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Diversity ... Discrimination ... Harassment ...

Do your employees know what workplace behavior is acceptable, what's unprofessional, and what's even illegal? How can you train staff to embrace cultural differences and protect your organization from potentially devastating lawsuits?

The answer: The Plus of Us, a new DVD-based training system that uses realistic scenarios and hands-on instruction to create a harmonious and productive workforce.

The Plus of Us will help you:

• Eliminate insensitive and intolerant behaviors at work
• Reduce your liability for discrimination and harassment claims
• Recruit the best employees -- now part of a diverse talent pool
• Create positive relationships between team members
• Retain star performers who thrive in a multi-cultural environment

Supervisors and Employees

The concept of diversity is often difficult and confusing for supervisors and employees to understand and even harder to take seriously. Yet that has to change. Why?

The U.S. Census bureau recently released a startling statistic: Caucasians will cease to make up the majority of the population eight years sooner than previously estimated. This means you’ll soon have a much more diverse applicant pool, workforce, and customer base. Will your employees and supervisors welcome these changes, or will intolerant behavior put your organization at risk of talent loss, devastating lawsuits, or both?

The Plus of Us demystifies and simplifies diversity issues. It delivers anti-discrimination and anti-harassment instruction your workforce MUST have if your organization is going to attract and retain the best employees our changing nation has to offer. Now, with one simple-to-use tool, you can deliver effective diversity training to existing staff and clarify your organization’s commitment to diversity during new employee on-boarding.

The Plus of Us training kit includes:

• 20 minutes of real-life training scenarios on DVD for supervisors
• 21 minutes of reality-based training presentations for employees, also on DVD
• Bonus 20-minute drama on DVD for both supervisors and employees that emotionally drives home key learning points
• Take Home Tips for both supervisors and employees
• Step-by-step Trainers Guide
• Learning assessment quizzes for both employees and supervisors
• Certificate of completion template
  

The Plus of Us Program Contents

The Plus of Us video presentations combine realistic scenarios with frank commentary from a seasoned trainer and attorney to help your staff learn what’s acceptable, what’s unprofessional, and even what’s illegal.

Scenario 1: Account assignment meeting (supervisor DVD only)
Team leader Joe and his assistants Alicia and Larry meet to assign new sales accounts to account managers. Joe refuses to give the best account to Juanita, a Latina and one of the top managers.

• How to avoid statements that imply bias
• Making fact-based work decisions
• Ignoring personal characteristics, focusing on performance
• Dangers of gender and national origin stereotyping

Scenario 2: Too close for comfort
Sally compliments a coworker ’s perfume, touching her shoulder in the process. Her colleague is clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

• Defining same-sex harassment
• Identifying problems with physically touching at work
• Questions and tips to help determine if touching in the workplace is unwelcome

Scenario 3: With age comes experience
When Trent hears Bob volunteer to spearhead the company’s youth-league sponsorship opportunity, he implies Bob is too old to effectively execute the task.

• Defining inclusive behavior in a multigenerational workspace
• Encouraging sensitivity to family care responsibilities
• Taking advantage of diverse life experiences by seeking common ground
• The importance of listening before speaking

Scenario 4: Culture, cuisine, and national origin
When Kai brings his native cuisine for lunch in the company break room, Todd disparages his food choice and refuses to include him in the group.

• The connection between diverse cultural practices and ethnic and national origin discrimination
• Encouraging good will and keeping an open mind when working in a diverse workplace

Scenario 5: Accommodating disabilities
When George gets tired of standing at work, he vents his frustration at Sam, a coworker who is allowed to sit because of a disability. His colleague, Rico, watches but says nothing.

• Creating a potentially harassing work environment based on intolerance for physical or mental limitations
• Obligations of all employees to report conduct that may violate workplace policies
• Handling daily work frustrations without engaging in insensitive or harassing behaviors

Scenario 6: Respecting religious beliefs
When the VP wants the whole department to play golf on a Saturday, it creates a conflict for one team member with weekend religious obligations. One of his coworkers belittles him, saying, “Your people need to learn how to play golf.”

• Learning to respect religious differences
• Accommodating religious obligations
• How religious intolerance can also lead to claims of national origin discrimination

Scenario 7: Third-party sexual harassment
When an outside computer tech support expert and the company’s receptionist get a little too familiar, Maria is offended.

• Dangers of third-party sexual harassment, innuendo, jokes, and sexually-charged language
• How to determine if comments or conduct is appropriate for work

Scenario 8: Piercing, tattoos, and other body art
When a group of coworkers learns they now have to cover up their tattoos and body piercing at work, comments about others’ appearance become unprofessional and maybe discriminatory.

• Why making comments about coworker dress and appearance choices can contribute to disruption and exclusion in the workplace
• How employer dress codes promote professionalism
• How to determine if a comment will be offensive, before you make it

Scenario 9: Retaliation risks for supervisors
Supervisors Frank and Joe have just learned that one of Joe’s direct reports has filed a discrimination complaint against him.

• Could Joe’s reaction to the charge spark a retaliation claim?
• Why adverse actions violate anti-retaliation rules
• How objective, unemotional reactions by supervisors may protect your organization from legal problems

BONUS Presentation for Supervisors and Employees: "Full Court Pres"

When Mitch disparages a coworker using a racial slur, it’s almost the last straw. Instead of terminating him, though, his employer’s HR manager sends him to meet with the president of the company, John Preston, where Mitch experiences a “Full Court Pres” on issues of inclusion, discrimination, and harassment.

In this 20-minute drama, Preston explains why exclusionary behavior violates a well-run organization’s policies, damages its reputation, risks legal liability, alienates good employees, and can’t be tolerated. After witnessing the dramatic back and forth between Mitch and John, your staff will be armed to self-examine why they hold certain beliefs, why they need to change them, and how things they say and do can hurt and isolate other employees. Moreover, your team will recognize the significant legal and business risks and the harm to the work environment that is created with harassment, discrimination, and insensitivity to those they perceive as “different.”

The essential lessons of Full Court Pres stay with viewers because the story connects with them at an emotional level. Your employees will do more than pay lip service to the ideals of tolerance and diversity, but actually incorporate them into daily work interactions. And nothing could be better for training existing staff and for alerting new employees to your organization’s commitment to diversity and tolerance.

The Host of "The Plus of Us"

Attorney Greg Naylor of Whitfield and Eddy PLC of Des Moines, Iowa, has defended employers for over 30 years in a broad variety of labor and employment litigation and agency actions. He is the editor of Iowa Employment Law Letter. He regularly counsels with his clients on critical statutory compliance issues to steer them away from costly and disruptive legal disputes. As President of Corporate Educational Services L.L.C., he has been instrumental in creating several employment training videos that educate employees on the importance of workforce diversity, employment law compliance, and the proactive steps every employee can take to foster cooperative and respectful work relationships.