Published by QBE
LIABILITY CONCERNS INCREASE FOR 1 IN 3 SENIOR LEADERS WHO WORRY ACTIONS TAKEN DURING THE PANDEMIC COULD COME BACK TO BITE THEM
The research, which surveyed 500 senior decision makers in the UK, also revealed that of those that have already had claims made against them in the past five years 72% of these claims occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thinking about the past 18 months, almost half (48%) of UK respondents feel their personal liability within their role has increased. This was found to be particularly relevant for those working for larger organisations, with 62% expressing liability concerns.
Geoff de Mallet Morgan, Head of Financial Lines for QBE International, said: “There are plenty of instances where senior leaders are making high-profile decisions in times of significant stress with access to incomplete information. It isn’t surprising therefore that those we surveyed are worried about claims as a result of actions they have taken since March 2020. Particularly given that they have needed to adapt to an unprecedented work environment which opened up increasing risks around employee wellbeing and cyber security while simultaneously dealing with concerns around financial stability of the business.”
23% of respondents said that they felt like there was a greater emphasis on senior management’s accountability than in the past. Of those respondents who have recently had claims made against them, the most common reasons were related to technology and digitalisation (22%), financial (16%) and health and safety (15%).
7 in 10 expressed concerns that the pandemic had negatively impacted the risk profile of their organisations. 38% of overall respondents said the pandemic has increased their financial/economic risks, and the same proportion said it has increased concerns around employee health and safety when in the normal working environment (38%). 1 in 4 cited an increased cybersecurity or data breach risk as a significant external factor which was negatively impacting their corporate risk profile.
Respondents said that they were most concerned about experiencing a business issue as a result of action the company took during the pandemic (30%), followed by a cyber-attack/data breach (27%) and regulation changes (23%). This was closely followed by concerns around financial turmoil, health and safety, and competition and profitability – all with 22% of respondents highlighting these as potential issues.
Geoff continued: “Senior leaders are increasingly being held to account when a business issue arises and, as a result, there is a natural evolution where the decisions they made during the pandemic are subject to retrospective review and may well lead to claims. This also builds upon recent trends we have seen in social inflation where strong opinions on the performance and decision making of senior leaders manifest in them increasingly being held personally accountable for their actions.”