Costs to Employers

How to calculate the effect on a company’s bottom line

Step 1: 

Determine who was targeted and for how long

Record the time period and all of the people involved with the bullying (both direct targets and those who witnessed the bullying).

Step 2: 

Calculate all costs involved

• Turnover

  • Replacing top notch employees (those most often bullied in the job) costs money. “Turnover costs include employer contributions to COBRA insurance for the departed worker, expenses to announce the job opening, headhunter/recruiting firm fees to recruit worthy candidates, time spent by managers and staff to meet all candidates at meetings while getting no work done, hiring bonuses/incentives, moving expenses (?), and the harder-to-calculate lost production during the entire process that must be made up by coworkers,” according to the WBI website. To determine these costs, simply multiply the combined salaries of departed workers by 1.5 (a low-ball estimate). For example, for each target earning a $50,000 salary, the recruit and replace expenses are $75,000.

• Lost opportunity

  • Bullying targets pose a threat to their bullies through jealousy. Those talented targets have value. When targets leave, the company loses. “For instance, if that person was responsible for 5 clients that produced $1.4 million in revenue, that account and that money is lost to the employer,” says the WBI website. Add in all lost revenue.

• Absenteeism

  • Targets tend to stay away from work to preserve their mental health. They often use their paid time off (sick leave, vacations, and holidays) to do so. Add the number of hours per day targets and others miss work and multiply by the hourly rate. (For salaried exempt workers, divide the annual salary by 2020 to find the hourly rate of pay.)

• Presenteeism

  • Presenteeism describes employees coming to work sick to avoid reprimand for being out. While coming into work sick is difficult to attribute cost to, employees can make others sick or simply not add value to companies anymore by becoming disengaged. The disengagement can rub off on others and create a whole staff of checked out employees. Add up the salaries of the checked out employees and cut that number in half. That’s about how much the business loses to by paying unproductive employees.

• Litigation and settlements

  • Though there aren’t laws in New York State to protect employees from workplace bullying, targets can still sue. And the business will still have to pay to respond, especially if there’s a discrimination claim.

  • If the legal defense involves internal staff, multiply their hourly fees by the number of hours spent on the case.

  • If the If the defense involves arbitration, multiply the hourly costs for all managers involved by the number of hours spent on the case.

  • If the defense involves outside legal help, add on $30,000 per lawsuit. Make it $60,000 if the case goes to court. That’s conservative.

  • If you settle to avoid huge legal costs, add on $30,000 at least.

• Workers comp and disability insurance claims

  • When you have a workers comp claim, your insurance costs go up. Add on more costs if you need to investigate the validity of a claim.: If you’re the employer, hold the bully accountable. Talk to the bully and begin the warning process with the ultimate goal of termination if the behavior does not change.

Step 3

If you are the employer…