Are Untrained Supervisors Putting Your Company At Risk

Few things could be more devastating than being personally named in a discrimination or harassment lawsuit for conduct that put oneself and one’s employer at risk.

Most human resource professionals are prepared, through specialized and on-going training, to assume a high level of responsibility alongside of their employers. Line supervisors, however, often lack the training and awareness to know which activities and behaviors foretell legal complications. They may even operate under the mistaken belief that this is someone else’s responsibility.

“Line supervisor” is really a misnomer in the “new economy” where infrastructure blurs the supervised and the supervisor. Lack of structure, even in the dot-com world, does not alleviate employers from the rules-of-the-game.

If the employee has the authority to hire, fire and “control the conditions” of even one other employee, this constitutes the definition of supervisor for legal action. As a result, employers are well-advised to think broadly in design and implementation of risk management training and to include these key employees.