It’s imperative that you train your supervisors on key workforce management topics. Here are three compliance areas that should top your training list. 
Knowing company policy and legal obligations
Because supervisors are the frontline company representatives who have the most day-to-day contact with employees, they need to know and understand your company policies. You need to train your supervisors on recognizing which company policies are applicable in various employment scenarios. Then you must instruct them on how to enforce your policies in a consistent, uniform, and nondiscriminatory manner. Supervisors also need to know their role in ensuring that your company complies with applicable employment laws. Key topics for training on policies and employment laws should include:
- Equal employment opportunity—how it applies to hiring, training, promotions, and other employment decisions;
- Discrimination and harassment—how to prevent it, and what to do after observing it;
- Retaliation—what triggers protections against retaliation, and how to handle discipline after an employee has engaged in protected conduct;
- FMLA and other medical leaves—recognizing requests for Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave, limits on contacting the employee’s healthcare provider, and restrictions on reaching out to an employee out on leave;
- Reasonable accommodations—what may be required as disability and religious accommodations, and how to handle accommodation requests;
- Inappropriate behavior—specific examples of supervisor conduct or decisions that can lead to company liability, such as excluding female employees from certain job opportunities, name-calling/harassment, and failing to stop others from engaging in harassment; and
- Timekeeping and pay issues—prohibiting “off-the-clock” work, maintaining accurate time records, and handling unapproved overtime.
Properly documenting issues and retaining records
Make proper documentation an essential training session for your supervisors. Be sure to include the following documentation skills:
- Make records at the time of, or shortly following, an incident. Don’t wait weeks or months to create your documentation.
- Focus on the facts, not generalizations or subjective comments.
- State performance expectations clearly.
- Avoid potentially discriminatory statements.
- Don’t exaggerate or embellish.
- Site specific company policies, as applicable.
- Set specific deadlines for follow-up.
Documentation may be the most disliked part of a supervisor’s job. Make it more palatable by explaining how important it will be when you’re defending an employee lawsuit and why it’s essential that it be done correctly. Also include training on where each type of document should be kept (e.g., a personnel file, training file, or medical file) and for how long. The time spent training supervisors on proper documentation will pay off each time your organization is asked to defend an employment decision.
Managing injured employees
When an employee is injured or becomes ill, supervisors face a lot of decisions. How do we cover the employee’s shifts? How do we complete that important project that he was spearheading? What
do we do if he’s placed on work restrictions? Which paperwork must be completed? In addition to handling operational and business concerns, supervisors need to understand any legal rights of
employees that may come into play.
Depending on the circumstances, managing an injured or ill employee can involve the intersection of workers’ compensation law, FMLA leave, disability accommodations, and company policies.
Even if HR or an outside administrator handles parts of the process, supervisors should be trained on employee and employer rights and responsibilities under the applicable laws. You will reduce the risk of claims by training supervisors on:
- Workers’ comp procedures, including the importance of reporting every workplace injury (no matter how minor), how workers’ comp leave is handled, and whether light-duty assignments may be available;
- Specifics related to your FMLA policy, including who handles the FMLA paperwork, confidentiality considerations, job-restoration rights, and prohibitions on retaliation;
- How disability law can factor into decisions if an employee’s condition is deemed a disability, including issues related to extending FMLA leave and other accommodations that may be required to allow the employee to perform the essential functions of her job;
- Which tasks and decisions are made by HR and which are made by the supervisor, and when a supervisor should consult with others before taking action involving an injured (or formerly injured) employee.
Make training sessions practical
Be sure to allow plenty of time for questions in an unintimidating learning environment. Training supervisors now will pay enormous dividends through better decision making down the road that results in fewer employment claims by employees.
Jason Ritchie is a partner at Ritchie Manning LLP in Billings, Montana. He may be contacted at jritchie@ritchiemanning.com.