Employment Conflict Management Services

Effective Conflict Management involves assisting clients with crafting proactive solutions in an effort to prevent and remediate unlawful conduct in the workplace.

COMPLIANCE ADVICE, COUNSELING, RISK ASSESSMENT, POLICIES, PROCEDURES, HANDBOOKS

Compliance review, advice, and risk assessments are critical preventative measures for business clients and organizations. Such work includes creation, and implementation of, effective handbooks, policies and procedures geared toward preventing instances of unlawful conduct related to the workplace. These assessments involve a comprehensive review of adherence to legal requirements.

• Discrimination, Harassment
• Wage and Hour
• Family and Medical Leave
• Workers’ Compensation
• Whistleblower, Retaliation
• WARN, Health and Safety
• Unemployment
• Fair Credit Reporting, Privacy

TRAINING AND EDUCATION

Training is available for human resources and in-house legal staff on how to handle complaints and investigations into allegations by employees that implicate a myriad of state and federal employment laws, including those that prohibit harassment, discrimination, retaliation for whistleblower activities and other unlawful conduct. These training seminars are provided to all staffing levels, including upper management, from both a compliance and practical perspective.

Training topics include:

• Hiring, Interviewing
• Medical Inquiries/Exams
• Job Descriptions
• Performance, Discipline
• Credit Checks, Privacy
• Harassment, Discrimination
• Disability, Family Leaves
• Reorganizations, Reductions
• Drug and Alcohol Testing
• Termination, Separation

The training is adaptable to different settings – such as in auditorium venues to large audiences (100+), as well as to smaller groups in roundtable settings and individual one-on-one training to alleged harassers. The training sessions focus on role-playing vignettes that provide an interactive forum to engage the audience in understanding the legal requirements, while also exploring practical and effective solutions.

NEUTRAL FACT-FINDING INVESTIGATIONS

Independent investigations into complaints of employment-related complaints are key remedial components. Such investigations need to be promptly and effectively performed to minimize risk and correct unlawful activity. Investigations are conducted for a wide array of businesses and organizations in various industries.

• Pharmaceutical, Publishing, Communications Information Technology, Manufacturing
• Hospitals and Non-Profit Organizations
• International and Domestic Companies
• Education, Health-care, Distributing
• Public Entities and Organizations
• Large National Companies
• Small to Mid-Size privately-held businesses
• Fortune 200 and 500 Companies
• Educational Institutions

Such investigation work has included complaints of harassment, discrimination and other types of wrongdoing, and includes drafting detailed documents, summarizing the results of the investigation and testifying in connection with same.

Programs are available to facilitate education in this area. A dynamic program such as “HR UNDER FIRE -- Legal Preparation of the Human Resources Professional as a Litigation Witness,” embraces an innovative and interactive method of teaching. The HR on Trial Program is a mock investigation workshop which explores the multiple layers of investigating a complaint, the deposition process and the trial. The program is a three-act simulation, where designated individuals play the roles of an HR Professional, Victim, Harasser and Lawyer, with ongoing commentary by the two attorney presenters. The first act involves the HR Professional investigating a simulated complaint of harassment/ discrimination. The second act involves the deposition of the same HR Professional during subsequent simulated employment discrimination litigation. The third act involves the same HR Professional testifying at a trial. The HR on Trial program has been approved for certification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI). This program has been provided to business groups in-house for corporate clients.

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RELATED ARTICLES

A question of legality
(Working: Ask the Expert)
published in the Herald News,
Andrea Gurwitt, author.
(May, 2007]

Importance of Workplace
Investigations
(Corporate Preventative
and Remedial Measures), published in the
New Jersey Lawyer,
Kirsten S. Branigan,
co-author.
(October, 2006)

Conducting and Attacking
Employment Investigations,
published in New Jersey
Law Journal, Kirsten S.
Branigan, co-author.
(March, 2003)