Employee Telephone Seminars - Training Resources

Telecommuting: The Next Wave of Wage and Hour Litigation ...employees the opportunity to work from home either on a regular or temporary basis. While the flexibility of a telecommuting arrangement can benefit both the employer and the employee, allowing a nonexempt employee to work at home can lead to a minefield of wage and hour issues that you must carefully navigate to avoid potential liability. As telecommuting has become more prevalent, there have  more...

Evaluating Your Third Party Administrator: Are You Getting What You're Paying For? ...third-party administrator is ubiquitous with all types of employee benefit plans. However, proper administration by TPAs should not be taken for granted. As with all facets of employee benefit plans, TPAs need to be monitored and evaluated to ensure proper plan administration and fulfillment of a plan sponsor's fiduciary responsibility. This teleconference explores the key roles of TPAs, how to  more...

Implementing a Health Risk Assessment for Your Health Plan: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Legal ... for an effective health risk assessment?,' 'How do I get employees to participate?,' 'What should I look for in a vendor?' and 'Aren't there a lot of legal issues with gathering health information about employees?' This teleconference will allow you to begin the process of implementing a health risk assessment as part of your company health plan or wellness program. Learn about health risk  more...

The New World of EEO: What Is Coming ...on employers involves claims of inconsistent treatment of employees in hiring, disciplinary and termination proceedings engaged in by supervisors and their employers. This teleconference will assist you with labor and employment matters to appropriately assess the risk and implement positive and proactive solutions to the circumstances which create claims and liability. Learn first-hand how to  more...

End of Employment Payroll Issues ...ll be a comprehensive look into issues that arise when an employee terminates. Topics that will be discussed will go from when an employee needs to receive their final pay to how an employee death's final pay best practices and taxation. This teleconference will cover special situations when an employee terminates such as benefit deductions, state minimum hours requirements and overpayments to  more...

Techniques to Prepare for Difficult Employee Discussions ... you're encountering commonplace or exceptionally serious employee relations issues, you'll need a down-to-earth strategy to protect yourself and your organization. Verbally addressing problems head-on can be a daunting task because of their confrontational nature, not to mention the record that you're creating, which can land your company in legal hot water. Well, fear not - Join us for this  more...

Employee Expense Reimbursement Best Practices ...employee expense reimbursement and need to prepare and enforce robust policies to adequately support and monitor reimbursable expenses. In today's economy, establishment of best practices and ensuring compliance is crucial to minimize the cost and legal risk of inappropriate practices. This teleconference will explore the legal landscape governing employee expense reimbursement, outline the  more...

Limited Medical Programs: How Employers Are Using Them to Control Health Care Costs ... and more and more premium cost shifting from employer to employee. Employee's are finding it hard to afford the per pay premiums and coupled with huge out-of-pocket expenses, this combination is like a nuclear warhead ready to explode. This teleconference will help you understand the benefits of limited medical programs and how they can be utilized in combination with major medical programs  more...

HR Time Lines: The Complex Integration of FMLA, WC, Disability and COBRA BenefitsHow do worker's compensation, FMLA, disability and COBRA laws work - together, independently or concurrently? What can run together? What cannot? When can we cancel the health plan, for what reason and is it a COBRA qualifying event? We will pull all of these together to explain the employer's liability. When can coverage be canceled? What laws protect employee benefits? Many times all  more...

Dealing With Employees Who Have Been Charged With a Crime ...loyer arises after the employer discovers that one of its employees has been arrested and charged with a crime. Under our legal system, the familiar mantra is that an arrested person is 'innocent until proven guilty'. So, what can an employer do to address situations where an employee has been arrested or has been charge or incarcerated for a crime but has not yet been convicted? For example,  more...

Strategies for Reducing Unemployment Claims Costs ...employee, focus on defending against a possible discrimination charge or a lawsuit. Unfortunately, they may pay little or no attention to defending against the ex-employee's unemployment compensation claim. Those employers, albeit mistakenly, believe the ex-employee will be awarded unemployment compensation benefits no matter what they do - so why bother? Not so. This teleconference will assist  more...

Wage and Hour Update: Overtime Concerns With Mobile Devices ...employees is now the norm for many industries as new technologies allow work to be done virtually anywhere at any time. Serious questions have emerged about how employers should limit, monitor and compensate remote work hours. Recent litigation trends also show that compensation for time worked away from the office during nontraditional hours is coming under increased legal scrutiny. This has  more...

Employee Wages: Administration of Caps, Freezes, Reductions and Furloughs BenefitsEmployers continue to search for ways to control payroll costs in response to economic uncertainty. Layoffs and force reductions have pared many workforces to the bone, but the pressure to manage costs is relentless. Adjustments to compensation and to working time can be viable alternatives to job cuts, but they are not without legal risk. This teleconference will address the legal and  more...

Document Retention and Destruction: What Human Resource Professionals Must Know ...employees is one of the most difficult and tedious tasks that human resources professionals need to perform for their organizations. Knowing the proper procedures to follow to document employees in the workplace is a key skill needed by most human resources professionals. This teleconference will provide you with information on the key concepts and issues surrounding proper employee  more...

Avoiding Costly Mistakes In Harassment Policies and Investigations BenefitsSexual and other forms of harassment remain a significant problem for employers. Courts and legislatures continue to create new obligations for employers and continue to increase the potential for liability for employers. Many employers continue to have policies and procedures for harassment that are outdated or that actually create potential liability. This teleconference will help you  more...

Employee Safety and Health Systems: Cutting Injuries Using the Team Approach ...tsTraditional safety committees involve a small number of employees and are often managed by the individual responsible for the facility safety and health system. The problem is that the success of the committee, and thus the system success, is predicated by the authority given to the committee and its leadership which in most cases is low to nonexistent. The bottom line is that employee safety  more...

Deductions From Pay ...uirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Misclassifying employees' status can be costly to an employee. It is estimated that at least 70 percent of employers are not in compliance with the FLSA. As Department of Labor audits increase, it is critical for employers to understand the FLSA and to recognize the permissible deductions. This teleconference is intended to provide you with  more...

Managing Employee Absenteeism and Tardiness ...olicies. There are also some restrictions on disciplining employees when they appear to abuse policies. This teleconference will help companies to sort out the do's and don'ts for developing and managing an effective policy. The teleconference will also focus on how to manage the land mines, sort through the valid and invalid 'excuses' employees come up with, and provide ways to improve  more...

Mental Illness and the ADA ...employees with claimed mental conditions creates unique challenges for employers attempting to comply with the ADA. What mental impairments does the ADA protect? How does the employer know of these often invisible disabilities and of the employee's need to accommodate the condition? How does an employer accommodate conditions that cause employees to violate work rules or request treatment? May  more...

Meeting Your Fiduciary Responsibilities Under ERISA ...employee benefit plan subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 requires that people managing the plan or investing plan assets become fiduciaries. You need to know when they might become an ERISA plan fiduciary. You must understand your legal obligations to plan participants and beneficiaries. This teleconference will provide you with an overview of the ERISA rules  more...

Properly Handling Employee Complaints of Discrimination BenefitsThe existence of effectively enforced rules, the fair and thorough investigation of complaints and misconduct, and an understanding of the legal process relating to claims are critical to enabling a company to limit potential charges and lawsuits asserting discrimination. This teleconference will afford practical guidance in analyzing and responding to charges effectively and lawfully.  more...

Curbing FMLA Abuse: How to Manage Manipulative Employees ... are often the victims of FMLA abuse. The regulations are employee friendly and many employees have figured out how to play the FMLA game to avoid working and being held accountable for their absences. These issues can wreak havoc on productivity in the workplace. This teleconference will help you understand what you can do to use the FMLA regulations to curb FMLA abuse. This teleconference  more...

How to Legally Handle Travel Pay ...fitsMany companies do not understand how to compensate an employee properly for time spent traveling to destinations other than a regular work site. Many companies send employees to conferences and other work sites using commercial travel and personal vehicles. This teleconference will enable you to understand how and when to compensate an employee for travel time away from a work site. You'll  more...

Form 5500 Reporting Update ...employee benefit plan must file an annual report regarding the plan's financial condition, investments and operations, unless specifically exempt by law. Filing the Form 5500 will satisfy this. This teleconference will help you understand when you need to file a Form 5500 and what you need to file, and will focus on some recent changes that may impact your filings. Human resource managers,  more...

Completing and Submitting the EEO-1 Report By September 30 BenefitsIn this interactive teleconference, you will learn the EEO-1 reporting requirements as well as practical, easy to use approaches to completing and submitting the EEO-1 report by the filing deadline. This engaging teleconference will also explain the EEOC's and OFCCP's systemic discrimination enforcement initiatives. From understanding the EEOC's and OFCCP's new focus on these issues to  more...

Employee Engagement in Troubled Times ...employees is particularly critical amid periods of economic uncertainty if organizations are to maintain product and service quality, and lay a foundation for future growth. Yet while challenging economic environments make employee motivation more critical, they also make employee engagement more difficult to achieve. Belt tightening often results in organizational retrenching, reduced staffing  more...

Lawful Hiring BenefitsEmployers must navigate a minefield of complicated and, in some cases, conflicting laws that affect the hiring process Discrimination claims often arise out of the hiring process. The new U.S. Supreme Court decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, 557 U.S. ___ (2009) shows how an employer (the New Haven Fire Department in that case) can violate discrimination laws when taking steps to attempt to  more...

Dealing with Employee Gambling in the Workplace ... is enjoyed by millions of Americans, including groups of employees in the average workplace. The NCAA or Super Bowl office pool can increase morale, create camaraderie among co-workers and generally be a fun and exciting event, especially with the prospect for a lucky employee of a substantial monetary payout. Workplace gambling, however, also has a dark side. Lost productivity; potential  more...

Effective Job Rotation Programs: Development and Implementation ...tions are modernizing job rotation programs to accelerate employee development across the organization, increase motivation and retention of top talent, and deliver significant gains in workforce productivity as evidenced by the organizations bottom line. If you have struggled with trying to figure out how to deliver double digit gains in workforce productivity rates, this teleconference is for  more...

Employment Law Compliance: Disciplining or Terminating a Workers' Comp Claimant ...itimate injury or goldbricking, there is no debating that employee absences cost employers in lost productivity, missed deadlines, supervisor stress and tension among co-workers who are required to pick up the slack. Often an employer's plan to discipline or discharge is put on hold when the employee goes out on leave. How can employers deal with these situations? This teleconference will  more...

Pitfalls of Participant Loans in Retirement Plans ...employee benefit plan are a common problem area due to their complex administration. Plan sponsors of qualified employee benefit plans need to be aware of many pitfalls to avoid tax consequences. Even worse than tax consequences is the possibility of the entire plan losing its preferred tax status. This teleconference will explain the regulations of participant loans in a plan, help you avoid  more...

Best Practices to Manage Your Multistate Payroll ...faced with legal and practical challenges associated with employee benefits, overtime, nonexempt employee requirements, employee bonus payments, confusing payroll forms, etc. Not only do you have to know your own state laws but often times neighboring state laws if you have employees across state lines. The taxability of employee benefits is confusing and the regulations are constantly  more...

Paperless Payroll: Essentials to a Seamless Transition ...be a healthy boost to the bottom line without eliminating employees. The notion of paperless payroll has come a long way since the introduction of direct deposit in the 1970's, but despite the advances, most companies are still distributing paper checks, pay advices and W2s. In this teleconference, we'll take a look at the cost saving potential of a fully paperless payroll process; the range of  more...

Benchmarking your Health Benefit Program: How Do You Stack Up? ...gies not only for reducing cost, but also for recruiting, employee retention and health plan design. n nThis teleconference will work through several methods to evaluate your health benefit program's cost, design and impact on employees with an eye to comparing your plan to others - regionally and nationally. In addition, we will discuss the trends in health benefits and give you benchmarking  more...

Utilizing Settlement and Severance Packages Properly nFor HR professionals and CFOs, this teleconference is a must. As companies face ongoing reductions in force, mass layoffs and performance-based terminations, this teleconference will tell you what you need to do in planning terminations both as reductions in force and other terminations. You will learn how to decide the appropriate severance and what should be contained in the severance agreement  more...

Enforcing Arbitration Agreements: 14 Penn Plaza and Other Recent Developments in Arbitration of Statutory Employment Claims ...nion-negotiated arbitration agreement can bind individual employees to arbitrate statutory age discrimination claims. This decision continues the trend of enforcing agreements to arbitrate employment discrimination claims. 14 Penn Plaza should cause all legal professionals to consider the advantages of agreements to arbitrate statutory claims - whether in the union or individual employee  more...

Construction Site Hazard Prevention ...he establishment and communication of best practices, and employee participation in identifying and mitigating hazards before an injury can occur. n nLearning Objectives n- You will be able to formulate a company philosophy and culture. n- You will be able to give examples of why it is important to identify and mitigate site hazards. n- You will be able to devise a plan to prevent site  more...

Writing an Employee Handbook nAre you overwhelmed with the task of revising your existing employee handbook or of preparing a new employee handbook? Are you unclear about what types of employment policies are required by federal law? Stop worrying and attend this teleconference. You will learn which policies are required by law and what employment laws apply to employee handbooks. Take the first step to creating your employee  more...

Smoking Discrimination in the Workplace: On and Off the Clock ...ployer's interest in the smoking habits of applicants and employees ends at the employer's property line, and that an employer has no business regulating whether applicants or employees smoke off-duty, away from the employer's premises. They caution that if an employer can regulate an individual's off-duty smoking habits at home or even on vacation, the "slippery slope" could lead to an  more...

California Employment Law Update ...employees in California face a bewildering and complicated set of employment laws, which are often inconsistent with federal law. This three-hour teleconference will address the most important and current issues facing California employers (or out-of-state companies with employees in California), including wage and hour compliance and litigation trends, California's unique disability and  more...

Why Is This Guy Still on My Health Plan? ...of its benefit plans. This results many times in inactive employees (inactive usually because of a disability or other leave of absence) lingering on employer's health and other benefit plans (dental, group life) where the employer continues to pay premiums despite the employee being no longer eligible under the plan. This teleconference will discuss the relevant legal pitfalls, including FMLA  more...

7 Questions to Ask When Establishing Cause for Disciplining and Terminating Employees nThis teleconference will focus on understanding and implementing a simple, yet comprehensive approach to investigating and documenting potential disciplinary and termination actions. You will learn seven questions to establish cause for discipline or termination, as well as why proper investigation and documentation minimizes potential for the filing of discrimination claims, decreases settlement  more...

Effective Utilization of Employee Waivers ...employee waivers establish employee expectations and protect employers from liability for employment-related claims such as discrimination, harassment and retaliation, as well as contract claims and tort claims such as defamation and invasion of privacy. Pre-employment waivers put employees on notice of employment screens such as background checks and drug testing. During employment, employee  more...

Responding to an EEO Charge ...priate anti-discriminatory policies in place and that all employees understand those policies. Prevention and awareness are areas employers should focus on when dealing with employee discrimination issues. If the worst case scenario happens, this teleconference will tell you how to protect your company when an EEOC charge arises, tips and strategies to respond to the charge, how to prepare your  more...

Internal ERISA Audits: Getting It Right Before the Government Shows Up ...Employee benefits plans are subject to a large number of requirements imposed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and by other laws such as the Internal Revenue Code. Failure to comply with these complex and ever-changing requirements could lead to substantial penalties or even the meltdown of the plan. This teleconference will highlight a number of these requirements and show you  more...

Preparing for and Properly Reacting To Legal and Illegal Drug and Alcohol Use in the Workplace ...Drug and alcohol abuse continues to have a huge impact on employee productivity and safety. At the same time, recognizing drug and alcohol abuse is outside the expertise of most managers and human resource personnel, while dealing with the problem improperly can lead to significant liability under federal and law, including the Americans With Disabilities Act and employee privacy laws. This  more...

Effective Exit Interviews ...employee relations, attract new employees and retain the ones they have. But how do you know what to do to improve if you don't know what employees are looking for or why they are leaving? n nImplemented properly, a good exit interview program can provide an employer with a host of valuable information that can be used to improve its employee relations and HR function. Why are employees  more...

Workplace Flexibility: Innovative Strategies for an Evolving Workforce ...and regions are using flexibility to improve business and employee outcomes. You will gain the ability to communicate effectively about policy approaches on workplace flexibility currently being considering in Washington - and understand how those policies may impact your business practices and strategies. More critically, you will learn about the challenges and opportunities for business and  more...

The Do's and Don'ts of Telephone Monitoring ...employee telephone conversations as a routine part of doing business. This monitoring must comply not only with the federal wiretap statute, but with a variety of differing requirements imposed by state statutes. Since courts in California have changed the rules for telephone monitoring for anyone who makes a call into California and other states with mutual consent rules may follow suit, it is  more...

Avoid Wrongful Termination Lawsuits: Strategies to Keep Your Managers Out of Legal Trouble nThis teleconference will review tried-and-true methods for eliminating employment litigation risks, will build managers' confidence in dealing with a range of common-place employee issues, and sharpen their understanding of workplace practices and policies which will dramatically reduce exposure to litigation risks for themselves and their companies.  more...

Hot Topics for 501(c)(3) Organizations nThere has been a lot of talk about the revised Form 990 and it's finally here! Whether you love it or loathe it, you can't put it off any longer. We will spend a majority of the time talking about some of the hot-button issues that the new form raises both in terms of simple compliance and in communicating with and involving your board. But wait, there's more! After this teleconference, you'll  more...

Employee Retaliation: Supreme Court Update ...CBOCS West, Inc. v. Humphries, 128 S.Ct. 1951 (2008) that employees can bring retaliation claims under Section 1981, a post-Civil War era race discrimination act, even though the law does not expressly refer to retaliation. Moreover, the CBOCS West decision recognizes a retaliation claim brought by an individual of any race, who suffers an adverse action as a result of attempting to help  more...

Using Medical Certifications to Minimize Employer Liability: FMLA, ADA and Workers' Comp ...mpensation statutes. But the legal landscape for managing employee health issues has had many changes in recent months. Amendments to the ADA took effect January 1, 2009. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act also takes effect in 2009. Employers are subject to new regulations under HIPAA for their wellness programs, and new FMLA regulations are pending. Despite this rapid change, the  more...

Same-Gender Marriage Rulings: Impacts on Employee Benefit Plans Across the Nation nIn May 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that the state cannot deny same-gender couples the right to marry. Same-gender couples - many of them, in fact - flocked to California and started getting legally married on June 17, 2008. But then in November 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage going forward. Massachusetts and Canada also allow same-gender  more...

Employee Discipline for Conduct Outside of Work ... rights and responsibilities of employers in disciplining employees for conduct outside of work. You'll hear about recent legislation and court cases involving some of the hottest topics in employment law, including employee discipline for blogging, web-based "employer trashing," workplace dating and extramarital affairs, and physical appearance such as weight, tattoos and body piercing. Our  more...

Fitness for Duty Psychological Evaluations ...s. You'll hear a discussion of common reasons to refer an employee for a FFDE, information initially needed by the evaluating doctor and how to write appropriate questions for the psychologist or psychiatrist to answer. You will also learn about evaluating doctors' credentials, experience and forensic experience, as well as the important differences between evaluations completed for forensic  more...

Understanding the COBRA Alternative Coverage Rules nThis teleconference is essential for company personnel who are involved with COBRA coverage and what can be done to reduce costs. In lieu of a company's traditional health plan, for COBRA purposes, the company is allowed to offer alternative health coverage although the procedure for doing so is quite complicated. n nDiscussed first is what constitutes the various forms of alternative health  more...

Religious Accommodations in the Workplace ...employee morale, U.S. companies must effectively meet their legal duty to properly accommodate religion in the workplace. This is particularly true because of the rapid growth of religious cultures in the U.S. and the increasing awareness of religious workplace accommodation rights by employees. This teleconference is designed not only to update employers about legal developments in religious  more...