How do you handle this employee issue?

Interesting question for Human Resource Professionals – an employee comes to you and states he/she is afraid for their life.   The reason – when he/she goes on business trips to different sites with his/her immediate boss and their bosses, the employee is scared for their well being because of the boss’ distracted driving and bad driving habits.

Sound far fetched?  http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_15120198?source=commented-lifestyle   I would be concerned the employee is going to an advice column vs. their employer!

How does an HR professional handle this?   To start, it is not just fleets which require fleet driver training.   Any company that has employees who drive, either rental cars or company cars, should have some form of a corporate driver training program.  DefensiveDriving.com has an online driver safety program which can be used for Fleet Driver Training or for corporate driver training.   Our driver programs provide a company the opportunity to provide training in an online format, to track progress of the training program and to do so at their convenience, so the employer has emphasized the need for safety while driving company vehicles or on company time and the employee feels while they are a passenger, their safety is important.

Distracted driving is not just a problem for individuals, it is a problem for companies.   Any employees driving ever use a GPS system because they are driving in a new city – is that distracted driving?  Have you ever driven the wrong way on a one way because your Garmin told you to?

Now imagine the employee driving the other employee, the driver is the boss and the passenger the subordinate, who expresses a concern to HR, the concern is documented and the supervisor later has an accident with a different employee and that different employee is hurt.   What liability does the company have for the employee driving?  Is the company negligent if they did not take some form of corrective action?   How many of your employees or coworkers are “scared stiff” by their bosses driving behavior but are afraid to say something for fear of impacting their annual review?

How much is a corporate driver training program worth?