Webinars

Here’s what you’ll learn throughout the four-week discrimination series:

• 04/03/25: Age. Understand the rights of aging employees and head off age-discrimination lawsuits.
• 04/10/25: Religion. Learn practical strategies for preventing religious discrimination in the workplace, including the process for offering reasonable accommodations.
• 04/17/25: Sex. Comply with laws that guarantee equal rights and opportunities in the workplace, ensuring that all individuals are treated fairly regardless of their gender.
• 04/24/25: Race. Ensure you are complying with civil rights laws that prohibit unequal treatment based on race.

• Understand “real world” FMLA scenarios. We’ll explain how to manage the common FMLA problems you face daily, including reining in intermittent-leave abuse with strict call-off compliance, when intermittent leave is for a family member’s chronic illness and how to avoid potential legal pitfalls associated with leave (such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, PWFA and workers’ compensation)..
• Use compliance tools correctly. Learn how to use the tools of compliance to address unscheduled and intermittent leaves (certifications, call-in rules, attendance procedures and more), and how to account for intermittent leave by the hour.
• Proper certifications. Know what to do when the FMLA call-offs exceed the intermittent-leave certification you have on file.
• When to say no. Employees can use intermittent leave every day to change their schedule permanently. Know when and how you can say no to such demands.
• Leverage your follow-up powers. Know when you can contact an employee’s doctor about the need for leave and request a second opinion.
• Know how to track time off. The FMLA and the PWFA allow pregnant workers short bursts of unscheduled leave. Learn how to track both concurrently.
• Learn lessons from recent court rulings. They lay out a path for the best (and worst) steps to complying with intermittent-leave laws.
• Identify the key questions to ask. You should ask a certain set of questions each and every time an employee seeks leave.

• Employee or contractor? Discover how to make the right call.
• Exempt or nonexempt? Learn to use the right tests to classify employees as either nonexempt, eligible for overtime or exempt, not eligible, as well as the latest court rulings related to overtime pay.
• Exempt salary minimum. What’s the current minimum salary for most exempt status?
• Breaks, travel, on-call. Stop wasting money or risking lawsuits by learning when to pay for travel time, on-call hours, meal breaks, training time and more.
• After-hours tasks. In the era of smartphones, email and remote work, learn what must be paid time.
• Docking pay. Know when the law allows you to dock the pay of salaried employees.
• Remote work. Why every employer should review their telecommuting policies.
• Inspections, audits. What to do if DOL or ICE agents show up and demand your pay records or arrest your workers.
• Overtime. How to pay it—and how to legally prevent unauthorized OT.
• Fixing mistakes. How to resolve pay and classification errors without triggering a lawsuit or DOL investigation.

• Signs that your office may be infected with negativity.
• The hidden costs of a chronic negativity problem.
• Diagnosing what makes some people so negative.
• Employees from the dark side: Whiners, complainers, critics and pessimists.
• Active troublemakers: Tattletales, gossips, bullies and rabble-rousers.
• Effective weapons in the war against negativity.
• How you may actually be rewarding your employees’ negative behavior.
• A 5-step behavioral coaching process that really makes an impact.
• How to re-engage resentful employees by flipping their “motivational switch.”
• Using the Team Turnaround process to “disinfect” an entire group.
• Termination: When removing the cause is the only cure.
• Recognizing systemic problems: Signs of a toxic workplace.
• Strategies for saving your sanity in a toxic organization.

• Key elements of an effective investigation. Understand the core components of a thorough investigation and when it’s necessary to launch one.
• Triggering events. Learn which types of employee complaints and situations require immediate investigation and which can be resolved through other means.
• Legal obligations. Discover which employment laws mandate investigations and how to stay compliant.
• Interviewing techniques. Plan and strategize each interview, implement a checklist and document findings accurately to build a solid investigation report.

• The core elements of workplace due process and the importance of the written record in the discipline and termination processes.
• Tough conversations to have with employees that invite them to involve themselves in their own performance improvement.
• Structuring disciplinary documentation that is constructive and insulates the organization from legal liability.
• Alternatives to formal progressive discipline that re-engage employees without the formal trappings of “being written up.”
• Leadership landmines to avoid under all circumstances, especially regarding tricky situations that may miss awareness from good-natured yet unsuspecting managers.

• W-4 updates and compliance. Stay current on the latest W-4 process, including electronic forms, and quickly bring your company into compliance.
• Guidance for side gigs and worksheets. Learn how employees with multiple jobs should complete the W-4 form, and understand the critical role of W-4 worksheets in accurate withholding.
• Effective employee communication. Develop a plan to guide employees—especially new hires—through the W-4 form to prevent costly mistakes.
• Managing outdated W-4s. Discover strategies for handling employees who don’t update their W-4s, including IRS solutions for different forms and methods.
• Rejecting invalid W-4s. Identify when to reject a W-4 and how to manage IRS letters that void an employee’s form.
• Ensuring withholding accuracy. Follow best practices for verifying your withholding processes, with step-by-step IRS guidance.
• Supplemental pay withholding. Master the rules for withholding on various types of supplemental pay.

• Leave as an accommodation. Understand when leave may not qualify as a reasonable accommodation (rarely), and when it may be required for cases of infertility, miscarriage, abortion and more.
• Guaranteed accommodations. The four accommodations the EEOC says you can’t question—no doc notes, no forms, no delay.
• Top practical accommodations. Easy-to-implement, practical accommodations that won’t unduly disrupt the workplace while complying with the law.
• Lessons from the courtroom. Insights from recent EEOC lawsuits under the PWFA and notable settlements.
• Compliant break rooms. Steps to create a PUMP Act-compliant milk-expression space tailored to your industry.
• Prohibition against schedule cuts. Workers who need expression breaks can’t have their schedules cut instead.
• Accommodation best practices. How to accommodate pregnancy-related issues like morning sickness, lifting restrictions and bed-rest orders.

• Proper categorization. Distinguish between business records and non-records.
• Setting rules. Establish records rules for email, mobile devices, social media, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack and other electronic tools.
• Keeping policies up-to-date. Implement documentation policies on emerging HR concerns like marijuana use, compliance with eDiscovery guidelines, litigation-hold policies and more.
• Guaranteeing compliance. Ensure on-site, remote and work-from-home staff comply with records rules and manage HR records effectively.
• Document security. Protect personal privacy and confidential and sensitive information using best-in-class technology and tools.
• Leveraging technology. How to use software tools for record retention, along with monitoring, policy management, content management, antivirus and other records-related software.

• An overview of ChatGPT and how it can work well for HR departments.
• How to proceed with caution when it comes to biases and incorrect information.
• Ways to avoid common legal issues that can arise when using ChatGPT, including data privacy, intellectual property and liability concerns.
• How to improve upon many HR functions while saving time, including job descriptions, performance appraisals, coaching and helping neurodivergent employees.