Course Description
Employment Law 101 for Managers and Supervisors
You’ll learn …
- How to spot and correct potential safety or security risks at the front desk
- Understand laws and regulations about discrimination and improper employer practices
- How to avoid wage and hour legal land mines
- Recruit, interview, hire and terminate within the law
- The legal aspects of workplace management and employee performance
- Lawfully administer and manage accommodation and leave requests
- Maintain a safe, healthy and discrimination-free workplace
- Documentation and record-keeping requirements
Employment law is not just HR’s business … it’s YOUR business!
If your responsibilities include managing and supervising people, you’re making decisions and carrying out your personnel duties in what can be a legal minefield. With a rapidly growing body of government regulations to keep track of and more workers who are concerned about their job rights—and more inclined than ever to enforce them in the courtroom—expensive legal consequences are possible at every step, whether you’re hiring, firing, disciplining, promoting, considering requests for leave or dealing with any of dozens of other employee issues.
The verdict is in …
Employment law simply isn’t a place where you can afford to take a trial-and-error, learn-as-you-go approach. The risks are just too high. And the risk isn’t only to your organization. Increasingly, managers and supervisors are being personally named in employee lawsuits—and being found liable.
That’s why we created this intensive one-day seminar—to show you where the potential for costly mistakes exists and to provide you with practical guidelines for treating employees fairly and staying out of court. You’ll get plain English explanations of key employment laws and valuable tips, guidelines and suggestions to keep you in legally safe territory when you’re making personnel decisions and interacting with workers.
Program hours: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Management Legal Zone: Laws and Regulations Governing Against Discrimination and Unlawful Employer Activities
- The impact that federal employment laws have on every single managerial decision you make
- Avoid the most common mistakes managers make that land their organization—and themselves—in court
- Identify which workers fall into protected classes
- Questions every manager must answer before dealing with any legal issue
Avoid Wage and Hour Legal Land Mines
- Correctly identify and classify exempt and nonexempt employees
- Correctly determine the difference between an employee and an independent contractor
- Understand the new FLSA overtime rules and exceptions and how they impact the way you manage employees
- Avoid wage and hour headaches: What you must know about overtime “comp” time, minimum wage and on-call time
Recruiting, Interviewing and Hiring Within the Legal Limits of the Law
- Tips for avoiding discrimination suits stemming from unfair recruitment and selection practices
- How to develop legally safe interview questions
- How to avoid making legally binding promises and implied oral contracts
- What to do when a candidate offers inappropriate information during the interview
- Ban the Box: Can you legally ask about an applicant’s past convictions?
The Legal Aspects of Workplace Management and Employee Performance
- Guidelines for conducting legally defensible performance evaluations
- Language you must use—and must avoid—when talking to an employee about a performance issue
- How to deal with poor performance and misconduct using legally safe coaching, counseling and performance improvement plans
- Documentation you must make and keep when handling disciplinary problems
Lawfully Administer and Manage Accommodation and Leave Requests
- The provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regarding employees with disabilities
- Understand your legal options when dealing with employees who abuse sick leave
- When you have to honor the request of an employee based on religious beliefs
- Medical marijuana in the workplace: Do you have to accommodate this—or not?
Maintain a Safe, Healthy and Discrimination-free Workplace
- Learn the EEOC guidelines for preventing sexual and workplace harassment
- How to lawfully handle transgender and sexual orientation issues in the workplace—and how the EEOC now treats complaints related to these
- Understand federal workplace safety and health protections employers are required to provide and enforce
- Actions you can take as a supervisor or manager to prevent lawsuits stemming from a workplace crisis, violent incident or traumatic event
Employee Privacy: Stay Within the Limits of the Law
- After-hours activities—can you monitor and influence off-duty conduct?
- What the EEOC says about drug and alcohol testing and how to do it without invading privacy rights
- The ins and outs of enforcing confidentiality and noncompete agreements
- What you can—and can’t—do when monitoring employee email, computer files, telephone calls and social media accounts
Legally Terminate Workers and Avoid Wrongful Discharge or Retaliation Charges
- The most common ways managers and supervisors bungle the firing process
- “Employment-at-will” limitations you must consider
- How to legally terminate an employee so all parties maintain dignity and respect
- What to do before, during and after terminations to avoid wrongful discharge claims
Documentation and Record-keeping Requirements
- How to accurately, legally and objectively document employee performance and disciplinary actions
- Key information every employee file should contain to safeguard you and your organization against wrongful discharge, discrimination and negligent hiring suits
- Understand federal and state statutes regarding employees’ rights to access personnel files
- Determine how long you must keep personnel records and forms
Comments
Cancelation Policy: If you cannot attend an event, you may send someone else in your place. If that isn’t an option for you, cancellations received up to five working days before the event are refundable, minus a registration service charge ($10 for one-day events; $25 for multiple-day events). After that, cancellations are subject to the entire seminar fee, which you may apply toward a future seminar. Please note that if you don’t cancel and don’t attend, you are still responsible for payment.