How EPLI Protects Your Business

When you think of keeping your workplace safe, you probably think of goggles and gloves, or secure computer passwords. But there’s another way you can make sure your company is protected: with EPLI. 

EPLI stands for employment practices liability insurance. It covers employment-related lawsuits, like discrimination or sexual harassment, for your entire company. Hastings Mutual offers tools to help manage EPLI information, including a legal expert specialized in employment-related issues, and information you can customize for your company’s specific situation.

Situations where EPLI coverage might apply can involve many different parts of your business. Make sure your company has some basic practices in place to reduce your risk of liability.

• Create effective hiring and screening programs to avoid discrimination in recruitment.
• Document everything that occurs when there’s an employment dispute and the steps your company is taking to prevent and solve conflicts between workers.
• Post corporate policies throughout the workplace and place them in employee handbooks so policies are clear to everyone.
• Show employees what steps to take if they are the object of sexual harassment or discrimination by a supervisor. Make sure supervisors know where the company stands on the behaviors that are not permissible.

Many companies feel “like families,” but employees can and do sue their employers for many different reasons. Laws and regulations can change at any time, and the cost of going to court after a claim can be $10,000 or more — a real hardship for a small business.