Certificate in Essentials of Human Resource Management Seminar

Contents

Block I: LEGAL ASPECTS OF HR MANAGEMENT

(Monday and Tuesday)


Employment Law Overview:
Knowledge Every Manager and Supervisor Needs to Have to Reduce the Employer's Legal Risk

Employment Discrimination Law

  • Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (discrimination and retaliation)
  • The Age Discrimination in Employment Act
  • The Americans with Disabilities Act (including reasonable accommodation and undue hardship)
  • The 1991 Civil Rights Act
  • The Equal Pay Act
  • Executive Order 11246/Affirmative Action
  • The Rehabilitation Act
  • State discrimination laws

Kinds of Discrimination

  • Disparate treatment
  • Disparate impact
  • Harassment (including sexual harassment)

How Discrimination is Proven

  • Direct evidence ("smoking guns")
  • Circumstantial evidence
  • Statistical/numerical evidence

Specific Laws/Rules Regarding Employment Termination

  • "Employment at-will"
  • Public policy discharge
  • Implied contracts
  • Whistle-blower laws

Labor Standards Laws

  • Fair Labor Standard Act (wage-hour, overtime, child labor)
  • Occupational Safety & Health Act
  • Family & Medical Leave Act

Labor Law - The National Labor Relations Act

Miscellaneous

  • Worker's Compensation
  • COBRA
  • ERISA
  • WARN

Potential Personal/Individual Liability of the Manager/Supervisor

Safety and Security Issues in Today's Workplace

How to Cope:
Complying with the Legal Requirements

Employee Selection: Hiring and Interviewing Employees

  • How to avoid costly hiring mistakes
  • What to look for
  • What not to ask
  • Negligent hiring
  • Objective vs. subjective criteria
  • Workplace diversity issues
  • Employee orientation
  • Drug testing/medical evaluations

Managing, Training and Supervising Employees

  • What is/is not "harassment" on the job
  • The importance of good communication
  • Negligent retention/supervision
  • Job assignments/onerous work/overtime
  • Employee safety
  • Job accommodation/pregnancy/family-medical leaves
  • Employee privacy/electronic monitoring
  • Drug and alcohol policies/practice
  • Investigating/reporting employee complaints
  • The supervisor or manager who keeps notes, a diary, or a notebook about his/her employees

Evaluating/Appraising Employees

  • Importance of the evaluation in litigation/employee relations
  • The biggest obstacles to honest, accurate evaluations
  • How to correct performance/conduct problems
  • The self-appraisal as an important management tool
  • How to say what you mean on an evaluation

Employee Discharge and Discipline

  • A detailed checklist for supervisors and managers to reduce the likelihood of "wrongful discharge" and/or claims of discrimination
  • Unemployment claims
  • Requests for a job reference/defamation risks

Block II: Human Resources Management

(Wednesday, Thursday, Friday)

Hiring Strategies for Today's Job Market

Hiring Costs

  • Calculate the cost of a hiring error
  • Determine your average cost per hire

Job Analysis

  • Gain a thorough understanding of the job you are filling
  • Define the critical competencies required to perform the job effectively
  • Easy-to-use tools and tips for developing or revising job descriptions

Sourcing

  • Understand the Labor Market and it's influence on your long and short term hiring strategies
  • Internal sourcing
  • External sourcing
  • Develop a sourcing plan
  • Measure the effectiveness of your plan

Select the Right Candidate

  • Plan the interview: types and strategies/interview model
  • Create and use an interviewing guide
  • Develop questions that measure competencies
  • Use probing questions
  • Effective listening techniques
  • Multi-rater evaluation form

Job Offer Acceptance

  • Sell the candidate
  • Create an enticing offer

Create New Hire Excitement

  • Tips and strategies

Training the Trainers...Subject Matter Experts Gear-Up to Deliver

Develop Targeted, Effective Training

  • Analysis-define what is to be learned: organizational/task/individual
  • Design-specify how learning will occur
  • Development-author and producing results
  • Implementation-deliver the instruction
  • Evaluation-determine program effectiveness

Adult Learning Styles

  • Understand how adults perceive and process new information
  • Design programs that address varied learning styles

Enhance Learning and Retention

  • Tips and methods
  • Utilize individual learning plans

Maximize Room Setup

  • Compliment topic delivery
  • Engage participation

Manage the Classroom

  • Presentation tips
  • Effective use of questions
  • Manage disruptive participants: techniques for working with strong emotions

Compensation Practices...Keys to a Sound Compensation Plan

Compensation Plan Overview

  • Understand the components of compensation
  • Benefit facts
  • Communicate with individualized compensation summaries
  • Elements of an effective plan

Compensation For Your Organization

  • Conduct an external market comparison
  • Determine internal job worth through job evaluation: pros and cons of various job evaluation methods
  • Consider compensation trends and projections

Maintaining Equity

  • Conduct compensation self-assessments: median compensation analysis, average compensation analysis

Legal Compliance

  • Exempt or non-exempt classification
  • Equal pay self-audit
  • Employee versus independent contractor
  • Independent contractor agreements