Key steps to avoid Management Liability
Organisations are facing more risks than ever before. With an increasingly litigious society it seems that a potential lawsuit could present itself at any moment. Whether you’re found liable or not, the time-consuming litigation process could be difficult to manage and extremely costly to defend. You can incur considerable costs just to settle matters, whether liability is admitted or not.
Employees can be one of your greatest assets. Unfortunately, they can also be one of your greatest risks. Employment related claims and lawsuits are on the rise and in recent times, there have been numerous high profile examples appearing in the headlines.
Examples of employment related risks your organisation may be exposed to;
- Prosecution as a result of a breach of Work, Health and Safety Legislation.
- Allegations of discrimination, harassment and unfair dismissal
- Vindictive past employees, using employment practices actions to ‘get even’
- Vicarious liability – you or your organisation may be held responsible for the actions of others
How to protect you and your organisation
One of the best defences from employment related lawsuits is prevention, which is guaranteed to take much less time and money than litigation and makes more sense than purchasing expensive insurance policies.
As a first step, you must adopt proper policies and procedures, ensuring to cover off on important safety issues and sensitive employment matters, such as discrimination, bullying, sexual harassment, performance management and termination.
Unfortunately, just having policies and procedures is not enough!
To reduce the risk of liability, you must train all your employees in a structured and systematic way, ensuring that they understand your processes, your policies and are clear on expectations and boundaries. Do this when they start and provide regular refresher training.
Review your induction training
We strongly recommend that you review your induction training. New cloud-based technology is now available to help streamline your inductions, fulfil your legal obligations and keep records – Effortless! This is great news for small and medium businesses that often do not have the resources larger corporations have.
TANDI, a 100% Australian owned company, is setting a very high industry standard with its well-designed and interactive online induction program, removing the variables associated with outdated face-to-face training and cumbersome paper-trails.
The training was developed in conjunction with industry representatives and a number of experts in their respective field in an effort to offer maximum liability protection for employers.
Ken Cox of Work Injury Solutions, an expert management consultant for workers’ compensation said, “It causes me endless frustration to see employers being held unnecessarily liable for the costs of work injuries when often, properly developed training material and good record keeping could have made the difference.”
Ken added “I can only imagine their frustration, believing they have fulfilled their obligations by putting systems in place and then being ‘caught out’ because of simple shortcomings in their processes. In my view, TANDI goes a long way to overcoming common system shortcomings like advising workers of their obligations, checking for understanding and “good old” record keeping.”
Want to find out more?
TANDI Online Employee Inductions makes it easy to ensure your employee training is compliant and kept up to date. This product is affordable and accessible to all Australian businesses.
To find out more, visit the TANDI website or call us on 07 4050 3810
