The value of providing training to managers throughout the employment life cycle cannot be overlooked. Training ensures that your managers are knowledgeable about your company’s workplace law obligations and skilled in delivering human resources best practices in order to become successful in their roles. Training further enables business costs to be low, enables employer liability to be controlled, and allows for successful organizations to emerge. Did you know that in 2010 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed 99,992 charges against the private sector?
Suggested Strategic and Compliance Training Topics
Managers should be trained in various discipline areas, but some may or may not apply depending upon the company’s size and industry. Below are some suggested strategic and compliance training topics to assist managers in increasing effectiveness and reducing exposure:
- Business Execution
- Leadership
- Performance Management
- Diversity
- Business Crises Management
- HR Best Practices
Transferring the Training Is Key
To learn the best way to transfer the training into actual real life situations and settings, be sure to read the featured article by the HR pros at MyHRSupportCenter, HR Training for Managers as a Key Compliance Strategy for Your Business. If you’re not yet signed up or would like a free trial of MyHRSupportCenter, contact Vision Payroll today.
Question of the Week: How Can We Track Employee Training?
This week’s question comes from James, an HR director. We need to track training for multiple employees. How can we track employee training? Answer: The Employee Training Log is a simple way to stay organized when it comes to tracking employee (including management) trainings.
Advantages To the Training Log
The training log can provide employers with the following advantages:
- Written documentation of employer’s workplace compliance efforts;
- Monitoring of employee performance development in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities; and
- Assessment of employee fulfillment of required or recommended attendance due to corrective/disciplinary action expectations.
Download the Employee Training Log Now
The Employee Training Log can be downloaded from the Forms area in the “Essentials” tab section of the MyHRSupportCenter. If you’re not yet signed up or would like a free trial of MyHRSupportCenter, contact Vision Payroll today.
The US Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued Administrator signed Opinion Letter FLSA2009-1. Although Opinion Letters only apply to the exact set of facts and circumstances presented in each case, they are a valuable aid in understanding current interpretations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
In this Opinion Letter, the DOL concluded that employee attendance at State mandated training programs by child care center workers does not result in hours worked under the FLSA. The DOL lists four criteria that must be met for the time not to be counted as hours worked:
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Attendance is outside of the employee’s regular working hours;
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Attendance is in fact voluntary;
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The course, lecture, or meeting is not directly related to the employee’s job; and
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The employee does not perform any productive work during such attendance.
In this case, the employer offered the training courses after-hours, thereby meeting criterion 1. Employees could choose to attend or not, thus meeting criterion 2. The training qualifies under an exception for criterion 3 that states that “where the training is for the benefit of the employee and corresponds to courses offered by independent bona fide institutions of learning,” the training is not considered directly related to the employee’s job. As long as employees do not perform productive work during the training, criterion 4 would be met.
The DOL concludes that such training does not qualify as hours worked under the FLSA unless the State does not require the employer to provide the training.
State laws may provide rules that are more beneficial to the employee and must be followed. Contact Vision Payroll if you have questions about this Opinion Letter.
The US Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued Administrator signed Opinion Letter FLSA2008-19. Although Opinion Letters only apply to the exact set of facts and circumstances presented in each case, they are a valuable aid in understanding current interpretations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
This Opinion Letter confirms that exempt store managers do not lose their exempt status while training to become area sales managers. The company chooses store managers who are top performers to enter a seven-week training program to become area sales managers. Eight to ten store managers report to one area sales manager. At the beginning of the training period, the trainee performs little to no exempt work. As the program progresses, the trainee gradually assumes most to all of the responsibilities of the trainer. Successful trainees return to their store manager position to await an opening and a promotion. Unsuccessful trainees just return to store manager duties.
For this letter, the DOL assumed that both the store manager and area sales manger positions were exempt. Even though for some weeks of the training, the trainees may have performed mostly non-exempt work, the executive exemption need not be met or tested on a week-by-week basis. Since the primary duty of the trainees remained as store managers and since they did not perform “work that would otherwise be performed by nonexempt workers”, there is no reason for the trainees to lose their exempt status during the training program.
State laws may provide rules that are more beneficial to the employee and must be followed. Contact Vision Payroll if you have questions about this Opinion Letter.
Vision Payroll