Mistakes in the workplace are inevitable, but small errors can quickly snowball into costly and terrifying (hey, it’s almost Halloween) problems that affect the entire business. Fortunately, a few proactive tweaks can minimize these oversights before they send your bottom line into the abyss.
Sloppy spell-checking
There’s no such thing as too much attention to detail. A single typo can wipe out an entire business (in the case of a Welsh engineering firm). A missing Oxford comma could cost millions of dollars (in the case of a Maine dairy company). Earlier this year, an Ohio jail accidentally released an accused killer when a clerk mixed up his case number with another inmate’s. Boo!
For peace of mind, businesses can invest in copy editors or spell-checking apps like Grammarly. Errors and omissions (E&O) insurance can offer some protection, and in the medical industry, claim scrubbers will detect billing code errors before it’s too late.
Watered-down autonomy
Building a culture of collaboration and communication between teams is important, but it’s also important to keep a clear leadership structure in place.
More than 8 in 10 marketing leaders face significant “collaboration drag” when working across departments, according to a Gartner survey in May. Unclear decisions, conflicting priorities, and excessive feedback all slow down progress, hurt productivity, and bring down revenue. Make sure every employee’s role is clearly defined and communicated to all other teams.
Forgetting service renewals
In 2016, Utah telecom Sorenson Communications forgot to renew its web domain name, resulting in an accidental multiple-day shutdown of service to its customers. The FCC fined it $3 million for the oversight. (Even NFL teams and banks with 1,700 offices can make this mistake.)
Whether it’s digital or physical assets, pushing off routine maintenance can lead to unexpected breakdowns, safety issues, and expensive fixes.
Implement auto-renewals and a long-term schedule to avoid costly downtime.
Weak risk management
Hackers have recently targeted construction, plumbing, and HVAC companies “at scale” that never bothered to change the default passwords in their accounting software, according to a new report. Without proper cybersecurity safeguards like rotating passwords, multifactor authentication, or disabling risky features, businesses leave themselves vulnerable — and that’s all trick, no treat.
