Stop By The Rochester Farmers Market This Saturday!!!

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Farmers market with lots of canopies and plants

This weekend if you are in the Rochester area make sure you checkout the Downtown Rochester Farmers Market this Saturday beginning at 8am. The Market is located on the corner of E. Third & Water Street. The market is a place where friends and family can gather and enjoy the freshest locally grown Michigan made products. Coming up on its 22nd year the Farmers Market is a frequent and popular destination of locals and tourists alike. Stop by and enjoy the vibrant colors, aromas, and flavors of southeast Michigan’s growing season. Some of the exciting vendors you will find at the market include, The cheese lady, which is located in Rochester and offers up over 150 artisan cheeses from all over the world. The Little donut factory which serves hot and fresh donuts straight off the truck. These donuts come in a plain or coated in sugar with your choice of drizzle for each. Mackinac Fishmongers which serves up fresh fish products caught from the straits of Mackinac. One of my personal favorites on the list include Uncle Peter’s Pasties, this is a family owned pastries company that’s a family recipe that has been passed down for generations. All their pasties are ¾ pounds and made with free range, grass fed, antibiotic, and hormone free. All the vendors listed will be at the market on Saturday along with many others to choose from. So if you feel like stopping by and enjoying some great fresh food along with some great people go to the Rochester Farmer market this Saturday from 8am through 1pm.

 

Guidance for Bringing Workers Back to the Workplace

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man and woman sitting at desk with masks on in the workplace

As you may know, Governor Gretchen Whitmer rolled back most of Michigan’s COVID restrictions regarding indoor/outdoor capacity, wearing masks, and gathering with others.

This means that some businesses will be putting a plan in place of how to get their employees back to the workplace.

If you’re trying to figure out tasks such as what you’ll need to do to get your business ready for these new changes or how you’ll get new and old employees available to work, we have some guidance for you, courtesy of our partners at Cincinnati Insurance Company.

Our partners at Cincinnati Insurance Company have broken down these business reopening and business continuation tips based on operations, property, fleet, workers’ compensation, liability, and product liability. Feel free to adjust this accordingly to your own plan.

Business Operations

  • Establish a team that will review property, fleet, workers’ compensation, liability and product liability standings for risk management and safety concerns. You can have team members that include senior management, operations or production management, fleet and employee safety specialists, risk managers and human resources personnel. Please be sure to pick team members who will be responsible for managing an area of risk for your organization. If you’re planning for restarting operations, conduct a pre-opening meeting prior to reopening to assure each area of risk has been addressed.
  • Determine the demand for your company’s products or services by contacting your customers. Based on potential demand, evaluate your current inventory and resources. If additional materials or supplies are needed, contact your suppliers to discuss their ability to provide goods. Be sure to research alternatives where there may be shortages.

Property

  • Check that all your fire protection systems are up to date for inspection, testing and maintenance.
  • Ensure that special hazard controls, such as commercial cooking fire protection and spray areas, have been addressed and are active.
  • Evaluate your inventory and supplies to ensure there is not a surplus that could compromise suppression systems.
  • If you’re reopening, use the time before you restart to clean the premises and evaluate overall housekeeping.

 For Fleet:

  • Ensure your vehicles are ready for business. Complete inspections and perform needed maintenance and repairs.
  • Evaluate your current hiring, training and driver monitoring practices, especially if you’ll need to hire additional drivers. Adjust your practices as necessary.
  • Consider adding telematics, in-cab cameras or other fleet safety and management systems.
  • Check to see if your fleet operations are compliant with state and federal regulations.

Workers’ Compensation

  • Stay in contact with idled employees and determine who will be coming back to the workplace. Consider temporary agencies, if necessary, for staffing.
  • Reevaluate recruiting, screening, hiring and orientation practices if new employees will be hired. Adjust these practices as necessary.
  • Review your workplace safety and health policies and procedures to ensure programs are up to date and that they include communication and training.
  • Evaluate your start-up procedures to ensure equipment is ready to go and safety features are in place and functioning properly.
  • Follow all federal, local and state requirements for preventing the future spread of COVID in the workplace. Develop a plan to meet social distancing requirements, personal protective equipment needs and sanitation before staff returns. (Private businesses may still require certain safety precautions to be in place even with restrictions lifted).

 Liability

  • Conduct walk-throughs of buildings and grounds to ensure satisfactory and defect-free conditions. Make repairs as necessary to ensure public safety.
  • Consider standards for social distancing for customers and employees. Provide and require personal protective equipment as necessary, including gloves, masks and hand sanitizer.
  • Incorporate the latest standards for disinfection and sanitization of the work environment and customer accessible areas to ensure employee and customer safety.
  • Bring employees back in a non-discriminatory manner. For example, use seniority or job-specific criteria, not age, sex or race.
  • Get contractual agreements from any new relationships reviewed by your legal counsel.

Product Liability

  • Reach out to your independent insurance agent if you are considering any change in operations – before changing operations – to ensure proper coverages are put in place before beginning new operations.
  • Evaluate any changes in your products or services and the need for modifications to design processes and quality assurance.
  • Provide complete recordkeeping for suppliers, materials, product identification and tracking for new products.
  • Ensure any new product labels, warnings and instructions comply with American National Standards Institute standards.

If you have any questions regarding any of these guidance tips, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We will be glad to help!

Allied Insurance Managers Receives Best of Rochester Hills Award

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Best of 2021 Rochester Hills - Insurance Agency

Rochester Hills, MI— Allied Insurance Managers, Inc. has been selected as the Winner for the 2021 Best of Rochester Hills Awards in the category of Insurance Agency.

The Rochester Hills Award Program was created to honor and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of businesses and organizations in and around Rochester Hills.

The Rochester Hills Award Program’s mission is to raise the profile of exemplary companies and entrepreneurs among the press, the business community, and the general public.