Manager's Training Module

Everyone who has ever worked with other people knows that co-workers don’t always get along. Whether it’s disagreements about how to perform a job, who is slacking and who has to pick up the slack, who gets stuck with the worst assignments or just ordinary personality clashes, minor conflicts often flare up at work.
It’s up to managers to make sure little disagreements don’t explode into major crises that do lasting damage to the team and even the whole company. This training covers basic strategies and tactics managers can employ to manage conflict among their direct reports.

Harassment is unwelcome conduct that is based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. Because supervisors and managers are the eyes and ears of every workplace, they have an important role to play in identifying harassment when it occurs, putting a stop to it in their departments and reporting it to HR. They also have a legal obligation to ensure that harassment does not violate the rights of their subordinates.

This training will help managers understand what harassment is and their responsibilities for preventing it and stopping it.

Overtime pay. Discrimination. Family leave. Harassment … Federal employment laws govern all of these issues—and many more—that all managers will have to deal with at some point in their careers. It’s important for supervisors and managers to know the basics of how to comply with those laws.
This training covers the top 10 most important issues addressed by federal employment laws that managers must understand. It also addresses the implications of those laws for managers. It reinforces the need for management to work closely with HR on several issues, especially when it comes to complying with the FMLA, the ADA and pregnancy-related situations.

Chances are, your organization employs someone who works not just for you, but also for Uncle Sam as a member of one of the uniformed services. Their frequent absences for training or deployment can create problems for civilian employers. In some cases, employers have balked at hiring applicants who are military-connected or have other service obligations.
To stop discrimination and open civilian employment for those wanting to serve their country on a full- or part-time basis, the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act became law in 1994. This training module will help you explain what USERRA requires of managers and supervisors.

In the United States, almost everyone is employed on what’s known as an at-will basis. That means an employer can fire an employee at any time for almost any legal reason or even no reason at all. It also means employees are free to quit at any time for any reason.
Managers need to understand at-will employment, especially if they have the authority to hire and fire employees. They can inadvertently destroy at-will status by implying that there is some sort of employment contract that protects an employee from being terminated.

Managers and supervisors are usually the first members of the company to notice that an employee has done (or not done) something that warrants discipline. Those situations require complete, accurate and timely documentation.
Frontline managers are HR’s partners in making sure the organization has a clear record justifying any official act that affects employees. That’s why it is critical to train managers how to create documentation.
Access specialized management training on how to document performance issues at The Manager’s Guide to Reviewing Employee Performance.

Front-line managers are the most important players in the performance-review and performance-management processes. They are in the best position to observe how employees do their jobs.

Managers set expectations, give guidance, measure performance in written reviews and set future expectations. By documenting expectations and offering feedback, managers can prevent legal claims or at least better position an employer to defend itself in court.

This training covers the basic framework of reviewing performance to help employees improve and minimize legal liability that can result from inconsistent review processes.

The National Labor Relations Act worker protections include strict rules requiring all private-sector employers with two or more workers to allow workers to engage in “concerted activity.” There are strict limits to what supervisors can do to interfere with these rights, and this training will help your managers understand their obligations.

At some points, this presentation refers to hypothetical policies that may not exactly match your organization’s. Please substitute language that matches how you operate. It also assumes you have revisited your policies to remove portions forbidden by the NLRA. If you have not, please do so.

Firing an employee is never pleasant for anyone involved, including supervisors. It’s one of the hardest things any boss ever has to do. But there’s a right way to terminate and a wrong way. If you handle a termination incorrectly, you could easily trigger a wrongful-termination lawsuit—or worse. A recently fired employee could be so angry that she falsely claims that she was fired for a discriminatory reason.

This training will help your managers and supervisors understand how to document disciplinary problems that could lead to termination, and how to handle the termination itself.

HR professionals must arm managers with the ability to handle most accommodation requests, including recognizing when an employee has requested a reasonable accommodation under the ADA and then making sure an approved accommodation is implemented and monitored.
This presentation and script allows you to teach managers and supervisors all about the accommodation process and the critical role they play.