Training Today's Online Course List:

Train your team on how to hire the best applicants without creating legal headaches

• Preparing for the interview
• Questions supervisors can't ask
• Linking questions to the position's requirements
• Minimizing distractions in the interview
• The protected classes and how to avoid legal violations
• What to do when an applicant reveals protected-class status
• Documentation rules
• Uncovering resume lies
• How to use applicant information uncovered on the Internet

Untrained managers can cross the line when trying to learn more about employee conduct

• Is cubicle subject to search by supervisor?
• Defining company property
• E-mail, IM, and Blackberrys
• Dangers of jumping to conclusions
• Employee blogs and confidential information
• Cell-phones and other employee personal property
• How to assess impact off-duty conduct
• Using progressive discipline
• Different privacy rights for public and private employees
• Internet, phone, e-mail, workplace searches, drug and alcohol use, and code of conduct issues

Supervisors have a duty to prevent harassment from happening at your workplace

• Defining quid pro quo and hostile work environment harassment
• What is "pervasive action?"
• Why it's best to be a hands off manager
• The problem of intention vs perception
• Dangers with supervisor-subordinate relationships
• Supervisors' duty to step in and stop harassment
• Equal opportunity harasser defense
• Personal liability for supervisor in harassment cases
• Supervisors held to a higher standard of conduct
• Same rules apply
• Don't read too much into certain gay behavior - might not be harassment
• How supervisors must respond to hazing
• Retaliation concerns
• Oral vs Written warnings for harassment
• Communicating intolerance for harassment and retaliation

A vital topic, considering the potential for a devastating class-action overtime, off-the-clock, or other pay practice lawsuit.

• What does exempt mean and why are certain employees exempt?
• Exemptions for white collar, administrative, professionals and sales positions
• Burden of proof
• Job duties and exemption status
• Responding to employee request to change status
• Practical effect of supervising exempt and non exempt
• Docking salary
• Record keeping obligations
• Enforcing attendance policy for exempt employee
• Break requirements
• Special state-level laws
• Class action lawsuits
• Enforcement agencies
• Willful violation of the law
• When exempt employee's job duties change to include non-exempt activities
• Working without overtime permission
• When you have to pay employee for non-work activities
• Wage & hour violations are expensive
• Supervisor can cost employer an employee's exempt status
• Working off the clock

Here's what your managers need to know about their duty to help maintain a safe work environment.

• Proper response to employee revelations
• When to inform HR
• Managing an employee protected by a restraining order
• Alerting the police about threat level
• Investigating employee-on-employee violence
• Zero-tolerance violence policy
• Weapons in the workplace given recent laws
• Recognizing warning signs
• Looking beyond the bottom line
• No customer or client is untouchable

2009 brings new FMLA regulations every supervisor should understand and incorporate into their management practices.

• What FMLA requires and who is effected
• What is intermittent leave
• Interconnection with the ADA
• Employee coverage qualifications
• Extra FMLA leave for military member care
• Understanding "qualifying exigencies"
• Avoiding retaliation claims
• Reassigning job duties
• Loss of status and prestige
• Making a reasonable accommodation
• Interactive dialogue
• What to say and what not to say when FMLA leave requested
• When to involve HR
• Understanding essential job functions
• Creating an undue hardship
• Having the right attitude about disabilities
• Handling coworker unfairness complaints
• Maintaining medical condition confidentiality
• Why juries are so sympathetic to FMLA and ADA claims

Educate your managers on non-sexual harassment that's just as illegal, disruptive, and damaging to any organization

• How to determine if behavior or words constitute harassment
• When to alert HR to harassing behavior
• How to investigate a claim
• Communicating with the harassment victim
• Rules different for supervisors
• Risks of allowing proselytizing
• What you can restrict when it comes to expressing political views
• Avoiding retaliation claims when an employee complains

Most supervisors hate giving employee evaluations, but it's probably because they've never been trained on how to do them right. Here's your opportunity to correct that.

• Employee discussion of raises and reviews
• How to review employees you don't like
• Maintaining objectivity and consistency
• Making evaluations heavy on specifics, light on generalities
• Keeping an employee file
• Communicating performance problems
• Mixing the positive and negative
• Explaining business impact of employee behavior
• Keeping performance evaluations separate from employee's status
• Avoiding speculation, sticking to what you know
• Importance of honesty in evaluations

When employee behavior needs correcting, make sure your team knows how to do it without creating even more problems.

• Importance of discipline
• Know your company policy
• Defining progressive discipline
• Choosing the right time and place to discipline
• Keeping emotions in check
• Confidentiality rules
• When to involve
• Witnesses in disciplinary meetings
• Investigation rules
• Keeping discussion on track
• Issuing a proportionate response
• Treating male and female employees the same
• Focus on productivity and impact on coworkers
• Objectivity in written warnings
• FMLA implications

We're making progress, but prejudice hasn't been eliminated. Teach your supervisors to make decisions based on legally justifiable factors.

• "Over-qualified" and age discrimination
• Same-race discrimination
• Intention to become pregnant as disqualifier
• Accent concern as national origin discrimination
• Bias against hiring a male candidate
• Applicant age concerns
• Disabled applicant would require accommodation
• What constitutes religious discrimination
• Why nothing is ever confidential and off limits to a jury
• Judging applicants on merits
• The short ride from discriminating taste to discrimination

The decision to "write up" a subordinate should be made carefully, and the execution should be ever more so. Here's advice for your managers.

• When to document a violation
• What should be in an employee file
• Choosing between a verbal and a written warning
• Maintaining at-will status in documentation
• Early warning signs that an employee will sue
• Creating consistent, objective, and defensible write-ups
• Communicating a path to employee improvement
• Getting employee to acknowledge receipt of documentation

Involuntary separation is the #1 catalyst for employment law conflict. Make sure your supervisors have all the pieces in place to ward off a lawsuit.

• Laying the groundwork
• Importance of face-to-face firing
• Always give a valid reason
• Getting input on the decision to fire
• Avoiding the appearance of retaliation
• Preparing for employee rebuttal
• 3rd party witnesses
• Staying on target and avoiding mixed messages
• Dangers of flip-flopping in the face of employee emotional response
• Overcoming fear of being sued for retaliation or discrimination
• Applying the "fundamental fairness" doctrine

Stop Sexual Harassment: Interactive Training for Supervisors explains the various forms of workplace sexual harassment, the consequences for both the employer and the supervisor, and how to identify and stop it. It features real-world scenarios, interactive quizzes, and commentary from engaging and authoritative employment law attorneys.

Consequences of Harassment

• Case studies of devastating penalties and awards

Overview of Harassment Law

• What Title VII of the Civil Rights Act really means
• Potential damages and risks supervisors run
• Your obligations under harassment law

Hostile Work Environment

• What is hostile environment harassment?
• Supervisor's duty to protect employees from a harassing environment
• Are they really offended?
• Dangers of the Internet and e-mail
• Gender Harassment
• Supervisor isn't qualified to investigate, so he needs to go to HR

Hostility based on sexual orientation

• Hostility based on transgender status
• Some states protect the transgendered
• Hostility based on a former relationship

Quid Pro Quo Harassment

• What is quid pro quo harassment?

Harassment by a Customer

• Duty to protect employees

Relationship with a Subordinate

• Why having a relationship with a subordinate employee can be so legally treacherous

Complaint Procedures and Investigations

• Why supervisors should never retaliate against an employee who complains of harassment
• What if the employee lies?
• Don't promise confidentiality to complaining employee

Special Situation: When the Supervisor is Accused

• When the Supervisor is Accused of Harassment
• What supervisors should -- and most certainly shouldn't -- do when they are accused of harassment
• Why retaliation claims are so common when a supervisor is accused, and how to avoid them
• Cooperating with HR's investigation to resolve matters quickly and without massive workplace disruption

Stop Sexual Harassment: Interactive Training for Supervisors explains the various forms of workplace sexual harassment, the consequences for both the employer and the supervisor, and how to identify and stop it. It features real-world scenarios, interactive quizzes, and commentary from engaging and authoritative employment law attorneys.

Consequences of Harassment

• Case studies of devastating penalties and awards

Overview of Harassment Law

• What Title VII of the Civil Rights Act really means
• Potential damages and risks supervisors run
• Your obligations under harassment law

Hostile Work Environment

• What is hostile environment harassment?
• Supervisor's duty to protect employees from a harassing environment
• Are they really offended?
• Dangers of the Internet and e-mail
• Gender Harassment
• Supervisor isn't qualified to investigate, so he needs to go to HR

Hostility based on sexual orientation

• Hostility based on transgender status
• Some states protect the transgendered
• Hostility based on a former relationship

Quid Pro Quo Harassment

• What is quid pro quo harassment?

Harassment by a Customer

• Duty to protect employees

Relationship with a Subordinate

• Why having a relationship with a subordinate employee can be so legally treacherous

Complaint Procedures and Investigations

• Why supervisors should never retaliate against an employee who complains of harassment
• What if the employee lies?
• Don't promise confidentiality to complaining employee

Special Situation: When the Supervisor is Accused

• When the Supervisor is Accused of Harassment
• What supervisors should -- and most certainly shouldn't -- do when they are accused of harassment
• Why retaliation claims are so common when a supervisor is accused, and how to avoid them
• Cooperating with HR's investigation to resolve matters quickly and without massive workplace disruption

The Plus of Us is an interactive training program with different modules for supervisors and employees. It features real-world scenarios and insightful commentary from a leading workplace expert and employment law attorney. Each version also includes a 20 minute feature presentation, Full Court Pres, in which a young employee learns from the CEO how devastating intolerance, bigotry, and insensitivity to others' races, cultures, ages, and orientations can be.

In this 20-minute drama, a company president explains to a wayward employee why exclusionary behavior violates a well-run organization's policies, damages its reputation, risks legal liability, alienates good employees, and can't be tolerated. After witnessing the dramatic back and forth, your staff will self-examine why they hold certain beliefs, why they need to change them, and how things they say and do can hurt and isolate other employees. Moreover, your team will recognize the significant legal and business risks that come with harassment, discrimination, and insensitivity to those they perceive as "different."

• What bloodborne pathogens are
• How infection could occur (exposure incident)
• Universal precautions
• Prevention of exposure incidents
• Exposure incident procedures

• An overview of emergency alarm systems and communication methods
• An overview of employee action plans for:
  - Fire
  - Medical emergencies
  - Severe weather
  - Hazardous chemical spills
  - Electrical failures
  - Workplace violence
  

• Hazards of chemicals
• Exposure control methods
• Labels
• Hazardous chemical list
• Material safety data sheets
• Safe handling of chemicals
• Chemicals used within our facility

• Fire hazards associated with your job
• Required job procedures that prevent or minimize the chance of an accidental fire
• Safety procedures - electrical
• Safety procedures - electrical tools and appliances
• Safety procedures - flammable and combustible liquids
• Safety procedures - compressed gas

Help your team learn the simple steps that can reduce the risk of violence at your organization -- without creating legal headaches -- with the Violence in the Workplace course from Training Today.

Your supervisors and employees will learn:

• Common triggers that indicate a co-worker might become violent
• When it's time to report these warning signs or threats to HR
• How to deal with workplace bullies
• The first course of action when a co-worker threatens violence
• How to deal with a robbery or threats from a co-worker's abusive spouse
• And other simple steps to secure your workplace from potential violence

Hostile Work Environment vs. Quid Pro Quo

• Hostile Work Environment vs. Quid Pro Quo Harassment
• What is hostile environment harassment?
• Dangers of the Internet and e-mail.
• 12 real-world examples of hostile work environment harassment, including rules on physical contact.
• Hostility based on a former relationship.

Gender Harassment

• Why hazing can't be tolerated, and why there's no "equal opportunity" harassment defense.
• An employee's duty to cooperate with HR's investigation.
• Hostility based on sexual orientation.
• Harassment by a Customer

The Plus of Us is an interactive training program with different modules for supervisors and employees. It features real-world scenarios and insightful commentary from a leading workplace expert and employment law attorney. Each version also includes a 20 minute feature presentation, Full Court Pres, in which a young employee learns from the CEO how devastating intolerance, bigotry, and insensitivity to others' races, cultures, ages, and orientations can be.

In this 20-minute drama, a company president explains to a wayward employee why exclusionary behavior violates a well-run organization's policies, damages its reputation, risks legal liability, alienates good employees, and can't be tolerated. After witnessing the dramatic back and forth, your staff will self-examine why they hold certain beliefs, why they need to change them, and how things they say and do can hurt and isolate other employees. Moreover, your team will recognize the significant legal and business risks that come with harassment, discrimination, and insensitivity to those they perceive as "different."

• What bloodborne pathogens are
• How infection could occur (exposure incident)
• Universal precautions
• Prevention of exposure incidents
• Exposure incident procedures

• An overview of emergency alarm systems and communication methods
• An overview of employee action plans for:
  - Fire
  - Medical emergencies
  - Severe weather
  - Hazardous chemical spills
  - Electrical failures
  - Workplace violence
  

• Hazards of chemicals
• Exposure control methods
• Labels
• Hazardous chemical list
• Material safety data sheets
• Safe handling of chemicals
• Chemicals used within our facility

• Fire hazards associated with your job
• Required job procedures that prevent or minimize the chance of an accidental fire
• Safety procedures - electrical
• Safety procedures - electrical tools and appliances
• Safety procedures - flammable and combustible liquids
• Safety procedures - compressed gas

Help your team learn the simple steps that can reduce the risk of violence at your organization -- without creating legal headaches -- with the Violence in the Workplace course from Training Today.

Your supervisors and employees will learn:

• Common triggers that indicate a co-worker might become violent
• When it's time to report these warning signs or threats to HR
• How to deal with workplace bullies
• The first course of action when a co-worker threatens violence
• How to deal with a robbery or threats from a co-worker's abusive spouse
• And other simple steps to secure your workplace from potential violence