Avoid High-Dollar Jury Verdicts with this One HR Risk-Avoidance Tip

As a Human Resources advocate for employers, my business is protecting small business owners from the human resources risk that comes with having even just one single employee.

One of those HR risks is what happens when an employee becomes disgruntled (either before or after he's left the company) and sues the employer. Yes, even small businesses aren't immune to high-cost employee lawsuits.

Luckily, in almost every state and locality, employers can require that their new employees sign a Mandatory Arbitration Agreement when they're first hired.

These agreements, in short, tell employees that if the day ever comes when they want to pursue legal action against their employer, their case will be heard and decided by an Arbitrator -- not a jury.

Why is that beneficial to a business owner?

Juries are generally very sympathetic to employees.?Jurors are probably all employees themselves, right??And they've probably had their own personal experience where "the boss" did them wrong.?

Employee attorneys know this … and they specialize in pulling on the jury’s heartstrings and playing on their emotions.?Big bad company vs. the poor, hard-working, unfairly treated employee … it’s a powerful plaintiff attorney story that resonates with jurors all the time.

Consciously or not, jurors can easily believe that a company that's being sued by an employee did something wrong, unfair, or illegal.?And vicariously, jurors can get their own sense of justice and power by ruling against a company and in favor of the employee with whom they sympathize.

Besides the verdict, there’s the monetary award.?Imagine money how much a pro-employee, anti-company jury will award that employee? Just last month, a jury awarded $150 million to a man suing his former employer for retaliation -- just in punitive damages alone.

A huge majority of that human resources risk is taken away when your new employee signs an Arbitration Agreement.?Employee attorneys are unenthusiastic, to say the least, about representing an employee at an Arbitration instead of a courtroom.?There’s no jury to play to.?There’s no theatrics.?There’s no giant payday for the attorney or the employee.?

Instead, the employee’s claim and the company’s defense are heard by a single Arbitrator, who ostensibly uses the law but not emotion to issue a ruling. ?And unlike juries, an Arbitrator who finds in favor of an employee will award a reasonable amount of money dictated by law and precedent.?

There’s a lot of noise right now about governments banning Arbitration Agreements in full or in part, but trust me -- making these agreements a standard part of your new hire paperwork is an advantage a company wants to avoid human resources risk.?

Are you wondering if Arbitration Agreements are right for your organization??Visit www.hrallies.com or contact me at [email protected] and we’ll talk through it together!

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