Why Preventing Lawsuits Is
Important
"It will not injure you to know enough of the law to keep out of it." Any company or organization has only a finite amount of resources with which to manage and grow their company. In
today’s hyper-competitive economy, a company can ill afford unnecessary risk
management exposures. Employee lawsuits
are not only expensive, they are time consuming, emotionally draining and can
beget even more employee lawsuits.
Defending against even a frivolous claim can cost tens of thousands of
dollars. Defending against a legitimate claim can cost hundreds of thousands
of dollars in legal fees alone. When
you add to this fact, the “average” employment law verdict exceeds two
hundred thousand dollars and punitive damage awards are commonplace, you quickly have the formula for a risk
management nightmare! Preventing
employee lawsuits is also important because it evidences good employee
relations. More often than not, an
employee lawsuit is the result of a poor hiring or promotional decision. You may hire without using a powerful hiring
system and find yourself with someone who lacks the skills or character
necessary to be trustworthy. Then, when
you call them on their performance, they will be quick to blame someone else
for their circumstances. Not surprisingly,
when you let them go, they are equally quick to file a lawsuit. Similarly, you may promote excellent rank
and file workers into management positions without any managerial
training. This too is a formula for
employee lawsuits and non-productivity. Much of what makes you “an employer of choice” has to do with your image in the
community. Employee lawsuits can
tarnish that image, even when lacking merit.
While your case may not garner the publicity afforded a Coke, Texaco or
Mitsubishi, you can rest assure that any such publicity is damaging. The last thing you need
is workplace dramas spilling out into the courtroom. Nobody publishes more content than lawyers and bureaucrats. As a result, there is an over abundance of compliance information. This makes it difficult for the entrepreneurial or mid-sized employer to
discern which exposures they should focus on and what strategies and tools they
should employ. Statistics reveal the strategies and tools offered companies today
have done little to prevent the filing of disastrous employee lawsuits. The fact is, traditional thinking in this area simply
won’t do.
Seven Reasons Why
Employers Lose In Court |