Supervisor School*
For Supervisors and Managers

Getting the Right Fit: Best practices for selection and hiring

Billions of dollars are spent every year hiring “the best candidate” for the job! Managers and supervisors affect the “bottom line” with every hiring decision they make. How important is it to your company to do it right the first time? This program is designed to provide participants with the skills and knowledge to make the best hiring decisions.

This program covers:

• Defining selection criteria
• Reviewing the application and/or resume
• Developing effective behavior-based interview questions
• Review of legal issues
• Steps to conduct the interview
• Background checks & pre-employment testing

Performance Management: The continuous process

Communicating information is one of the most important tasks of any manager or supervisor. Providing performance feedback and communicating expectations are not always easy, but are a critical part of the job. Performance Management should not be a one-time a year event, but a continuous process throughout the year. This program will help supervisors and managers master the coaching and counseling skills that make it easier to provide feedback and handle difficult HR situations.

This interactive program will cover:

• The importance of feedback
• Performance management cycle
• Legal review: Issues pertaining to performance management
• Setting expectations
• Understanding skills, knowledge and talent
• Manager’s role as a coach & counselor
• Dealing with difficult employee issues
• Feedback skills & tools

Write it Down! Documenting those employee discussions

Preparing effective documentation that “tells the story” is an important skill every supervisor and manager needs in today’s challenging environment. Memorializing your discussions with employees regarding their performance provides a communication tool to keep track of improvement plans, responsibilities and results. Well-written documentation will also support your employment decisions when reviewed by management or for legal purposes. A consistent practice of documentation is a critical element in defending against claims of discrimination.

If you are not in the habit of documenting or don’t know what to write down, join us to learn:

• When to document
• Documenting verbal or written warnings
• Getting past the “writers block”
• Content: The 5 W’s; a checklist of what to include
• When to get employee input & signatures
• Performance review documentation

 

Taming the Time Crunch

Increasingly we're expected to drive results by achieving more with fewer resources. Using time effectively to manage priorities can increase both productivity and personal satisfaction. This three-hour workshop will assist you in taking control of your work.

You will:

• Clarify personal and professional goals
• Complete an assessment to determine your personal time management style
• Identify time waters and commit to a plan to overcome them
• Apply a four-step process to organize yourself around key priorities

 

Termination: Facing the dreaded task

There’s no tougher job, but someone has to do it. This is one of the most difficult jobs a supervisor has to do, both personally and professionally. Balancing the emotional issues with the necessary business decision is tough for even the most seasoned supervisors. Feeling confident in the decision, communicating it effectively, and treating the employee with respect and dignity are the keys to a “successful” termination. Claims of discrimination can be avoided by handling this difficult task well.

This program will help you:

• Make the decision: Analyzing employee record & company practice
• Prepare for the notification meeting
• Address security issues
• Handle the emotions: Yours and the employees’
• Notification: How to tell the employee
• Recommended policy of escorts

 

Positive Stress Management

Challenges at work affect all of us, increasing our stress level both on and off the job. This program allows you to step back and quickly evaluate the stress in your work environment, assess coping mechanisms, and review resources available in the workplace to prevent stress from following you home.

In this dynamic three-hour workshop, you will:

• Identify personal and professional sources of stress
• Pinpoint pressures and telltale signs of stress at work
• Identify strategies to address your internal and external stressors
• Create an action plan to develop behaviors to promote stress management

---

Preventing Harassment in the Workplace**

This training will provide participants with an understanding of your company’s responsibility to maintain a harassment-free environment and how to minimize your liability when complaints of harassment arise. All forms of harassment will be addressed with a special focus on sexual harassment.

• Recognizing Harassment
• Questionable behaviors
• Questions to help evaluate behavior
• Reporting concerns or complaints
• Components of an effective policy
• Roles and responsibilities of a manager
• Conducting an effective investigation

The employee version of this program addresses the first four bulleted items. Included in both the manager and employee versions are videos illustrating various scenarios that commonly occur in the workplace.

---

HR Boot Camp*

Wage and Hour Laws: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

Exempt or Non-Exempt? Many HR Professionals struggle with this question! Learn the new regulations for exempt status, understand the exempt classifications, test for determining exemption, and more.

• Overview of FLSA: Who’s covered
• Minimum wage issues
• Overtime compensation: Who is paid OT, when and how much?
• Working Time: On-call time, travel time, meal time, training time, etc.
• Docking pay: Unlawful deductions
• How to prepare for a DOL audit

Employment Law Primer for HR Administrators

This training module is a comprehensive overview of key laws impacting the workplace and your responsibilities as the HR Administrator for complying with them. We’ll review most of the major Federal laws that affect Human Resources departments: EEO, Title VII, ADEA, ADA and more. We will also explore how compliance with the law affects policies and procedures in your organization. Also covered:

• Employment at will
• Prohibited discrimination
• Harassment
• Workplace privacy issues
• New York State Human Rights Law
• Recordkeeping and record retention practices

Understanding FMLA, ADA & Workers’ Compensation

Human Resource professionals effectively managing the interplay of these three laws can reduce benefit costs, control absenteeism, and reduce discrimination claims. Gain a thorough understanding of:

• FMLA, including who’s covered, entitlements, employer obligations, proactive steps for employers;
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the NYS Human Rights Law as they relate to the protection of employees with disabilities, including Disability definitions, what is reasonable accommodation, avoiding discrimination claims;
• Workers’ Compensation Law, including employer rights and obligations, light duty and back-to-work programs, recommendations to reduce absences, encouraging employees to return to work, and reducing costs.

FMLA: Beyond the Basics

Understanding the basics of FMLA is not enough anymore for many HR professionals. It is necessary in today's workplace to know and understand the more sophisticated aspects of managing FMLA and the subtle nuances of interpreting employer obligations, as well as best practices for compliance. Join us for a lively examination and discussion of FMLA--including case studies--covering:

• Determining employer coverage; joint employers/integrated employers and successors in interest
• Employee eligibility requirements, such as multiple worksite coverage, determining serious health conditions, medical certifications and health care providers
• Reinstatement obligations; comparable pay, benefits and position
• Practical solutions for managing intermittent leave
• Best practices for complying with employee/employer notification and communication responsibilities
• Integrating multi-jurisdictional requirements with FMLA
• Future of federal and state family leave laws; overview of proposed FMLA changes & NYS paid Family Leave

Conducting Effective Workplace Investigations: What you should know

When an employee complains of harassment, discrimination or some other form of potentially unlawful behavior in your workplace, will you know how to respond? Employers are under legal obligation to conduct investigations. How your company responds could be the difference between winning or losing an employment lawsuit. This program provides practical guidelines and outlines your risks and obligations. This interactive program will include:

• Who should conduct the investigation
• Interviewing techniques and question development
• Process for conducting investigations
• Investigating complaints of discrimination, misconduct
• Confidentiality issues
• Effective documentation

Successful Recruitment Strategies

Whether you need to fill five or five hundred positions, a structured recruiting process is essential for your organization. Identifying and attracting candidates is no longer as simple as placing a newspaper ad or posting on an online job board. Changes in the workforce, and the recent explosion of social and business networking sites, have truly changed the face of recruiting. We will review several of these new Web 2.0 technologies, traditional recruiting efforts, and best practices in establishing an effective recruiting function:

• First steps in creating a recruitment process
• Basics of candidate relationship management
• Employee referral programs
• Innovative recruiting sources
• Candidate screening techniques
• Legal compliance issues

---

HR MasterWorks Series*
Strategies to Master Today's HR Challenges

Paying for Positions, People and Performance
For HR Professionals

The labor market is still favorable for employers and measures indicate that recent job growth will continue into next year. However, with critical skills and key positions still in demand, companies will be wise to re-examine their compensation strategies and programs to ensure they can compete for and keep the best talent, while controlling costs.

In this interactive seminar we will review the methodologies for aligning pay with your organization’s business objectives and culture, and we will work through establishing/redesigning compensation programs to ensure compensation dollars are being utilized most effectively and efficiently in your organization. This session will cover:

• Latest trends in employee compensation
• Tools for assessing your organization’s compensation practices
• Strategies for creating/revising your compensation programs

Privacy at Work: Balancing employer precautions and employee perceptions
For HR Professionals and Senior Executives

As technologies advance and right-to-privacy issues abound, it is increasingly more challenging for employers to protect their assets while respecting their employees’ privacy. Monitoring of electronic communication, retention of electronic files, access to employee information, workplace searches, identity theft, camera cell phones… the list of issues is overwhelming! This program will provide an understanding of your obligation to protect employees’ privacy and proactive steps to protect your valuable company assets.

This program will discuss:

• Electronic monitoring of email, voice mail, Internet use, and State and Federal Laws
• Components of an effective Acceptable Use Policy
• Electronic record retention; duty to preserve for litigation
• Workplace searches; who, what and when
• Employer access to employee information; personnel files, medical, background checks, identity theft
• Avoiding Invasion of Privacy claims
• Investigative inquiries, Fair Credit Reporting Act, proper disposal of consumer information

Strategic Human Resources Planning

Today’s Human Resource Professional must understand the importance of determining how any HR related function ties into the short- and long-term goals of your business. It is critical to determine what is transactional vs. strategic and how that directly affects the bottom line.

Join us to learn a “step-by-step process” for developing a business plan that ties all human resource functions to the organization’s strategic short- and long-term goals. We will discuss how to form and sell the strategies, develop an implementation plan and successfully execute the plan. Pro-active methods for influencing the acceptance of the plans--including overcoming hurdles in plan execution--will also be covered.

Through interactive activities and discussion, this program will cover:

• Where to Start
  - Understanding the business of your organization
  - Translating the language of business
  - Understanding the vision
• Forming the Strategy
  - Translating the value of HR processes
  - Identify required elements
  - Determining investment required for positive ROI
• Fine Tuning the Strategy
  - Understanding the politics
  - Soliciting feedback
  - Developing timelines
• Selling the Strategy
  - Working with decision makers
  - Assessing the selling strategy
• Implementing the strategy
  - Developing the implementation plan
  - Timelines
  - Communications
  - Measurements

Writing Effective Business Emails
For Managers and Employees

Workplace emails have created tremendous communication efficiencies, but not without a price. We are overwhelmed by the lack of etiquette, careless grammar and punctuation, and the sheer volume of ineffective messages. Ineffective business email can cause productivity and employee relations problems. This program will address the anatomy of an effective email message.

• The look, tone, and etiquette
• Effective structure of information
• The mechanics; proper subject lines, who’s included on the TO and CC lines
• Issues of forwarding and responding
• Legal issues; privacy, monitoring, and avoiding harassment and discrimination

---

Leadership Academy*

Personal Leadership for Managers and Supervisors

You already have the technical skills you need to succeed, but what about the skills to work effectively with the varied people who report to you?

Selecting the right person for the job, having productive conversations with current staff and dealing effectively with performance issues are key competencies you need to succeed. In order to do these things well, you need to first understand your approach.

In this workshop, we will identify, discuss and explore your personal leadership style.

We will use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)™ to:

• Examine personal leadership strengths, style and approach
• Learn how to begin building a culture of teamwork, collaboration and innovation
• Discuss strategies to more effectively communicate and build productive work relationships

You will take with you the results of the assessment as well as an understanding of how your leadership style impacts your effectiveness as a manager or supervisor.

Performance Solutions for Team Effectiveness

Create an environment of communication, trust and productivity with your direct reports.

Learn how to sustain and maximize performance during times of change. Understand how asking the right questions of your employees can drive individual and team performance and create a positive team culture.

In this workshop you will:

• Learn what employees need to succeed at work
• Discover and determine the differences between varied types of challenging performance issues and how to address them effectively
• Learn strategies for developing your top performers and tackling the difficult discussions with your struggling employees
• Learn how to create a framework to align staff functions to organizational goals which maximizes results

Making the Most of your Meetings

We spend a great deal of our working time in meetings, but how often do you find yourself leaving the meeting without a clear idea of what was accomplished or what should come next? We’ll practice group participation skills to improve your effectiveness as a leader or participant in workplace meetings.

Don’t have a meeting if you don’t need a meeting; get out of the “meeting for the sake of meeting” burnout cycle.

Eliminate frustration before, during and after meetings by joining us as we explore:

• Learning how to conduct an effective meeting
• Gaining essential skills for truly effective meeting facilitation
• Using practical methods and tools to deal effectively with common team obstacles: making the connection, innovation, problem solving and other challenges to effective communication

Moving from Conflict to Collaboration

Everyone experiences conflict in the workplace, but as a manager it can be a real challenge when our employees or your colleagues are "not on the same page." How you deal with it can either “make it or break it” for you as a manager. Transform your workplace conflicts into opportunities for innovation and collaboration to promote a deeper appreciation of work-style diversity, and improve productivity and job satisfaction.

We will explore how we individually approach conflict, how conflict can actually be good for a team and how to move from frustration to collaboration.

Using the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)™ we will frame a practical approach to resolving conflict at work by:

• Discussing the five conflict-handling styles
• Examining the effects of each on personal and group dynamics
• Learning how to select the most appropriate style for a given situation

 

Top

HR Works
246 WillowBrook Office Park
Fairport, NY 14450
1-877-219-9062
(Toll Free)