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Employer Legal Risk Management

        On any given day, an employer faces innumerable legal risks from employee related claims. Employers cannot be everywhere, all the time, every minute, and there simply are some situations that an employer cannot control. When an employee relations crisis or complaint occurs, ELDI offers comprehensive investigation, counseling, and training services to effectively resolve the situation and minimize risk. ELDI does not just give employers “legal advice.”

        ELDI works with you to determine specific, practical solutions based upon the way your business works so that you can get back to work. Whether your company is just starting the journey to HR compliance, wants a policy overhaul, or has policies in place but wants an “outsider” to investigate a particularly sensitive complaint, ELDI will work with you. ELDI does not take a “one size fits all” approach and understands that the same policies do not work for every company.

        ELDI’s goal is to help employers develop legally compliant policies, minimize risk of exposure to employment related claims, and put employers in a strong position to defend the employer’s policies and actions when needed.

       ELDI offers a full suite of services to help employers prevent claims, mitigate potential exposure, and defend themselves in the event of litigation:

PREVENTIVE/POLICY COMPLIANCE SERVICES:

  • Background Checks
  • Drug and Alcohol Testing
  • Employee Confidentiality Agreements
  • Data Protection Policies
  • Employment Eligibility Verification
  • Employee Overtime Eligibility
  • Employee Handbooks
  • Workforce Training
    • Anti-harassment and discrimination
    • Confidentiality
    • Social media conduct

Human Resources Training

  • Management of disability/medical issues with employees
  • FMLA compliance
  • Training new or newly promoted Human Resources professionals on how to spot, investigate, and eradicate harassment and discrimination in the workplace
  • Best practices, including documentation of personnel issues for protection of the employer

Management/Supervisory Training

  • Training for executives who “by default” become the Human Resources person but whom do not have specific Human Resources training or experience
  • Training on obligations of supervisors to spot, report, and eradicate harassment and discrimination in the workplace
  • Training on supervisory skills, including providing consistent constructive criticism about objective work performance while protecting against hostile work environment claims

MITIGATING RISK OF CLAIMS/LEGAL EXPOSURE

Workplace Investigations

  • ELDI can investigate claims made by employees of harassment, discrimination, failure to accommodate a disability, hostile work environment, etc. ELDI will review background materials, interview parties involved and witnesses, prepare an investigation memorandum summarizing the evidence discovered during the investigation, and consult with management to determine the disciplinary consequences of the investigation.
  • When a claim involves an executive or high profile employee, ELDI’s investigation helps employers prove that the employer took the claim seriously and brought in an outside investigator to conduct an objective, unbiased investigation. By not involving more company employees than necessary in a claim involving a high profile employee, ELDI protects the privacy of all parties as much as possible.
  • ELDI can guide Human Resources and managers through the investigation process in order to avoid perceptions of bias, failure to investigate, and failure to follow policy.

Dispute Resolution

  • When employees or managers simply cannot get along, ELDI can be used as a third party to enable employers or managers to learn and understand others’ positions and help create a means for employees or managers to work together.
  • As a third party coming from outside of the business, ELDI can provide a forum for employees to voice concerns and then work with both sides of a dispute to formulate a way for employees to work together, increase productivity, and avoid legal exposure for the employer.

Employee Counseling, Discipline, and Termination

  • ELDI can meet with employees to counsel them on the results of an investigation or other workplace issues such as insubordination, inappropriate or disruptive workplace conduct, lateness, or other employee conduct issues. Particularly with small companies, ELDI can serve as an outside observer and work with the employer to counsel employees where the employer or direct supervisor might not otherwise feel comfortable confronting an employee.
  • ELDI can meet with employees to impose discipline in situations where an employer does not want to do so out of security concerns, morale concerns, or where the supervisor or HR professional at the employer’s office is not comfortable imposing discipline and may be concerned about potential liability. ELDI will deal with the employee and document how the discipline was handled.
  • No employer wants to terminate an employee, and no matter how many times an employer conducts a termination, employers often are not comfortable doing so. ELDI handles employee terminations, whether ELDI handled an underlying investigation or the employer simply is concerned about the employee’s reaction and wants a third party to communicate the termination decision. ELDI can handle the actual termination or can consult with the employer regarding how to conduct the termination and prepare related documentation.

Litigation Defense

  • No one can provide a “bullet proof shield” to protect an employer from all claims but if sued, an employer can count on ELDI to help the employer mount a vigorous defense and protect its rights.
  • ELDI defends litigation in state and federal agencies across the country, state and federal court in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and private arbitration proceedings.
  • ELDI uses the prevention, counseling, discipline, and other parts of its employer protection system to provide an aggressive defense of employers and protect both the employers’ and other employees’ rights.
  • If ELDI conducted a workplace investigation for an employer, ELDI can serve as a witness to the steps that the employer took to investigate and resolve an employee complaint.