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Employment issues can be a minefield for managers and supervisors on the front lines of employee relations. Every aspect of the employment process—advertising job openings, interviewing and hiring employees, conducting performance reviews, responding to complaints of workplace harassment, and terminating employees—involves particular legal requirements. Failure to meet these requirements can have disastrous consequences in the form of government sanctions, damaging litigation, negative publicity, and decreased morale and productivity.

This course can minimise your legal risk in discrimination and harassment claims because it shows you how to document your good-faith efforts to prevent discrimination and harassment in the workplace, which are essential to avoiding vicarious liability for an employee’s misconduct.

topics

• Recognising and avoiding the many forms of discrimination
• Identifying rights protected under employment laws
• Complying with absence-law requirements
• Maintaining a harassment-free workplace
• Hiring and promotion decisions, as well as interviewing skills
• Managing and documenting performance issues
• Managers’ obligations according to the laws against victimisation and the legal definition of a whistleblower
• Legal implications of workplace violence

who should attend?

• Executives
• Human resources professionals
• Legal staff
• Managers and supervisors

choose any six modules for in-depth coverage

“Putting the Law to Work” is a full-day course that teaches real-world solutions to common employment law problems and gives practical guidance on these essential subjects:

• Equal employment opportunity fundamentals
• Harassment prevention
• Reasonable adjustment
• Absence management
• Legal and effective interviewing
• Performance management documentation
• Verbal coaching skills
• Whistleblowers and victimisation

Rather than the full-day comprehensive version of “Putting the Law to Work,” employers sometimes need intensive and focused training on one or more of the individual topics covered in the course. This is why we offer all “Putting the Law to Work” topics as individual in-depth modules, giving each employer the opportunity to choose the subject areas that are most relevant to its workforce. Half-day sessions are available for each of the following “Putting the Law to Work” subjects.

module 1
Mastering the Basics: Equal Employment Opportunity Fundamentals

This course reviews three crucial areas of employment law that managers grapple with daily: discrimination, leaves of absence, and reasonable adjustment. Our lively “Avoiding Jeopardy” exercise reviews the full range of employment law protections, and the remainder of the session teaches participants how to apply these protections on the job. Using real-world case studies and interactive exercises, the course gives managers and supervisors the practical tools they need to avoid legal pitfalls and apply these laws consistently and fairly.

module 2
Risky Business: Preventing Harassment — Respecting the Workplace

Workplace harassment takes many forms, including sexual and racial harassment, and it can be extremely tricky to determine which behaviours constitute harassment and which do not. Deciding how to respond appropriately to complaints of harassment can be just as tricky. This course shines light on the many grey areas of harassment and provides concrete suggestions for handling risky workplace situations.

This module is also available as a standalone course. Find out more.

module 3
Working Together: Reasonable Adjustment

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 requires employers to make “reasonable adjustments” for employees’ disabilities. Employers are also required to make reasonable adjustments for employees’ religious observances. Unfortunately, managers and supervisors often have a hard time figuring out when an adjustment is called for, much less what “reasonable” means, particularly with regard to less-specific claims such as ‘stress’. This course is intended as a hands-on primer to help give managers and supervisors concrete tools for figuring out when adjustments are necessary and what exactly they must do to meet the legal requirements.

module 4
Untangle the Web: Understanding Absence Management

“Untangle the Web” gives participants a grasp of the various leave laws by which they must abide, along with hands-on tools for complying with such laws and for efficiently managing the process. This learning is reinforced by a series of case studies that reflect some typical employee leave situations —as well as a couple of unusual ones—to provide participants with a solid understanding they can take back to the workplace.

module 5
Hiring Smart: Legal and Effective Interviewing

Anyone responsible for hiring decisions faces a dual challenge: finding the best person for the job and doing so without running afoul of discrimination law. This is especially true when interviewing potential employees. Which questions can you ask? Which questions can you not ask? This course builds essential interviewing skills so that employees involved in hiring can conduct interviews that are effective in meeting corporate human resource needs without creating legal risks. It provides detailed guidance on the types of questions an interviewer may and may not ask, as well as common-sense strategies for conducting interviews that identify the most qualified candidate for the job. Just as important, it reviews best practices for documenting hiring decisions to avoid future legal challenges.

module 6
Getting It Right: Performance Management Documentation

When employee performance is unsatisfactory—despite verbal coaching—managers need to address it appropriately and clearly. If implemented effectively, the performance management process can improve employee behaviour. If the employee continues to underperform, the process can provide a fair and legal basis for discipline or dismissal. However, managers do not always provide consistent and timely performance management, which all too often results in an unfair dismissal, discrimination or harassment claim when an employee is disciplined or dismissed. This course maps out straightforward steps to guide performance management and also takes a close look at how to properly document the process to defend against possible litigation.

module 7
Walking the Line: Managing Whistleblowers and Avoiding Victimisation

When an employee files a complaint—whether it’s a whistleblower alleging companywide fraud or someone who feels sexually harassed by a coworker—the workplace can suddenly become charged with negative rumours and anxiety, which can escalate into claims of unfair victimisation against the complainant. Managers in these situations need to walk the line between appropriately responding to legitimate employee complaints and continuing to effectively manage both the complaining employee and other workers. “Walking the Line” covers managers’ legal obligations to avoid both the perception and the reality of victimisation, as well as the legal definitions of whistleblowing and victimisation. More importantly, it focuses on skill building so that managers will be prepared to identify the red flags for potential whistleblower victimisation claims and will know how to effectively handle these situations to avoid the risk of victimisation claims.

This module is also available as a standalone course. Find out more.

module 8
Good Work: Verbal Coaching Skills

Verbal coaching is the most cost-effective tool a manager can use to encourage employee development. When done well, coaching can improve your business’s bottom line by increasing employee morale, productivity, and job satisfaction. For some managers, coaching skills seem to come naturally, but most managers need to learn the specific techniques involved. This course breaks down the process into five steps and uses interactive role plays to reinforce coaching skills and concepts.