When an employee's complaint ends up in court, HR professionals often end up getting blamed for not preventing litigation - sometimes even more so than the actual manager or executive who took a discriminatory or retaliatory action. What's more, employee lawsuits increasingly have focused on companies' failure to follow their own policies, a trend that has resulted in more HR professionals testifying at trial about what they did (or didn't do) to enforce an employer's rules. As with Watergate, a bad response may cause more legal damage than the initial "crime." This session identifies the five most common HR mistakes that could land your company - and you - in court, and then offers practical advice on how to avoid each of them. The presenter is an employee-side lawyer who previously advised employers, so this is a rare chance to hear from someone with inside experience on both sides of the conflict.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to recognize (and avoid) the HR responses that are most likely to "trigger" employees, sending them to seek the advice of an employment lawyer.
• Discover three simple actions that will convince even the unhappiest employees that HR is not their adversary.
• Gain best practices for limiting the legal damage that can occur after an employee's initial complaint.
• Understand the legal importance of your organization’s policy manual - and how it can be used as a weapon against you in court.
• Learn the value of encouraging internal whistleblowing.