The widespread use of the Internet and email in the workplace has, more than ever before, left employers in the predicament of being liable for a worker's conduct.
With liability litigations amounting to multi-million dollar losses, many companies are adopting cost-effective online solutions to get staff up-to-scratch on compliance issues.
"With email there is much more of a risk than there has been previously," Brent Fisse, partner at legal firm Gilbert & Tobin, told ZDNet.
Gilbert & Tobin, in conjunction with its strategic partner Morgan & Banks, has just rolled out an expanded suite of e-learning tools designed to extend the understanding of legal risks beyond the boardroom and into the workplace.
Morgan & Banks will assist in the marketing, selling and distribution of the Gilbert & Tobin-designed Sherpa Online fleet of products. Although details of the deal are undisclosed, Fisse said the pricing model was a product license fee plus a per-employee annual charge.
When you consider that a misleading advertisement can run up AU$100,000 in penalties and half a dozen unenforceable contracts can amount to AU$300,000 in fines, it's a very cost-effective way for companies to reduce the risk of multimillion dollar disputes, according to Fisse.
"It's very easy to run up a loss," Fisse said.
Fisse pointed at defamation, sexual harassment and privacy issues as other contending opportunities for abusive employee behaviour that employers are liable for at the end of the working day.
The government's new privacy act, to be implemented mid 2001, will create a new area of potential losses, according to Fisse.
"Companies will have to gear up at the beginning of the year," Fisse said, "and programs of this kind are increasingly in use," Fisse added.
Fisse pointed to the relatively low cost of implementing this kind of training as one of the driving forces behind many company decisions to use it.
Although not marketed all that forcibly in the past, the increasing demand and recognition of the value of online learning to deliver effective training, as well as the increasing number of company liabilities due to the Internet, means there is now "quite a demand for this kind of product," Fisse said.
