Are You Protected? 3 Workplace Policies You Should Have in Place
Been sued lately? No? Well, just wait, because in our highly litigious society, some disgruntled employee, former employee or even vendor or office visitor will soon enough serve your company with a lawsuit.
To help protect your company, there are several workplace policies you should have in place. They actually are numerous and broadly cover the categories of social media, retaliation, wages, confidentiality, and data protection. (You’ll want several policies for each category.)
We feel that three of those categories are more critical than the others. They are retaliation, social media, and data protection:
Retaliation. This is a biggie because the amount of money you may have to pay if you lose the suit could run into multiple millions of dollars because you could be required to pony up very large punitive damages. Retaliation lawsuits tend to come from sexual harassment or illegal discrimination.
Social Media. A disgruntled current or former employee posting on your social media sites can be a disaster for your company’s reputation. Employees who post inappropriate material on your website – a potential disaster. Employees spending too much time on their personal social media sites and not enough time on their duties – hello loss of productivity!
Data Protection. It’s absolutely critical today to protect the personal data of your customers, employees and vendors. Privacy concerns are rampant – and rightly so due to the incredible talent hackers have been showcasing as they breach companies’ databases.
Tips for constructing workplace policies:
- Aim to strike a balance between overly broad wording and policies that are too restrictive. Be sure not to create a policy so open that employees are confused or so restrictive that no one can follow it.
- Make sure employees sign a document that says they’ve read and understand the policies.
- Train your company’s supervisors on how to spot policy violations and how to enforce and administer them – and discipline employees who violate the policies.
What types of policies do you have at your insurance firm or company? Do you feel you need to make them more restrictive or less? What policies do you feel your company needs to implement – or excise?
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