By the end of this course, learners will be able to: -Explain the role of proactive employee relations in building trust, engagement, and a positive workplace culture. -Apply the four principles of effective workplace communication: transparency, consistency, two-way dialogue, and timeliness. -Develop communication strategies that support employees through organizational change, uncertainty, and crisis situations. -Coach leaders and managers to communicate effectively, foster trust, and model behaviors that reinforce a healthy workplace culture. -Evaluate how leadership behaviors, communication practices, and organizational norms influence employee morale, engagement, and retention. -Design and implement employee feedback mechanisms, including engagement surveys, focus groups, stay interviews, new-hire check-ins, and exit interviews. -Analyze employee feedback data to identify trends, diagnose workplace challenges, and prioritize opportunities for improvement. -Create action plans with clear goals, ownership, accountability, and measurable outcomes that address employee feedback. -Communicate survey results and organizational responses in ways that strengthen credibility and encourage ongoing employee participation. -Recognize legal and employee relations considerations related to workplace communication, social media, recording policies, and protected concerted activity. -Assess how AI tools can support communication, feedback analysis, and action planning while maintaining appropriate human judgment and oversight.

By the end of this course, learners will be able to: -Define employee relations and explain its role in supporting organizational performance, employee experience, and legal compliance. -Articulate the business case for employee relations, including its impact on retention, engagement, employer brand, and risk management. -Describe the core responsibilities of the employee relations function and balance the competing roles of employee advocate, organizational guardian, strategic partner, and neutral fact-finder. -Apply key employment law concepts, including equal employment opportunity protections, anti-discrimination requirements, employee rights under the NLRA, and emerging considerations related to AI in employment decisions. -Evaluate workplace issues through a legally defensible employee relations framework that emphasizes fairness, consistency, and documentation. -Identify when corrective action, coaching, investigation, or additional documentation may be necessary before making employment decisions. -Demonstrate best practices for creating objective, contemporaneous documentation that supports sound employee relations outcomes.

By the end of this course, learners will be able to: -Differentiate between employee conduct issues and performance deficiencies and determine the appropriate corrective approach for each. -Apply progressive discipline principles in a manner that is fair, consistent, and legally defensible. -Develop and implement workplace Codes of Conduct that establish clear behavioral expectations and accountability. -Create objective, fact-based documentation that supports effective employee relations decisions and reduces organizational risk. -Design and administer Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) that establish clear expectations, accountability measures, and opportunities for employee success. -Coach managers through difficult employee conversations involving performance, behavior, and corrective action. -Evaluate employee conduct and performance situations using a consistent decision-making framework that supports equity and compliance. -Navigate contemporary employee relations challenges involving AI use, social media conduct, remote work expectations, and reasonable suspicion drug testing. -Recognize legal risks associated with inconsistent enforcement, inadequate documentation, and disparate treatment in the workplace. -Apply lessons from McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transportation Co., Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Harris v. FedEx Corporate Services, and Cotran v. Rollins Hudig Hall International to strengthen employee relations practices and employment decisions. -Implement corrective action strategies that balance employee development, organizational needs, and legal compliance. -Build a consistent framework for managing conduct and performance issues that promotes accountability while maintaining employee dignity and trust.

At the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to: -Evaluate employee eligibility for Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) coverage by applying the three-part eligibility test. -Identify FMLA qualifying reasons and recognize informal employee requests or events that trigger mandatory administrative timelines. -Differentiate between the four regulatory 12-month measurement methods to select, policy-codify, and consistently apply the optimal tracking method for an organization. -Execute the FMLA administrative workflow within strict legal deadlines, including issuing notices, managing medical certifications, handling the cure process, and tracking continuous and intermittent leave down to the smallest available payroll increment. -Navigate the statutory overlap between the FMLA, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), and state leave laws to manage multiple concurrent or sequential leave clocks. -Facilitate a compliant, good-faith ADA interactive process upon FMLA exhaustion to evaluate leave extensions, modified duties, or alternative remote work as potential reasonable accommodations. -Conduct essential function analyses and substantiate documented undue hardship findings before making employment or accommodation determinations. -Apply legal standards to safely restore returning employees to identical or equivalent positions while establishing compliant, non-discriminatory fitness-for-duty requirements. -Conduct thorough, fair internal investigations before taking adverse employment actions during protected leave for high-risk scenarios, including pre-leave misconduct, reductions in force (RIF), leave fraud, or moonlighting.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to: -Determine when workplace complaints require a formal internal investigation versus an informal resolution or administrative review. -Establish a written scope statement, map out a logical interview sequence, and issue litigation holds to preserve relevant evidence. -Understand trauma-informed, neutral interview techniques for complainants, witnesses, and respondents while managing confidentiality and non-retaliation obligations. -Evaluate conflicting testimonies using key credibility factors and apply the preponderance of the evidence standard to reach defensible findings. -Differentiate between raw digital artifacts (e.g., screenshots) and authenticated data, applying tools to verify EXIF metadata, email headers, chat exports, and AI-generated content. -Draft a structured, neutral investigation report with policy-aligned recommendations, execute proper handoffs to decision-makers, and carry out post-investigation monitoring. -Learn and understand the end-to-end investigation protocol that will keep investigation fair and consistent.