Certificate in Making Employment Workplace Decisions Workshop

Workshop Content

The Workshop is designed to improve on-the-job performance and decision-making for experienced HR professionals and employment law attorneys by utilizing an interactive learning approach to focus on actual situations that often confront human resource professionals. It is the perfect "next step training" for previous participants in IAML seminars, employment law attorneys and other experienced employment law/human resource professionals. The course is "team taught" by highly-rated employment law attorney Gavin Appleby, Esq. of Littler and Cindy Cook, an HR consultant with over 20 years of experience. Their joint efforts in analyzing hypothetical case studies to identify critical issues, tactical approaches, strategic planning, risk assessment sets this dynamic workshop apart from any other program available for experience HR professionals. Over 2½ days you will learn to look at your day-to-day responsibilities in a completely different light by attacking rulings and workplace issues on topics such as:

• ADAAA
• FMLA
• Wage and Hour
• Harassment
• Age Discrimination
• Hiring/Firing
• Succession Planning

The Workshop will be taught using:

1. Factual situations addressed by the class as a whole;
2. Factual situations evaluated through small groups;
3. Hypothetical role playing (using willing classroom volunteers);
4. Limited lecture intended to analyze the hypothetical fact situations within the context of the law.

While a number of factual situations and case studies will be utilized, one particular case study will be considered in several stages: investigation, analysis of the facts, application of the decision, and response to a legal challenge. This specific case study will culminate in the presentation of legal argument and trial testimony. Subjects will range across a variety of substantive areas and "real-HR-world" topics and decision-making issues including:

• Analyzing hiring and discharge decisions in the context of potential discrimination, retaliation and wrongful discharge claims
• Evaluating ways to implement management changes without creating legal risk or substantial adverse employee response
• Addressing behaviors at union and non-union locations that create the need for discipline
• Creating feasible performance feedback methods
• Managing employee/employer feedback and expectations resulting from surveys, compliance issues and audits

Examples of two hypothetical workplace situations that might be taught are:

You are the Vice President of Human Resources for a hotel conglomerate called Innkeeper Elite. Your company employs 32,000 workers in over 200 locations in the United States and Canada. At a quarterly meeting of the Innkeeper Elite Strategy Development Team, your CEO asks you to take the lead in creating a new program. The program is to be entitled "Ensuring an Elite Environment through Employee Excellence," or "Quintuple E" for short. The stated purposes of the program are three: (1) to make certain that effective employees are recognized for the value they bring to the organization, (2) to ensure that a suitable progression chain exists so that departures, particularly of retiring managers, do not negatively impact the Company, and (3) to require that employees performing at anything less than a "satisfactory level" are worked out of the organization as quickly and efficiently as possible. You are given nearly free reign to create a plan. The only limitations specifically placed on you by the CEO are (1) get this done yesterday, (2) focus first on the need to eliminate lesser performers and create a progression plan to deal with an aging management group (and worry about employee recognition later), (3) take whatever reasonable risk is necessary to ensuring that the organization acts definitively to protect its future, and (4) don't do anything illegal. Assume that Innkeeper Elite uses, at all of its facilities, a performance appraisal form that ranks people in 5 categories: Outstanding, Exceeds Expectations, Fully Meets Expectations, Meets Most Expectations, Needs Significant Improvement. A recent audit shows that the following percentages of the workforce fit within the above categories in the following manner:

Outstanding=11%
Exceeds Expectations=17%
Fully Meets Expectations=42%
Meets Most Expectations=27%
Needs Significant Improvement=3%

The problem with the above grouping, of course, is that different managers grade on somewhat different scales. You are aware of that fact. You also know that historically in the organization, the only employees let go for performance reasons are those in the Needs Significant Improvement category (with only occasional discharges for performance - as opposed to discipline - coming in the Meets Most Expectations category. However, the CEO said directly at the planning meeting that "one crucial aspect of the Quad E plan should be eliminating more of our less effective workers - find those people and do something with them."

Task 1 - The Goal of Eliminating "Less than Satisfactory Employees"
Your first assignment is for you and your team to create a system to achieve the CEO's stated goal of "identifying employees performing at anything less than a 'satisfactory level' and working them out of the organization as effectively and efficiently as possible." You are fully aware that the CEO will not be satisfied with a plan focusing only on the 3% of workers who are currently in the Needs Significant Improvement category. Prepare your plan by answering the following questions:

1. How will you identify the employees who should be worked out of the system?
2. What method will you propose to management to actually work the employees out of the Company?
3. What timetable will you use?
4. How are you going to limit your legal risk?

Task 2 - What about a Chain of Progression to Replace Retiring Workers?
You know that your management group is, indeed, aging, particularly with respect to the category of managers who are "just above middle management." The CEO in the past has discussed the concepts of "people progression" and "high potentials" as well as the "hanging on until retirement problem" (meaning that some workers seem to be "retiring" a year or two before they actually leave the Company). Your Company has a decent retirement program. It includes the options of retiring at 85% of full retirement at age 55 with 25 years of service and retiring at 95% of full retirement at age 62 with 25 years of service. Prepare your plan for dealing with this task by addressing the following questions:

1. How do you identify "high potentials" and what factors make them "high potentials?" In addition, is age a relevant factor as to whether someone can be a "high potential?"
2. How, if at all, can you deal with the aging category of the management structure without getting into serious legal trouble?
3. What are the practical problems with creating "progression expectations" among employees and how do you limit those problems?>

Giddyup Go (GUG) is the second largest travel agency in the world. Headquartered in Travelin, Texas, GUG has over 4,500 travel offices worldwide. Customer service and employee satisfaction are synonymous with Giddyup Go. Competitors envy them, everyone wants to work for them. In an effort to "reach customers where they live and work," GUG has kept its travel offices small and located them in such places as strip malls, business complexes, near commuter rail stations, and in Target and Wal-Mart stores. Each office is staffed with from 3 to 8 highly skilled travel agents. In order to work for GUG you must be a certified travel agent with a minimum of 10 years experience. Once hired, individuals must complete a rigorous in-house training course of 150 hours. Employees claim it's worth it because they receive the highest pay and benefits in the industry and are treated like royalty. GUG's commitment to employee satisfaction is legendary.

Clarisa C. Nile is director over Region Five. She oversees six supervisors who float between 37 different travel offices. Today finds her in a rather somber mood. She's been speaking with one of her supervisors, May B. Gone, and has a problem too big for her to tackle alone. She reaches for the phone and calls you. Once she has you on the line, she begins to describe the situation. May supervises six travel offices. All of them are located in strip malls and have been outselling the other offices in Region Five for 18 months straight. Clarisa has been very pleased with May's performance, but this recent conversation has her questioning her judgment. Last night, May phoned Clarisa at home. After exchanging pleasantries, she told Clarisa there was a serious problem at the Big One Strip Mall travel office. She said that, about five weeks ago, one of the eight employees in the office, Steve, picked up a fax off the machine. Thinking it was a standard request for travel reservations, Steve handed it to Lucy who is responsible for faxed requests. Steve watched as Lucy read the fax. Her face paled, then she got up without saying anything and went over to another employee, Max Strong. After whispering between themselves for a few minutes, Lucy shut and locked the office door and pulled the blinds while Max asked the other employees to gather. In horror, the employees listened to Max as he told them about the fax. It was from his ex-wife Gertie. Everyone knew about Gertie. On more than one occasion Max had come to work late with bruises on his face, neck, and arms. Only after he had filed for divorce did he have the nerve to tell the others that he had been a victim of severe spousal abuse. Gertie had a history of violence that began when she was 11 and had killed the family cat. Her juvenile record was longer than most adult criminals. At the age of 47 she had been jailed three times and spent 14 months in prison - all for serious acts of violence. Gertie owned several guns and, on more than one occasion, had let everyone know that she wasn't afraid to use them. Max had filed for divorce only three months earlier. Gertie had been on a drunken binge since then. But now, she wanted Max back and was willing to do anything to make that happen. The fax she sent told Max to come back to her immediately or she would walk into the office and shoot everyone in her way.

On the day the fax arrived, May wasn't scheduled to be in the office until late afternoon. Upon her arrival she found the office closed and the employees all waiting inside afraid to go home. After hearing what had happened, May attempted to soothe the fears of her employees by telling them she was sure everything would be all right and that Gertie was probably just blowing smoke. She then reminded them of GUG's commitment to customer service and reopened the office. In addition, May pulled Max aside and suggested he might want to look for other job openings out of state - a place where Gertie wouldn't find him. Assume that, at this point, May has phoned you asking for assistance. What would you advise her to do and why?

Since May didn't actually phone you seeking advice, the situation worsened. Each day dozens of faxes came in from Gertie. Each was more threatening and specific. She began mentioning the other employees by name and saying she knew where they lived. She assured them no one was safe and they would all die unless Max came back to her. May asked Max how the job search was going. He told her that it wasn't working out. May had been sure it would. After all, Max had been with GUG for 23 years and was the top performing employee in the region. Max told her that there just weren't any openings at the moment and none foreseeable in the future. May figured that this would all blow over - that Gertie would settle down and come to her senses. She was wrong.

On the day May phoned Clarisa, mall security reported having seen a "wild-eyed woman" matching the description of Gertie, in a dark green pickup truck driving slowly through the mall parking lot. They thought they saw a rifle or a shotgun on a rack in the back window of the truck. Five weeks had passed since the first fax. The situation hadn't gotten better. May decided it was time to report the situation to her director. What is your strategy for addressing this situation? What must you do? What can you do? What should you do?

Please note: Because of the dynamic changes taking place in employment law, IAML will make every effort to ensure that the program content presented is timely and includes all new significant developments in the area of employment law. Therefore, we reserve the right to modify the curriculum when such changes are deemed beneficial.