This session uses actual ‘hard to believe’ employment law cases and EEOC settlements to teach what NOT to do. Staying out of court is not so much about legal compliance as it is about better HR decision-making.

Highlights:

• Illegal discrimination
• Retaliation and Whistleblowing
• Sexual Harassment
• Equal Pay
• Unconscious Bias
• HR Freakonomics…by the Numbers

Good business decision-making usually means gathering information from various resources, assessing the risks versus the rewards, trusting instincts based on experience and then making the call-except in HR, where legal compliance relegates us to that ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ space. Good legal advice is important, but don’t let the attorney be the loudest voice in the room.

Highlights:

• Don’t do stupid…analysis of actual EEOC court cases.
• Who is protected?
• Aren’t we an ‘at-will’ state?
• Discrimination by the numbers
• Termination checklist
• FLSA…Exempt from what?
• Wage & Hour risk assessment

You may have heard the old expression, “Hire slow, fire fast.” The updated version is, “Hire fast, fire fast.” This doesn’t mean you’ll always make the offer at the first interview. But you should be so well prepared you could!

I’m constantly looking for that ‘one’ question that might make a difference. My current favorite: “To do your best work, how do you need to be managed?”

Highlights:

• It’s not an interview, it’s an audition.
• Behavior based T-Square Audition System
• The one reason an “A” player should come work for you.
• Legal do’s and don’ts
• What should the first day look like?
• Sample audition questions

Termination is something management should be good at…not comfortable with. Management owes it to “A” players to demonstrate that they know the difference between great performance and toxic behavior.

This is a leadership issue. How many times have co-workers said, “What took you so long?”

Highlights:

• Yes, you can discipline and fire for “attitude.”
• 3 simple firing options
• Do not document to fire!
• What does “at-will” actually mean?

If there’s a topic that presents the greatest legal liability risk, it’s this one! The consequences include multiple years of back pay and even jail time for management. There’s good reason why HR and Accounting want you to dot-the-i’s-and-cross-the-t’s, about timecards, pay practices and management decision-making.

Don’t quit your management job in frustration with government over-regulation. Understand how outsiders may look at your compensation procedures and fix them accordingly.

Highlights:

• Wage & Hour checklist to access your audit risk.
• Know the difference between exempt and non-exempt.
• Unauthorized overtime must be paid.
• How can a senior vice-president, making $90,000 a year, be legally entitled to overtime?

Get out of the baby-sitting business.

Given that a particular jurisdiction may take a contractual interpretation of any policy language, safety lies in writing concise, permissive policy versus voluminous, mandatory procedure. Concise, permissive language can elevate policy to “user-friendly” status by providing the appropriate balance of desired decision-maker control, defensible legal context and needed communication to employees.

Highlights:

• Do you have to abdicate your leadership responsibility to a policy?
• Take a second look at Company polices that aren’t enforceable. Good luck in banning workplace romance.
• Why are we requiring documentation for using bereavement?
• Use-it-or-lose-it sick leave rewards good liars.
• Probationary periods serve no useful business or legal purpose in a non-union, non-government organization.

Your corporate culture is defined by the behavior you hire for, fire for, reward and tolerate. Leadership is the ability to get people to follow. None of this is complicated, it’s just hard work!

Highlights:

• 2 questions to discover the motivation of any employee.
• Performance and Behavior Evaluations
• Engagement: “What are you working on?”  “How can I help?”
• Discipline without Punishment
• Busy does not mean Productive
• Managing a virtual workforce

Myth: Probationary periods make it easier to fire new employees!
 

Madness: Spending more time in an exit interview than you spent talking to that employee in the last year!
 

Mayhem: Thinking that a $50 gift card for ten years of service is motivational!
 

Just because we’ve always done it that way, doesn’t make it right.

Uncover HR policies and practices that can cause more problems than they solve in 2020. Terms like attitude, permanent, layoff and unauthorized overtime can add to your legal exposure. Cut through the myth and mayhem and get practical steps to harmony, productivity and staying out of court.

Highlights:

• Discover why “probationary periods” can negate your “at-will” relationship.
• Just putting someone on a salary does not eliminate the right to overtime pay.
• Learn why a “use it or lose it” vacation policy is obsolete.
• Update your “no dating policy” and stay out of the “baby-sitting” business.
• Yes you can document and fire for “attitude”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission may say it best:

“Prevention is the best tool to eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace. Employers are encouraged to take steps necessary to prevent sexual harassment from occurring. They should clearly communicate to employees that sexual harassment will not be tolerated. They can do so by providing sexual harassment training to their employees and by establishing an effective complaint or grievance process and taking immediate and appropriate action when an employee complains.”

Each program is customized to address state legislation that mandates harassment training. Break the culture of harassment with a practical and engaging presentation.

Highlights:

• Definition of sexual harassment, bullying and retaliation
• Sample Anti-Harassment policy and complaint procedure
• Best practices for prevention
• Real world scenarios, examples and case law