Most businesses are aware of the impact of an injured worker, automobile accident, fire, or flood. In fact, most also have practices and processes in place to minimize or prevent these accidents. These investments typically include safety committees, telematics, and fire suppression systems. While we do still see this type of accident daily, and regrettably some include injuries to employees and many include a financial impact, most companies are able to continue operating, with little or no long-term impact to company culture or brand.
These dynamics change, however, when we consider claims related to specialty areas such as employment practices, directors and officers liability, and cyber security. Jeanine Loomis, SVP at RT Specialty, LLC joins us this month on ilume to discuss two of the different dynamics – the impact of these risks on your business and the risk management techniques that are critical to decrease the likelihood of these claims.
In terms of risk management, we don’t often see the same investments as we do for workers compensation or automobile. How frequently do you review your hiring practices? Do you have written job descriptions? Do you have consistent employee policies, and do you consistently enforce them? Do you include multi-factor authentication on all internal systems? How do you manage your data back-ups?
After considering your risk management practices in these areas versus other risks, it is time to consider the impact of these claims on your culture and brand. During FY 2018, the EEOC resolved over 90,000 claims related to employee discrimination and over 40% of those were filed against private businesses with less than 100 employees. How would your other employees react to a discrimination claim against your business? How would this impact your ability to attract and retain key people? What would your customers think? How long could your business function without access to any of your data or systems?
Listen to our discussion with Jeanine and learn more about these risks, the devastating impact claims can have on your business, and ways that you can prevent them.