This post was contributed by Kelley E. Kaufman, an Attorney in McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC’s Labor & Employment Practice Group in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Has your Company conducted training on the prevention of discriminatory harassment in your workforce recently? Does the Company regularly train supervisors and managers on how to recognize important employee issues and to promptly (and effectively) address them? For example, do your supervisors and managers understand the importance of wage and hour issues? Do they understand how to recognize medical leave and accommodation-related issues? Do they appreciate the necessity of candid performance evaluations, timely and concise recordkeeping, and consistent policy enforcement? Do they know when and how to get Human Resources and/or management involved? The answer to all of these questions should be "YES!"

As your Company begins planning and budgeting for 2015, don’t forget the necessity and importance of employee training – from your rank and file employee base, to your supervisors and managers, to Human Resources and Company management. Remember: a little bit of training now can go a long way towards preventing employment law claims in the future!

Our Labor & Employment Practice Group regularly works with employers to develop and provide customized labor and employment law training. Through our McNees Training Academy, we can help you build an efficient, effective training curriculum that is tailored to suit the needs of your workforce – from general labor and employment law compliance to basic Human Resources skill-building to narrowly focused, industry-specific topics. We can also design your training program to help you "train the trainer," coaching your Human Resources and management teams on how to effectively train hourly employees on selected legal issues. For a sampling of topics that can be incorporated into a training program tailor-made for your Company, click here for a copy of the MWN Training Academy brochure.

If you have any questions about the McNees Training Academy, or on considerations key to developing an effective employee training program, contact any member of our Labor & Employment Practice Group in Harrisburg (717-232-8000), Lancaster (717-291-1177), State College (814-867-8500), Scranton (570-209-7220), or Columbus, Ohio (614-469-8000).