Firms that have more than a sole practitioner should know the various federal, state, and local employment laws that are applicable to their firm. Acceptable workplace behavior has been defined by these laws and further refined through court decisions.  Design firms must be aware of their responsibilities and legal obligations. They should develop policies and guidelines that are clear and communicated to all staff members consistently. All staff should be aware of the procedures and guidelines in place both to guide their conduct in the workplace and to respond to an issue relating to workplace comfort.

 

The following guide from Schinnerer provides a good starting point for firms to manage the risks of employment practices (access limited to policyholders and brokers):

 

A workplace environment where all employees are treated fairly is critical to the long term success of any firm. The following Management Advisory from our online collection has some suggestions on how to avoid mistakes when investigating employment practices claims (access limited to policyholders and brokers): www.schinnerer.com/risk-mgmt/Documents/ManagementAdvisories/EPL-claims-mistakes.pdf