Courses

  In many respects the people aspect of a manager’s job can be much more difficult than the technical aspects. Understanding how the law looks at the relationship between supervisors and the employees they manage is a first step in becoming the well-rounded leaders we want to be. We will discuss 

     - Hiring and Promotion

     - Discipline and Discharge 

     - Illegal Workplace Harassment

     - Retaliation for making an EEO complaint

     - ADA Basics for Managers

  This session is a must for anyone who supervises employees. We will look at these topics through an EEO lens so that we can learn the right questions to ask ourselves before taking action.

  This is a session about responsibility. We will cover the legal standards for harassment cases, management’s duty to report and investigate allegations of illegal harassment, and the recent change to the Texas Labor Code regarding sexual harassment cases. We will then cover retaliation cases. We will talk about US Supreme Court cases that expand the definition of illegal retaliation, and we discuss the legal and proper way to manage employees who have made protected complaints of discrimination.

  The simple truth is people don’t always get along. Sometimes it feels like we never get along, and the events over the past few years haven’t helped, as many people today feel isolated and disconnected. In this session you will learn why our relationships are vital to the success of organizations we represent. You will hear practical tips on building good workplace culture, constructing effective and efficient teams, promoting psychological safety and respect, and setting the bar for behavior. We will also discuss ways to develop greater empathy and build a sense of community around shared and important values. In short, this is about leadership, and right now, more than maybe anytime in the past, organizations need leaders. 

  One day someone interrupts Jane in a meeting, and she responds harshly, in a way that seems disproportionate to the slight. Why? Is there something more going on here than first meets the eye. Microaggressions are small verbal and non-verbal slights, snubs and insults. They happen more than we may think, and over time they carry a weight that ultimately corrodes and ruins the relationships organizations need to thrive. In the session, you will learn about microaggressions, what they are and how they impact employees. You will also hear practical tips for addressing them and reducing their impact on you and your employees.

  Our managers don’t need to be expert on the entire law to master parts of it. This is important because managers can often inadvertently make mistakes that cost employers big money, simply because they haven’t been adequately trained. So, in this session we will discuss what managers should know about hiring, setting qualification standards, and managing employees with disabilities. We need our managers to feel more comfortable hiring and supervising people with disabilities, so we need to teach them what they need to know. 

  Maybe hiring is as much, if not more, about us than the applicant. In this workshop you will be placed into hiring committees, given a job description and resumes, and asked to hire the best candidate for the position. As we work, we will discuss how we bring our own experiences into the hiring process and how those experiences influence our evaluations of the candidates. We will talk about unconscious bias, confirmation bias, and conformity bias. We will discuss the impact those biases have on our decisions and how we can minimize their influence. And we will learn how to take advantage of an inefficient labor market to get the most out of our hires. 

  In this staff training module, we will discuss the difficulties of working with people unlike ourselves. We will learn about the obligations we have toward each other, and how those obligations make us better in our jobs. We will discuss the different types of behavior we encounter at work and strategies for addressing them, along with how to assess each situation individually. We will give you tools you need to develop a much-needed skill: the ability to get along with people at work.  

  Few aspects of labor law cause HR managers more apprehension than the ADA, and no part of the ADA is more misunderstood than reasonable accommodations and the interactive process. This is partly by design. The ADA is a big law, meant to cover an almost inexhaustible number of conditions and an almost inexhaustible number of different jobs, and it is written to be adaptable to all of them, which means when it comes to reasonable accommodations, there are very few bright lines. Instead, employers and employees are mostly left to determine the correct outcomes. But I think employers should love the ADA and reasonable accommodations. In this session I will take you through the process step by step, defining important terms, and offering practical tips along the way. The ADA does not need to be scary, and today in the post-pandemic world with reasonable accommodation requests at all-time highs, understanding a few basic principles and learning how and when to apply them, will keep you in compliance and help you get the most out of your talent. 

  One day your boss hands you a file, and in it is a discrimination complaint. You are told to investigate the complaint and determine whether it has any merit. You recognize that this is a very important assignment. A lot is riding on your investigation. Unfortunately, no one has ever taught you how to investigate an internal complaint of workplace discrimination. That is, until now. In this session you will hear from an instructor with nearly thirty-years’ experience working for the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In his time with the agency he investigated thousands of claims and taught hundreds of investigators their craft. He will teach you how to investigate workplace discrimination in hiring, promotion, discipline, and discharge. You will learn the correct legal standards for these cases and discover how to write and maintain an effective investigative plan. You will work through scenarios and learn where to find the evidence you need to complete a thorough investigation. And along the way you will hear common sense and practical tips on how to complete investigations properly and efficiently. A must for any new investigator and a great refresher for experienced investigators.