Certificate in Essentials of Human Resource Management Seminar

The Certificate in Essentials of Human Resource Management Seminar provides comprehensive and practical coverage of many important aspects of human resource work. The objective of the program is to help participants who are new to the human resources field immediately become more effective on the job, while helping them prepare for greater responsibilities.

All instruction and reference materials are developed so they can be applied in the everyday workplace. Participants learn the essentials of employment law, compensation program design and planning, key training techniques to develop a performance-based evaluation program, HR decision metrics, and HR strategies.

Block I: Legal Aspects of HR Management (Monday-Tuesday)

Employment Discrimination Law

• Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (discrimination and retaliation)
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act
• The Americans with Disabilities Act (including reasonable accommodation and undue hardship)
• The 1991 Civil Rights Act
• The Equal Pay Act
• Executive Order 11246/Affirmative Action
• The Rehabilitation Act
• State discrimination laws

Kinds of Discrimination

• Disparate treatment
• Disparate impact
• Harassment (including sexual harassment)

How Discrimination is Proven

• Direct evidence ("smoking guns")
• Circumstantial evidence
• Statistical/numerical evidence

Specific Laws/Rules Regarding Employment Termination

• "Employment at-will"
• Public policy discharge
• Implied contracts
• Whistle-blower laws

Labor Standards Laws

• Fair Labor Standard Act (wage-hour, overtime, child labor)
• Occupational Safety & Health Act
• Family & Medical Leave Act

Labor Law - The National Labor Relations Act

Miscellaneous

• Worker's Compensation
• COBRA
• ERISA
• WARN

Potential Personal/Individual Liability of the Manager/Supervisor

Safety and Security Issues in Today's Workplace

Employee Selection: Hiring and Interviewing Employees

• How to avoid costly hiring mistakes
• What to look for
• What not to ask
• Negligent hiring
• Objective vs. subjective criteria
• Workplace diversity issues
• Employee orientation
• Drug testing/medical evaluations

Managing, Training and Supervising Employees

• What is/is not "harassment" on the job
• The importance of good communication
• Negligent retention/supervision
• Job assignments/onerous work/overtime
• Employee safety
• Job accommodation/pregnancy/family-medical leaves
• Employee privacy/electronic monitoring
• Drug and alcohol policies/practice
• Investigating/reporting employee complaints
• The supervisor or manager who keeps notes, a diary, or a notebook about his/her employees

Evaluating/Appraising Employees

• Importance of the evaluation in litigation/employee relations
• The biggest obstacles to honest, accurate evaluations
• How to correct performance/conduct problems
• The self-appraisal as an important management tool
• How to say what you mean in an evaluation

Employee Discharge and Discipline

• A detailed checklist for supervisors and managers to reduce the likelihood of "wrongful discharge" and/or claims of discrimination
• Unemployment claims
• Requests for a job reference/defamation risks

Block II: Human Resources Management (Wednesday-Friday)

Strategic HR Management is concerned with maintaining organizational competitiveness by achieving HR effectiveness through the use of HR measurement and HR technology. Through HR planning, managers must anticipate the future supply and demand for employees. An additional strategic HR concern is employee retention. Learn about what the HR Strategic Role entails and how to leverage them at your organization. We will review HR roles, competencies, and current challenges such as: The globalization of business; economic and technological changes; occupational shifts; workforce availability and demographics; and organizational costs. Learn the value of HR Effectiveness and Financial Performance by determining the ROI of all resources and expenditures. Learn about the HR scorecard, measurement and benchmarks and how to show value to your organization.

Staffing and Retention emphasizes the need to provide an adequate supply of qualified individuals to fill the jobs in an organization. Job analysis serves as the foundation for achieving this goal. Learn how to choose the proper job analysis strategy and the difference between job task analysis and competency-based job analysis:

• Learn what the steps of the job analysis process are.
• Learn to develop proper job descriptions.
• Understand that recruiting applicants and selection are required to procure a workforce.
• Learn about the employee psychological contract; job satisfaction; individual performance factors; motivation strategies; retention interventions; and cost of employee turnover.
• What is employment branding and how your organization should do it.
• What are the internal and external recruiting sources you should tap?
• How do you properly select and place candidates?
• What is the selection process and should you test?

Talent Management, Performance Management and Development encompasses:

• Orientation of new employees
• Training
• HR development of all employees and managers to meet future challenges
• Career planning
• Performance management which focuses on how employees perform their jobs
• Succession planning
• Workforce realignment
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Types of training deliveries, assessments, and learning styles
• Training metrics
• Benchmarking
• ROI analysis
• Effective Performance Management Systems should do the following:

o Clarify what the organization expects

o Provide performance information to employees

o Identify areas of success and needed development

o Document performance for personnel records

o Learn about the different types of performance appraisals and how to maximize them for your company

Compensation and Benefits compensation in the form of pay, incentives, and benefits rewards people for performing organizational work. Employers must develop and refine compensation systems and may use variable pay programs. Because so many organizational funds are spent on total reward systems for employees, a number of important decisions must be made to achieve the following objectives:

• Legal compliance with all appropriate laws and regulations
• Cost effectiveness for the organization
• Internal, external and individual equity for employees
• Performance enhancement for the organization
• Performance recognition and talent management for employees
• Learn how to:

o Job price

o Make market comparisons

o Pros and cons of job evaluations

o Different pay structures

o Compliance issues that should be evaluated

o Consider compensation trends, projections and strategies

o Learn the Benefits Strategy, design and measurement for your organization

o Learn about the different types of benefits such as government mandated, voluntary, security, retirement, and health benefits

Risk Management and Worker Protection for decades, employers have been required to meet legal requirements and be responsive to concerns for workplace health and safety. In addition, workplace security has grown in importance along with disaster and recovery planning. Learn the nature of Health, Safety and Security. Learn the legal compliance organizations must adhere to such as OSHA, PPE, Blood-borne Pathogens, Ergonomics and Workplace Air Quality.