Training, Supervisors, and Big $$$

I read this on the Employment Law Post and chuckled. When the top 10 reasons why supervisors don’t need basic legal training were listed, that was intended to be funny and to make a point. The list doesn’t contain anything new, but we’ve all heard these reasons before and a lot of other ones as well. And, of course, the point is that there is no good reason for not providing managers and supervisors basic legal training.

As I’ve indicated before, a supervisor is probably the single most important person in any workplace. He or she is most likely to create or prevent an employment lawsuit. If that’s true, supervisors should be loaded with training. The recession caused employers to cut training budgets. They’re always an easy target when money is tight. But they shouldn’t be.

The current recovery or perhaps the hope we’re close to beginning a recovery is resulting in a return to needed supervisor training. Right now, I’m doing my version of “Danger Zones for Supervisors” for one client at facilities all across the country. Other clients are beginning to provide this training on a somewhat more limited basis, but at least, they’re back at it.

One of my recent posts was on the sex discrimination verdicts against drug maker Novartis. They total almost $300 million. That result was caused by bad managers. I don’t know whether they had received basic training or not, but if they had, it didn’t take. It’s sort of like the old TV commercial where the auto mechanic says: “You can pay me now or pay me later.”