Employee Handbooks: Critical Issues and Best Practices for 2020 - 3-Hour Boot Camp

OVERVIEW Employee handbooks have become a valuable tool in providing important information to employees. Handbooks describe what employers expect of their employees, and what employees can (should) expect from their employers. Handbooks provide critical information about their employers and their workplaces, and describe how employees are expected to fit in. Additionally, employee handbooks formalize the mutual expectations of organizations and their employees. In delineating these expectations employee handbooks create opportunities and risks for employers. Handbooks provide organizations with the opportunity to enhance the value of their human capital, make their organizations more competitive, and improve individual and organizational performance. Conversely, handbooks can impede the achievement of business objectives, increase employment related liabilities, and reduce managerial prerogatives by making promises or commitments to certain procedural safeguards that the organiza... Read more

OVERVIEW Employee handbooks have become a valuable tool in providing important information to employees. Handbooks describe what employers expect of their employees, and what employees can (should) expect from their employers. Handbooks provide critical information about their employers and their workplaces, and describe how employees are expected to fit in. Additionally, employee handbooks formalize the mutual expectations of organizations and their employees. In delineating these expectations employee handbooks create opportunities and risks for employers. Handbooks provide organizations with the opportunity to enhance the value of their human capital, make their organizations more competitive, and improve individual and organizational performance. Conversely, handbooks can impede the achievement of business objectives, increase employment related liabilities, and reduce managerial prerogatives by making promises or commitments to certain procedural safeguards that the organization did not intend to make. As noted in the recent memorandum from the General Counsel of the NLRB: incorrectly designed employee handbooks can violate the law and have a “chilling effect” on employees’ activities. Thus, developing and regularly updating employee handbook increasingly provide for employers the opportunity to make their work force more committed to and supportive of organizational goals. At the same time, they also provide the basis for employees’ legal action and can significantly reduce employees’ commitment to organizational success. WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND The purposes and the scope of employee handbook policies and the practices are changing and expanding. From a siloed HR activity that creates insular documents concerned primarily with communicating the organizational work rules and benefits, employee handbook policies and procedures have evolved into a critical component of an organization-wide management process that maximizes organizations’ achievement of business objectives, enhances the value of their human capital, and minimizes legal risk. Thus, to increase the effectiveness of their employment policies, organizations will have to: 1) enhance their business, operational, and legal intelligence to ensure they have identified the changing external and internal factors that affect their policies; 2) increase internal stakeholder participation in the handbook development process to obtain greater employee commitment and operational alignment; 3) establish new metrics to assess handbook policy and practices performance and measure the achievement of organization goals; and 4) implement internal controls that identify and alert management when employee handbook process failures occur. AREAS COVERED Employee handbooks will increasingly have to ensure that they are aligned with strategic and business objectives, are properly drafted, and are effectively implemented. Additionally, employee handbooks will have to: • Enhance the employment brand; • Play a key role in recruitment and retention; • Enhance employee relations, employee morale, and productivity; • Contribute to uniform and consistent application, interpretation, and enforcement of organizational policies and rules; • Protect the organization against claims of improper employee/supervisor conduct; and • Reduce the organization’s exposure to employment related liabilities. From this perspective, employee handbooks will continue to play an important role in communicating with and providing information for employees. LEARNING OBJECTIVES • Key employee handbook issues in 2020 • A review of the NLRB’s recent memorandum on employee handbooks • How organizations can reduce the gap between policy issuance and effective implementation • Review the employee handbook checklist and the basics of employee handbook development • Discuss employee handbook legal issues and the expanding purposes and scope of employee handbooks • Learn the dimensions of critical handbook policies and what should be included in an employee handbook • Understand the framework of employee handbook audit activities • Understand the employee handbooks required changes for 2020 WHO WILL BENEFIT • HR Professionals • Internal Auditors and External Auditors • Business Owners • CPAs and CFOs • Legal counsel • Managers and Supervisors • Compliance Officers • Risk Managers • Senior and middle management SPEAKER Years of Experience: 42+ years Areas of Expertise: HR Audits, Risk Management, Unemployment Insurance, and Employee Survey Ronald Adler is the president-CEO of Laurdan Associates, Inc., a veteran-owned, human resource management consulting firm in Rockville, Md., specializing in HR audits, employment practices risk management, benchmarking and HR metrics, strategic HR, employee surveys, and unemployment insurance issues. Mr. Adler has more than 42 years of HR consulting experience working with U.S. and international firms, small businesses and non-profits, insurance companies and brokers, and employer organizations. Mr. Adler is a consulting expert on work force, employment practices, and unemployment insurance issues to Bloomberg BNA, HR Magazine, and other publications and newspapers across the country. His research findings have been used by the Federal Reserve Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Federation of Independent Business, insurers, and international organizations. Mr. Adler is the co-developer of the Employment-Labor Law Audit™ (ELLA®), the nation's leading HR auditing and employment practices risk assessment tool, and is a frequent lecturer and author on HR management and workplace issues. As an adjunct professor at Villanova University, Mr. Adler teaches graduate courses on HR auditing. He is also a certified instructor on employment practices and insurance issues for The CPCU Society, has conducted continuing professional education courses for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants on "Assessing Employment and Personnel Policies," and has conducted continuing professional education courses for SHRM, the Institute of Internal Auditors, and the Institute of Management Consultants. As a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Mr. Adler serves as a subject matter expert (SME) to SHRM on HR metrics and formerly served on SHRM's Human Capital Measurement/HR Metrics Special Expertise Panel. He is a consulting expert on workplace issues to SHRM's legislative staff, has contributed materials for The SHRM Academy and the SHRM Learning System, and has represented SHRM in meetings with the EEOC. Mr. Adler is an appointee to the State of Maryland Legislative UI Committee. Additionally, he belongs to the Institute of Internal Auditors, chairs the Maryland Chamber of Commerce's UI Subcommittee and is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Labor Relations Committee. Mr. Adler holds a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Maryland and an M.B.A. degree from Southern Illinois University Use Promo Code SPRS20 and get flat 20% discount on all purchases. To Register (or) for more details please click on this below link: https://bit.ly/2WAdmI9 Email: support@trainingdoyens.com Toll Free: +1-888-300-8494 Tel: +1-720-996-1616 Fax: +1-888-909-1882