The Legal Side of

Hiring and Firing

The Legal Side of Hiring & Firing is an eight-hour workshop designed for all supervisors who are involved in making hiring, firing and disciplinary decisions. This workshop is divided into three parts:

The Legal Side of Hiring

In this part of the training, employers learn how to conduct “Legally Defensible Interviews.”  They will learn about the laws that cover employer interviews (Title VII, etc.) and the importance of conducting a structured interview.  Participants will gain valuable information on how to legally solicit the information they need to make effective hiring decisions.  An excellent 20-minute video is used in this part of the training.

Behavioral-Based Interviewing

Behavioral-Based Interviewing is a relatively new interviewing technique that has been widely discussed in HR and business magazines recently.  Using behavioral-based interviewing techniques, employers learn how to choose employees who will be a better fit for both the job and the business, thus reducing turnover within the organization.  Participants will learn and understand that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.  Utilizing this interviewing technique, employers are able to get prospective employees to tell them specifics about how they performed for past employers in various situations—that reflect both positively and negatively on the prospective employee.  This session also covers an exercise on reviewing resumes and how to make the final offer.  Another excellent 20-minute video is used in this portion of the workshop.

 The Complete Course on Firing (or ‘How to Not Get Sued for Wrongful Discharge’)

In recent years, wrongful discharge has become a huge issue in the workplace.  The last half of the workshop is dedicated to teaching employers guidelines on how to avoid this messy legal issue.  Some of the many topics covered in this section include: the protected classes (Title VII, ADA, ADEA, etc.), protected actions, hot issues, limiting liability, implied contracts, employee handbooks, at-will discharges, improving performance, effective discipline, ‘just ‘cause’ discharges as defined by the Department of Employment Security, documentation, how to fire (and how not to), and much more.  None of the information presented during the workshop is generic in nature.  Everything is very specific to your state.

The workbook has been designed with participants in mind.  It is very comprehensive in nature, reducing, or even completely eliminating the need for note taking.  As a result, the attendees can give undivided attention to all the information presented in this section and ask any questions that arise.  The workbook will also serve as a valuable future reference tool since it includes many examples of sample forms that employers may use.