Law in House 9: Legal coaching for managers

As part of the law in house programme, we offer legal coaching for managers in your company. The complete legal coaching programme lasts 2 years with 2 to 3 modules per year, a total of 6 modules as one-day events of 8 teaching units of 45 minutes each (6 hours). Each module can also be booked individually as a one-day seminar.

Focus of content:

• Labour law contexts are prepared in individual modules for the labour law layperson and solved using practical cases that come from the group itself and thus from your work sphere.
• As part of a collegial case counselling session, the various handling alternatives and solution approaches are developed and discussed with the participants. Ideally, this form of problem-solving will continue on its own after the coaching session.
• Overall, the management workshop serves to further develop leadership skills and to learn problem-solving skills in a collegial and interdisciplinary exchange.
• In contrast to other providers, we offer labour law combined with the psychological basics of personnel management.

 

Module 1 – Optimal personnel management and dealing with resistance

Employees do not know what is expected of them, superiors do not feel able to motivate their employees sufficiently. The module presents various instruments for employee development and motivation against the background of labour law requirements.

The workshop provides information on how to deal with resistance and objections against the background of the right to issue instructions under labour law. The course of an appraisal interview and the management of the employee through agreements instead of instructions, with the employee instead of against him, are practised.

Focus of content:

• Discussion techniques and documentation against the background of labour law
• Dealing with resistance and objections
• Assessing employees’ skills and performance behaviour with confidence
• Typical errors of judgment
• The manager as coach: self-motivation before instructions
• Scope and limits of the manager’s authority to issue directives

 

Module 2 – Dealing with difficult employees as reflected in your own management behaviour

Conflicts are inevitable in an employment relationship. Against the background of their own management behaviour, supervisors are taught possible solutions to employee misconduct through conflict discussions and by exercising their right to issue instructions. After participating in the workshop, the employer is in a position to react optimally to a conflict situation in the company caused by misconduct on the part of an employee or to contribute to the effective enforcement of sanctions under labour law. This resolves conflicts and saves capacities in personnel work.

Focus of content:

• Reflection on your own leadership behavior: strengths and weaknesses
• Definition of the performance owed under labour law – what can the line manager demand?
• Types of poor, bad or non-performance
• Conducting dialogue, in particular the conflict discussion
• Clear instructions: Pointing out limits
• Admonition, warning
• Necessary information that the HR department needs for a warning (form, content, procedure)

 

Module 3 and Module 4 – Current problems in day-to-day work – Employment of employees and the works council

In day-to-day HR work, certain acute questions arise time and again: Can I take employees off holiday or on leave? Can I refuse a holiday request? When can I order which overtime? What employee data can and may be collected? Can I impose a general ban on the use of private mobile phones during working hours? In this module, these and similar problems, which often cause considerable headaches, are discussed against the background of the Works Constitution Act and possible solutions are outlined. Participants will also have the opportunity to ask their own questions in this context and resolve them in joint case discussions.

Even if employees are not directly involved in the recruitment of team members, they should have knowledge of the basic principles of contracts, in particular with regard to fixed-term contracts and the use of foreign labour or “external personnel”.

Focus of content:

• Focus of content: Basics of the BetrVG: co-determination rights, consultation obligations
• Organisation of working hours and overtime as well as rest and break times
• Part-time entitlement
• Basics of data protection in the employment relationship: data collection from employees, rights of the employee, the employer and the works council, monitoring of employees
• Private mobile phone. Internet and telephone use at the workplace
• Application for and authorisation of leave, transfer of remaining leave, employer’s duty to inform
• Temporary employment of employees
• Deployment of foreign workers (residence permit, work permit)
• Use of temporary workers

 

Module 5 – Alternative courses of action for employers in the event of employee absences

In addition to the additional costs, sickness-related absences also cause problems in the day-to-day running of the company. In this module, in addition to the possibilities and strategies for reducing these absences, the supervisor’s scope for reaction under labour law is also developed.

Focus of content:

• Being ill does not always mean being unable to work
• Employee rights and obligations in the event of illness, obligation to notify and provide proof of incapacity for work
• Reaction to infringements
• Procedure in the event of suspected feigning of illness, behaviour contrary to convalescence
• Requirements for effective dismissal due to illness: frequent short-term illnesses, long-term illnesses – what input does the HR department need?
• Ways to reduce the sickness rate
• Alternative deployment options for the employee
• Measures and procedures for alcohol abuse

 

Module 6 – Preparing the termination of an employment relationship

Sometimes it is unavoidable to dismiss an employee. In order to avoid costly mistakes, it is therefore necessary to be confident in the area of dismissal law. This module provides managers with a clear overview of the requirements that must be observed when dismissing employees. It also provides them with the knowledge they need to carry out the crucial preparatory work and documentation required to enforce a warning and behavioural dismissal by the company or HR department. In addition, various options for action in the procedure are discussed. The workshop will also present the pitfalls of concluding a cancellation agreement.

Focus of content:

• Proper preparation by line managers/required input for the HR department
• Development of a timeline and instructions for action from the discovery of a possible reason for dismissal to the handing over of the dismissal notice
• Formal requirements and deadlines
• Dismissals for personal, behavioural and operational reasons
• termination without notice
• Release of the employee or continued work?
• Suspicious dismissal and its special features
• Discussion tactics and cancellation agreement offer – what you should consider
• Possible contents of cancellation agreements

 

Costs: By arrangement.