Dive Brief:

• Writing at Forbes.com, contributor Liz Ryan says employers have all sorts of plans for dealing with several types of disasters, yet they don't take the same "be prepared" stance when it comes to manager training for potential litigation.
• If employers are going to be awake and aware in the new-millennium workplace, they need to be ready for all contingencies, because people are quirky to begin with and they go through a lot of stuff that makes them even quirkier, she writes.
• Ryan adds that most employers put their managers and supervisors through a half-day quickie update on employment law once a year, and that’s not nearly sufficient.

Dive Insight:

Ryan outlines five key areas in which employers are getting sued most often, and each disaster is avoidable if they would only adopt a disaster-prevention mindset and begin to talk at every manager’s meeting about where the lines are drawn.

For example, a harassing supervisor’s goal is to keep his or her activities quiet, she writes. HR will find out that bad things are happening when it discovers that an employee or former employee has filed a claim. HR has to keep an ear to the ground, and have listening mechanisms in place in the company – though most employers do not. Also, effective, credible reporting processes for sexual harassment must be in place. Meantime, provide regular, up-to-date training to managers in sexual harassment law.

Other critical areas where untrained managers often cross the line and can end up in court include intellectual property disputes, employment discrimination, contract law and ADA/FMLA/FLSA issues.

Ryan says HR should use the rest of 2015 to clean up its act where employment law and employee-related compliance issues are concerned. She says it’s worth the time and energy to dig into that project, the same way an employer takes the the time to ensure the business would survive a natural disaster. Weather can't be controlled, but managing the human aspects of the workplace can, she says.