Years of experience presenting employment law seminars throughout the country have convinced me that the following objectives must be met in order for a seminar to be successful:

• Remember The Big Picture: While complying with the law is a must, it is entirely possible to teach legal compliance in the context of meeting business objectives. “Compliance” and “productivity” are not mutually exclusive concepts!
• Obtain Participant “Buy In”: Special attention is paid to helping participants understand that knowing how to manage employees in a legally compliant manner is an important job skill that will enhance their career success.
• Avoid “Legalese” Whenever Possible: Painstaking attention has been paid to “translating” legal principles into easy to understand concepts and principles.
• Provide Just The Right Amount Of Detail: Employment law runs deep and wide – and it is easy for participants to get lost if too many details are dumped on a person. My years of experience advising managers on employment law issues have shown me what principles and concepts are most important for managers to understand, and how to teach them in a way that is clear and concise.
• Apply The Law To Real Life Situations: Real life stories, scenarios, and cases all highlighting commonly seen problems bring the law to life and allow participants to see the very real consequences that can flow from high-risk management practices.
• Get Participants Involved: Brief, non-threatening “manager/employee” mini-scenario exercises are used to help participants develop essential employee relations skills.
• Increase Communication: Special attention is paid to increasing the communication flow between all the major players: the manager, the human resource department and employees.

 

The Benefits of “In-House” Seminars

In addition to the above, my seminars are unique compared to many others on the market because most of my seminars are held at my clients’ facilities (or an off-site location of their choice) and conducted exclusively for their personnel. “In-house” seminars are vastly superior to “open-to-the-public” seminars because:

• More Relevant and Effective — The presenter can focus exclusively on the issues that are relevant to your managers and employees… your staff won’t waste their time listening to discussions that aren’t relevant to their workplace. (NOTE: Each seminar purchase includes a consultation with me prior to the seminar to determine any issues that need special attention.)
• Private and Confidential — Managers can speak candidly about any challenges they face in a private, controlled setting, without disclosing issues and concerns to attendees who do not work for the same employer.
• Your Human Resource Department Can Participate — In-house seminars allow for your Human Resource Department to participate in the discussion by sharing information about how your personnel policies interact with the law.
• Cost-Effective — In-house seminars are much more cost-effective than sending all of your managers and employees to open-enrollment seminars.

 

E-mail: jdriggs@sisna.com