Vindictive Employee? Protecting Your Clients, Your Business And You

After a year of hard work, your small business has finally taken off. You’re getting terrific reviews on customer appreciation sites, you’re starting to turn a profit and everyone in the office seems happy. The keyword there being seems. In the excitement to get your business staffed, vetting your interviewees was put on the back burner. You happily hired anyone who seemed as eager and optimistic about the business as you. While hiring someone based on their positivity about the position isn’t a bad thing, it’s not a foolproof hiring practice.

Throughout the year, there’s been one employee who just hasn’t met their potential. After having numerous talks with said staffer, you’ve decided to let them go. Thinking the exit interview went well, you head out for a meeting with an investor, but your newly fired employee stays back and seeks their revenge. They release your businesses and clients confidential email, and write an op-ed piece that quickly goes viral. If you had had business insurance, this embarrassment could all have been avoided.

Keep reading to learn how to protect your business and then browse competitive business insurance quotes with CoverHound.

Company Culture

To keep your employees feeling valued and appreciated, Entrepreneur Magazine suggests two things: treating your employees with respect and compassion, and establishing a company code of conduct. In creating an office environment built on mutual respect, developing and implementing a code of conduct will help you and your employees learn what is and is not accepted behavior in the office. This would include discussing private company intelligence and sharing confidential client/customer information with the public, whether in person, online or in some other form of communication. By having all employees sign the code of conduct, if any one of them should break the contract, they are responsible for the security breach.

It’s hard to imagine that anyone would want to willingly damage the reputation of their employer. We’re taught from a young age not to burn our bridges; we never know when we’re going to need to cross that bridge again in the future. If we need a reference, angering our employer certainly isn’t going to help us land that next job.

To protect against a rogue employee, the most important thing a small business owner can do is get business insurance. So, in what instances would business insurance protect the small business owner? Let’s have a look, shall we?

Cyber Security Hack

Unfortunately, not everyone maintains the same level of integrity and honor, and because of this, we have to take extra measures to protect ourselves. A business insurance policy with a cyber security provision will protect you and your businesses assets should an employee release private information. This provision will finance monetary loss and compensate the company for litigation fees.

Negligible Advice Giving

If your small business practices advice giving, such as in accounting, medicine or litigation, there is a likely chance that an employee will sue your company for giving poor advice. For example, let say you run a private medical practice. One of your new hires told a patient that his mole is benign, without having taken the proper tests. Later, you learn said patient’s mole was cancerous, and they are suing you for malpractice. Because of one employee’s laziness, your practice could fall apart. Professional Liability Insurance (included in the Business Owner’s Policy umbrella package) will cover in the event that a client sues you, paying for litigation, legal fees and loss of income.

You can never be too safe when protecting your small business. Find your small business insurance quotes at CoverHound today.