What is Trust & Safety
and why do some of our clients think it’s necessary?
T & S is a new aspect of Risk Management. So new that the T & S professional Association was established only a few years ago. Clients believe they need this resource because they are becoming aware they have a legal responsibility to provide a safe environment for customers brought together through their digital platforms. Such environments are unsafe when they contain harmful, offensive and/or illegal content and especially so if individuals are behaving aggressively.
The challenge is evaluating concepts like “harmful” and “aggressive”. Also, once an individual is viewed in these terms decisions must be made about the next course of action. These are very difficult issues with few precedents. Our methodology is to help our clients develop a set of protocols, guidelines and for unusual situations; a group of internal judges to determine next steps in individual circumstances. We help the T&S team manage all this. Many of the situations are judgement calls with few industry yardsticks to help with the decisions. Our clients value a little gray hair in the process of which we, unfortunately, have plenty.
In the days before the internet and social media and a much simpler world, business’s obligations for safe environments were less challenging. Generally the focal point was physical safety. Social media has brought us way past that simple loss prevention measure of repairing cracks in the parking lot for physical safety. Besides, many business’s don’t have a physical presence to customers these days.
Mission
The ultimate theoretical goal is to provide evidence (perhaps to a jury someday) that T & S has done everything reasonable to keep everyone safe. The ultimate practical goal is to build and maintain customer trust, brand reputation and positive customer experiences. This can lead to customer loyalty, increased sales, and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.
Project methodology for building T & S team
Define team:
- Goals, responsibilities and scope
- Areas of focus such as on-line safety and employee/customer well being
- Reporting structure
- Authority and decision-making capabilities
- Record keeping requirements for dispute settlement and court room evidence
- Roles and responsibilities – ABUSE AND THREAT INTELLIGENCE are the most significant
Establish policies and guidelines for:
- Incident reporting
- Response protocols
- Conflict resolution
- Ethical conduct
- Team decisions on difficult and/or unusual cases
- Privacy standards
- Measurements & analytics to assure compliance
Training & resources:
- Enhance skills and knowledge with developing industry best practices
- Practice with scenarios that require inventive solutions and test team coping skills
- Focus on legal regulations, emerging threats and crisis management
- Provide tools and technologies that facilitate effective team performance
Collaborate with external partners:
- Industry associations (such as T & S Professional Association)
- T & S experts
- Law enforcement agencies, cybersecurity firms and other vendors
It’s important that the team have CEO support since the CEO sets the company’s values and users’ sensibilities so these are reflected in the T & S policies. Also the team should include diverse skills such as legal, HR, IT, Risk & Insurance Management, Operations, Marketing and others as appropriate.
Building a T & S team is an ongoing process. It requires a commitment to continuous improvement, adaptability to changing circumstances, and a proactive approach to mitigate risks and ensure the well-being of your enterprise and its’ stakeholders. Each client has unique T & S challenges based on the nature of the enterprise. It’s not one-size-fits all.
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Our clients have been very happy with our customized T & S solutions.
For more information please see “Build Trust and Safety Team” in the “Engagements” section
