Employees are a business’s best asset, but they can also carry a business’s highest risk. Employees are human and have good days and bad days. Sometimes those bad days can turn into weeks or months, and can wreak havoc on company culture and erode trust, communication and morale.

No organization is immune to conflict. Workplace disputes can range from small disagreements to protracted disruptions. What sets an organization apart is how the situation is handled. Quickly and successfully de-escalating a conflict can prevent the potential loss of work time, expensive lawsuits, and/or having to terminate employees.

If you hire the right employees, they will be productive, right? If you just pay my employees enough, they will do great work, right? If you have a great company culture, your employees will flourish all on their own, right? Wrong.

In 2015, the Census Bureau reported that 99 percent of the six million U.S. registered firms were small businesses with 500 or less employees. These small firms were the most vulnerable to crises, disasters and lawsuits.