How to Reduce Your Legal Risk

As a manager, you face personal legal risk due to your role in recruiting and managing staff. This is a rare opportunity for you to hear from, and ask questions of, the attorneys who handle the real-life cases at Penn.

Eric A. Tilles, Esq. and Robert J. Bohner, Jr., Esq. from the Office of General Counsel will offer practical tips on:

• Documenting performance
• Questions to ask yourself before disciplining or discharging
• Developing your management skills
• Reducing your legal risk

Benefits Q & A

Objectives are to provide SOM employees with an opportunity to get their benefits questions answered by University of Pennsylvania HR experts.

Questions you may wish to ask include:

• What are my benefits options?
• When and where can I refer benefits questions?
• How can I get the most out of my health and welfare benefits?
• How do I communicate benefit information to new faculty and staff?

Sexual Harassment Awareness

Objectives are to provide SOM supervisors with knowledge of the issues surrounding sexual harassment in the workplace.

Topics include:

• Penn's policy on sexual harassment
• Inappropriate behavior and prohibited harassment
• The role of managers/supervisors in addressing these situations in the workplace

Salaries and Extra Pay

Objectives are to provide an understanding of:

• How salary structures are developed
• Minimum qualifications and their importance
• The differences between additional pay, overtime pay, and bonuses

Topics covered include:

• Competitive Salary Ranges
• Classification of Positions
• Minimum Qualifications
• Starting Salaries
• Additional Pay/Bonuses
• Overtime Pay

Hiring & Interviewing

Objectives are to provide an understanding of:

• How to recruit appropriate job candidates
• Interviewing techniques that will help you select the best fit for your open position

Topics covered include:

• Writing effective job criteria
• Posting a job
• Getting appropriate candidates
• Designing interview questions
• Avoiding illegal questions
• Selecting the best candidate
• Making an offer

Conflict Management for Supervisors

Find out what you need to know as a Manager/Supervisor about Conflict Management.

Learn about:

• How to handle conflicts that arise in the workplace
• Cooperative vs. competitive situations
• Productive vs. destructive approaches to conflict

Performance Appraisals: Writing Performance Appraisals

Objectives are to provide an understanding of:

• The Performance Appraisal as an ongoing process rather than just an annual event
• Practical steps to take in preparing for, and writing, a Performance Appraisal

Topics covered include:

• Calibrating what Supervisors write, say and rate during Appraisal Process
• Preparation Steps for Writing Appraisals
• Definition of Performance Expectations
• Types of Expectations
• Criteria for Writing Effective Expectations
• Writing Construction Feedback on Competencies
• Writing Effective Performance Feedback

Performance Management for Supervisors

Find out what you need to know as a Manager/Supervisor about Performance Management.

Learn about:

• Building positive working relationships with staff
• Facilitating employee engagement
• Setting expectations
• Giving feedback
• The Progressive Discipline Process

Performance Appraisals: Mid-Year Checkpoint

Objectives are to provide an understanding of what supervisors can do to make the Performance Appraisal process easier and more efficient.

Topics covered include:

• Setting goals and objectives
• Giving and receiving constructive feedback
• Documentation and ongoing record keeping

Objectives are to provide an understanding of what supervisors can do to manage staff that are not meeting expectations.

Topics covered include:

• Setting expectations
• Motivational techniques
• Giving feedback
• Documentation
• Penn's policy 621: Performance Improvement/Discipline (which includes oral and written warnings, probation, and termination)

Objectives are to provide an understanding of:

• Performance evaluations.
• How to reward performance.

Topics covered include:

• Annual Salary Increase Program.
• Performance Evaluations.
• Merit Increases.
• Performance Bonuses.

Objectives are to provide an understanding of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the responsibilities of supervisors in the SOM.

Topics include:

• Minimum wage
• Overtime pay
• Exemptions
• Record keeping requirements

Objectives are to provide an understanding of:

• How jobs are classified i.e. job title and salary grade
• Reclassification procedures

Topics covered include:

• Job Evaluation
• Salary Surveys
• Salary Structures
• HR1 Process
• Reclassification Reviews
• Salary Adjustments

Objectives are to provide SOM supervisors with an understanding of how to coach their staff regarding their career path.

Topics covered include how to talk to staff about:

• Their career options
• How to move up
• How to get a different job.

Some topics which will be discussed include:

•  What are flexible work options?
• Why are flexible work-schedules so prevalent and valued in the workplace?
• How to manage flexible work schedules
• *How to consider a flexible work option proposal
• How to prepare a flexible work option agreement
• Guidelines for success

The speaker is Marilyn Kraut, Director, Quality of Worklife, University of Pennsylvania  HR Dept.

Find out what you need to know as a Manager/Supervisor about Teambuilding.
Learn how to:

• Determine common goals
• Build commitment to goals
• Build positive relationships among team members
• Resolve issues that interfere with reaching goals

Learn about:

• The University’s compensation philosophy
• The rationale behind pay scales at the University
• The annual SALINC process
• Salary adjustment increases
• Your opportunities, as a supervisor, to recognize and reward employees
• Additional monetary rewards for your staff available in special circumstances
• Occasions when tools like Acting Rates and Additional Pay are available
• Employee engagement and retention