,” said Marilyn L. Rivers, director of risk and safety of the City of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The strength of any risk management analysis relies on all of the people in the field, she said, adding, “They're all your eyes and ears out there that are helping you identify the strengths and the weaknesses.”

Ms. Rivers chairs a 19-member multidisciplinary safety committee in Saratoga Springs that meets monthly. With such team efforts, risk management has been woven so tightly into the fabric of the city's organization “that there's not even a second thought about involving risk management” in various departments' plans, she said.

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Panelist Betty P. Coulter, director of risk management and insurance, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, offered some suggestions for risk managers looking to build teams within their organizations. “The key thing about a team is find those who are engaged, those who want to make the workplace safer, those who want to go home the same way they came in, those who want to add value,” she said.

When risk managers develop those team relationships, they can find out more about their organizations and begin to build trust, Ms. Coulter said. “What you find is you become so ingrained in your organization that you become invaluable,” she said.

While risk managers often think about documents like annual reports when they think about communicating risk management's message and accomplishments, Ms. Hudgens said it's important to be aware of the value of the little messages risk management is sending every day. “These small messages...these messages probably do more to sell your program than any big document you put out,” she said.

And when discussing risk management subjects with others in the organization or community, it's important to “keep it simple,” some panelists noted.

“Speak in simple terms, avoid a lot of acronyms if you're able to do that,” Ms. Coulter said. “And, of course, relationships matter. No matter who it is in your organization, make them feel valuable.”

In another PRIMA conference session examining the human side of risk management, panelist Victoria Nolan, risk and benefits manager of Clean Water Services in Hillsboro, Ore., noted the importance of risk managers understanding and enhancing risk management's reputation in their organizations.

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“It's important that you tap into knowing where you are in your organization,” Ms. Nolan said. If risk management is viewed as an impediment, people will tune the department out, she said. It's far better in terms of accomplishing risk management's mission to be viewed as helpful and resourceful “problem solvers.”

“If people don't know what you do, that's not a good thing,” Ms. Nolan said. “You want to be in the main office if you can. You want to be where the hub of activity is.”

Communication is an important place to start to enhance risk management's reputation in an organization, Ms. Nolan said, though it's important to be aware of differences in communication styles. “It's the communication, but it's also the style that you deliver the communications that can create problems for you,” she said.

The conflict comes when one party's communications style is the opposite of the other party's, she said, so a risk manager wants to be assertive in communications while understanding other people's communications styles.

Another panelist in that session, Eva LaBonte, risk and benefits analyst with Clean Water Services, noted that strong risk management departments communicate their vision and goals; respond to problems and questions; involve employees as part of any risk assessment, loss prevention or implementation process; and care about employees as individuals.

And, she said, risk managers that invest in employee engagement see a higher ratio of workers willing to engage in safe work practices. “You want to make everyone a risk professional,” Ms. LaBonte said. “You want people to find a way to use their natural concern for themselves to listen to what you have to say.”