The monthly roundtable discussion by the SPAHRA membership will be held on April 24, 2024, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Everyone is invited to participate in this event.

This event is designed to share topics of interest in the HR field and to provide information on what and how each member’s company is addressing its HR issues. Legislative/Legal Chair Dean Dietrich will moderate the roundtable discussion, but it is designed for members to share information and ideas amongst everyone in attendance.

The topics for this session include:

• Continued discussion regarding Supervisory Training Videos (see notes in BLUE below)
• Discussion regarding anticipated changes to regulations regarding exempt status under FLSA
  
• Discussion regarding enforcement efforts by Department of Labor
  

We hope that everyone will attend and share their thoughts and comments. Our goal is to share information amongst the members and generate ideas that can be helpful to everyone.

SUPERVISOR TRAINING VIDEOS

Working with the Human Resource Department

There are differences with each employer so the program should be general in nature.

The individual human resource manager can use the video to lay the groundwork for a discussion by the manager as to when topics need to be presented to the human resource department.

Discussion should be about the partnership between the new manager and the human resource department professionals.

Use examples or scenarios to present the topic.

Harassment in the Workplace

This would focus on all the potential protected categories and how harassment can occur in the workplace.

There should be discussion regarding diversity issues and the importance of ensuring a diverse workforce.

There should be discussion regarding actions by employees on social media and how those actions can be considered harassment even though they are not during work hours.

There should be discussion regarding bullying in the workplace and how to deal with examples of bullying of an employee.

There should be discussion regarding how the frontline supervisor handles inappropriate interaction amongst employees and when that should be referred to the Human Resource Department to address the conduct.

Americans with Disabilities Act – Role of Supervisor

This program would start with a general discussion regarding the Disability Discrimination Law, but the focus will really be on the steps to be taken by the manager/supervisor.

We should talk about the interactive process and how a frontline manager/supervisor deals with the interactive process.

We should talk about the relationship between the human resource department and the manager in dealing with reasonable accommodation and how you would determine whether reasonable accommodation must be made for an employee.

Family/Medical Leave Law – Role of the Supervisor

This program would talk about the basics of family medical leave but again focus on the role of the frontline supervisor.

We would talk about the consequences of failing to comply with the law or failing to recognize when FMLA considerations must be addressed with the human resource department.

We should limit the explanation of the law to the minimal things needed for a frontline supervisor to deal with FMLA requests.

We should talk about the circumstances of an employee returning from FMLA leave and holding the employee accountable for continuing to do their job even though they have been off on FMLA leave.

We should talk about discipline for abuse of FMLA leave and the role of the frontline supervisor in addressing the conduct of the employee.

Investigations and Discipline

This program would talk about the role of the frontline supervisor in dealing with disciplinary actions.

We should talk about the coaching concept for frontline supervisors and how that differs from issuing discipline.

We should talk about documentation of the conduct of employees and what steps a frontline supervisor needs to take in order to document inappropriate conduct or poor performance by an employee.

We may involve a discussion about bullying in this context because of the challenges in documenting the inappropriate conduct of an employee.

The focus would be on the frontline supervisor reporting information to the human resources department and not necessarily on the frontline supervisor taking disciplinary action.

Managing the Difficult Employee

This program would focus on the processes and steps that a frontline supervisor would take when dealing with challenging employees.

This may be included as part of a general discussion regarding disciplinary action and the role of frontline supervisors.

We should share information about different coaching situations and different scenarios where the frontline supervisor needs to address the behavior of employees.

We should discuss situations where the frontline supervisor does not actually observe the inappropriate conduct of an employee but has the information reported to the frontline supervisor. This may be in the context of bullying in the workplace.

We should talk about interaction with the employee accused of wrongdoing and discuss this need to ensure that retaliation does not occur either by the frontline supervisor or by other employees.