WHAT?  Yes, HR is really Risk Management.

Take a minute to jot down all the areas of liability that you can think of when running a club.  Finished?  Now, how many of those liabilities would exist if you did not have employees?  None.

Workers’ Compensation; Employers’ Liability; General Liability; Employment Practices Liability; Property loss; theft; etc.  Most employers only think of workers’ compensation when they think of liabilities related to employees.  Let’s open our eye a bit and explore where other liabilities come from:

Sure, if an employee is injured in the course and scope of employment, the employer knows they have the liability through exclusive remedy (Florida and many other states) to provide medical care and indemnity benefits. Did you know that under certain circumstances the Employer can be held liable at a higher level for illness or injury to an employee?  This is not even considering if the employer is found negligent in providing a safe workplace under the “General Duty Clause” of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

What happens if an employee causes injury or property damage to a patron:  spills hot soup on the diner; hits a golf ball into a golfer; runs a golf cart over a golf bag; or any number of circumstances that can lead to bodily injury or property damage of a member, guest, visitor or member of the public.  If this is the case, the employee has just caused a situation where the employer can be held responsible for damages. 

Unlawful discharge, negligent hiring, sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, disability discrimination, unpaid overtime, and more are all work place occurrences - intentional or unintentional - where remedy is sought through filing a complaint with a government agency and legal counsel.  The employment landscape is fraught with pitfalls. 

So, what are you going to do – just chalk it up to the cost of doing business?  Certainly not!  As an employer you have to arm yourself with knowledge, tools and trained managers.  The people in charge of the staff have to understand the full employment life cycle, the pitfalls associated with each milestone, and how to avoid the pitfalls.  As an employer, if you do not have a risk management savvy human resources manager, then you probably have many unrealized exposures.  Avoiding loss is actually gaining profit.

In short, we need to take off the blinders and put on the risk management perspective when dealing with employees.

Susan Collins is a Risk Management and Human Resources professional with over 25 years of experience managing the risk of having employees.