Tag Archive | Small Business
July 16, 2018  

Why Employment Practices Liability Insurance Coverage Is So Important

Quite honestly, I am floored by how many small businesses do not purchase Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI). For those who are unaware, Employment Practices Liability is coverage against claims by employees alleging that they suffered damages as a result of the employer’s discrimination, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, or various other employment-related offenses.

man in brown long sleeved button up shirt standing while using gray laptop computer on brown wooden table beside woman in gray long sleeved shirt sitting

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

When saying I am floored by how many small businesses do not purchase EPLI, I am basing that off my own experience in helping businesses with their various risk exposures and insurance needs.

I understand there’s a price tag associated with the coverage, but there’s a reason why premiums can be hefty in California for EPLI.  Statistics show businesses are more likely to face an employment claim than a property or general liability claim.

Check out these statistics:

  • The average amount paid for out of court settlement is $40,000.
  • Defense of an average EPL case, through trial, costs over $45,000.
  • The median compensatory award for EPLI cases is $218,000.
  • 67% of all employment cases that litigate result in judgment for the plaintiff.
  • 41% of all EPLI claims are brought against small employers with 15 to 100 employees.
  • Six out of ten employers have faced employee lawsuits within the last five years.
  • 91,503 charges were filed in 2016, slightly higher than the past two years.

Most importantly, buying an EPLI policy provides defense coverage in the event of a claim or suit regardless of the legitimacy of the claim. A simple allegation cannot be ignored. When you receive that summons in the mail, you cannot just throw it away. It must be addressed and defended. EPLI provides defense coverage to protect your business.

Also, when buying EPLI, you have 24/7 access to Human Resource professionals and Employment Law attorneys to consult with if you need guidance on how to address an employment issue. Carriers don’t want to pay claims, so this offering is pushed on their part to help mitigate the potential of a more serious matter.

In my opinion, Employment Practices Liability Insurance is a must for any business with employees in California. The annual premium cost will seem like pennies on the dollar compared to the cost of a claim. Don’t believe me? Take a second look at the statistics above. You should act today before it’s too late. You can’t buy a policy for an Employment Practices claim or incident that already happened.

-JK

April 30, 2018  

Free, Three-Day Webinar For Small Businesses 5/1 – 5/3

In honor of National Small Business Week, the United States Small Business Administration and the SCORE Association are hosting a three-day virtual conference on topics such as consumer behavior, discrimination, and harassment, gaining repeat business, marketing and more. The free conference for small businesses is from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day from May 1 to May 3. Click here to register.

The webinars include the following topics:

5/1/18

  • How Changing Consumer Behavior Impacts Your Business
  • Addressing Discrimination and Harassment in the Workplace
  • Get New and Repeat Business On Autopilot with Email Marketing
  • Creating and Sustaining a Strong Social Presence

5/2/18

  • The U.S. Economic Outlook and Its Impact on Small Businesses
  • Managing Your Finances in the Cloud
  • Grow Your Business in 2018
  • Simple Steps to Choosing the Right Financing

5/3/18

  • Simple Steps to Choosing the Right Financing
  • Sharing Your Story Through Video
  • Pop & Play: How Opening a Pop-Up Shop Can Help Launch Your Retail Brand
  • Fusion Marketing: The Next Generation of Marketing

-JK

February 2, 2018  

Millions Will Call In Sick After Super Bowl Sunday

Roughly 14 million Americans are expected to call in sick on Monday — making the day after the 52nd Super Bowl Sunday one of the biggest sick days of the year, according to a survey by the Workforce Institute at Kronos and Mucinex. Post-Super Bowl Monday is “notoriously known as a day where people call out of work,” with 1 in 5 Americans saying they’ve called in sick over the years. This year is expected to be down from the 16.5 million who had said they planned to call in sick last year after Super Bowl Sunday.

Source: LinkedIn

-JK

January 29, 2018  

Top 10 Employment Discrimination Charges in 2017

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced last week that 84,254 workplace discrimination charges were filed with the federal agency nationwide during 2017.

The agency handled over 540,000 calls and more than 155,000 inquiries in field offices.

The FY 2017 data show that retaliation was the most frequently filed charge filed with the agency, followed by race and disability. The agency also received 6,696 sexual harassment charges and obtained $46.3 million in monetary benefits for victims of sexual harassment.

Specifically, the charge numbers show the following breakdowns by bases alleged, in descending order:

  1. Retaliation: 41,097 (48.8 percent of all charges filed)
  2. Race: 28,528 (33.9 percent)
  3. Disability: 26,838 (31.9 percent)
  4. Sex: 25,605 (30.4 percent)
  5. Age: 18,376 (21.8 percent)
  6. National Origin: 8,299 (9.8 percent)
  7. Religion: 3,436 (4.1 percent)
  8. Color: 3,240 (3.8 percent)
  9. Equal Pay Act: 996 (1.2 percent)
  10. Genetic Information: 206 (.2 percent)

These percentages add up to more than 100 because some charges allege multiple bases.

EEOC legal staff filed 184 merits lawsuits alleging discrimination in fiscal year 2017. The lawsuits filed by the EEOC included 124 individual suits and 30 suits involving multiple victims or discriminatory policies and 30 systemic discrimination cases. At the end of the fiscal year, the EEOC had 242 cases on its active docket. The EEOC achieved a successful outcome in 90.8 percent of all suit resolutions.

My question to you, do you have Employment Practices Liability Insurance for your business?

Source: EEOC

-JK

January 16, 2018  

The Flu is Running Rampant! Don’t Let it Impact Your Business

California health officials said last week that the state’s flu season could turn out to be one of the nastiest the state has seen in the last ten years. “I was flat on my back and in bed for 10 days,” said one So Cal resident. “This has been hands down the worst flu I’ve ever dealt with.”

When someone in your household comes down with the flu, there’s a good chance others in the house will catch it too based on their exposure and close proximity. The same applies to the office or workplace.

An outbreak at the office can also seriously affect your business operations. All it takes is one infected to put others at risk and spread the virus. Fewer hands on deck could potentially impact productivity and operations.

Here are Five Tips for Business Owners to Help Reduce the Potential Spread of the Flu:

Consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for additional suggestions on preventing the flu and maintaining good health habits. The more proactive you are, the greater likelihood you’ll have in decreasing the flu exposure and maintaining your company productivity and operations.

-JK

January 12, 2018  

California State Treasurer Unrolls Business Incentives Program

Yesterday, California State Treasurer John Chiang introduced the California Business Incentives Gateway, an online resource connecting business owners and entrepreneurs with resources to help them grow, including employee training, assistance with permitting and sales tax exclusions.

The California Business Incentives Gateway (CBIG) is a tool from the State Treasurer’s Office that brings together all of the state and local business development incentives to a single access point.

See more here:

https://vimeo.com/194407478

-JK

October 16, 2017  

California has become the latest state to outlaw the ‘previous salary’ question.

California joins Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, and several cities (including San Francisco) in passing laws preventing employers from asking prospective workers for their salary history. If asked, companies must also provide a pay range for the job in question. The new law, which comes into effect January 1, aims to curb the gender pay gap by keeping low salaries from following women through their careers.

-JK

August 10, 2017  

Hackers Are Shutting Down Factories

A growing number of cyber criminals are targeting factories for ransom, knowing that the industry’s time-sensitive nature puts pressure on companies to pay up. “if we don’t make our product in time, that means Toyota doesn’t make their product in time, which means they don’t have a car to sell on the lot that next day. It’s that tight,” says John Peterson, AW North Carolina’s IT manager. The factory was hit with malware last year, with the potential to lose $270,000 in revenue, plus employee wages, for every hour it was out of commission.

Source: LinkedIn

Manufacturers: do you carry Cyber Liability / Data Breach insurance? Cyber extortion coverage protects your business against losses caused by ransomware and other types of cyber extortion. Many cyber liability policies cover three types of costs.

-JK

July 27, 2017  

The U.S. Is seeing Some of the Largest Increases in Auto Accidents in More Than 50 years…

…And commercial auto insurance rates are spiking hard as a result. Carriers are backing down on coverage and most are putting some serious restrictions on their appetites.

See Property Casualty Insurers Association of America’s (PCI) 7 summer driving safety tips:

Also, see more from Hanover on why auto insurance rates are rising so dramatically:

-JK

July 26, 2017  

Ransomware Victims Have Paid Out More Than $25 Million in Past Two Years

Ransomware victims have paid out more than $25 million in the past two years, according to a new study by Google, Chainalysis, UC San Diego and the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. The study reviewed 34 separate families and discovered that a particularly harmful strain, Locky, received more than $7 million in payments. Ransomware, which infects and locks a system until payment has been received, has become “an almost unavoidable threat” over the past few years. It’s shown to be popular amongst cybercriminals, who often demand payment in the form of bitcoin. Two ransomware attacks made earlier this year by WannaCry and NotPetya had been “deemed destructive in nature,” Forbes writes, but only received $140,000 and $10,000, respectively.

A viable solution to this sort of threat? A good Cyber Liability insurance policy will pay extortion expenses and extortion monies as a direct result of a credible cyber extortion threat. This is only one of the many areas a Cyber Liability insurance policy can help.

Cyber insurance can be essential in helping your company recover after a data breach, with costs that can include business disruption, revenue loss, equipment damages, legal fees, public relations expenses, forensic analysis and costs associated with legally mandated notifications. A lesser-known benefit of cyber insurance is the role it can play in protecting your company long before a breach occurs.

#RansomwarePayout #CyberLiability

-JK

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