Zurich reveals platform to shield organizations from toxic work culture

The new Work Shield platform includes a secure working tool for individuals to confidentially report concerns directly to Work Shield via mobile, desktop, or human-controlled call centre. It features impartial investigations conducted by Work Shield’s nationwide team of trained professionals and quick and unbiased resolution recommendations delivered in an average of five days or less.

The platform also provides real-time culture data and analytics to keep clients up-to-date with trends, patterns, and cultural insights based on specific and industrywide factors.

Research from MIT has shown that toxic work culture is ten times more likely to impact turnover than compensation, with researchers defining toxic cultures as workplaces lacking commitment to DEI, or where workers felt disrespected or observed unethical behaviour.

“Recoveries in Title VII-based lawsuits are at all-time highs…,” said Julia Oltmanns, director of workplace DEI services in ZRS in North America. “Corporations need solutions and guidance when it comes to assessing and enhancing their DEI practices and policies while also ensuring toxicity is removed from their culture and risks are mitigated earlier, not after, a claim has been raised.”

Part of ZRS’ commitment to helping organizations address ESG initiatives is attention to the social aspect of human capital considerations. By implementing the Work Shield platform, an organization can immediately improve its own governance criteria.

The Work Shield service is a step toward fulfilling governance metrics tied to management controls and oversight and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission standards (e.g. external, third-party investigations). Its ability to provide real-time data on these metrics can help organizations meet and exceed forthcoming ESG requirements.