Okay. Let's return to our bulletin board of US employment law posters. And for those of you in other countries, just use this as a reminder of laws that are important in your community and locality. So yes, these are the law. You need to be aware of them. You need to take them seriously. They are important. After all, we've spent two whole lessons on the importance of the law. But the lesson of this video is not to be overly defensive. Not to be paralyzed. Not to do everything in a defensive way where you are simply trying to avoid legal action. And so, let's look at a few examples. First, now organizations and managers are well aware of the headlines of large damage awards in wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuits. How can you avoid these lawsuits? Well, we can go back to, for example, the seven tests of just cause that I presented in an earlier video. And I'm not gonna run through all of the seven tests. You can refresh your memory if you need to by looking at that earlier video. Really, the reason for raising them here is to think about the different types of attitudes that you can adopt towards these seven tests. One attitude you could adopt, we'll call it attitude D, is stupid bureaucracy. I have to go through these motions just to make things look good. Alternatively, you can adopt what we're going to call attitude P. And take these as good reminders of sound managerial practice. Now, attitude D stands for defensive, attitude P stands for proactive and professional, and of course the lesson here is that you should choose attitude P. In this way, these seven tests can be useful for preventing lawsuits. But don't let the lack of legal action be the driver, let that be the added bonus. Being a proactive, high quality manager, that should be the driver. Okay, let's look at a different example, job interview. Now, equal employment opportunity means that you can not ask certain job interview questions. You can't ask people you're interviewing whether they're married, if they have children. Don't ask them how old they are, don't ask them if they have any disabilities. So again, be aware of the law, don't get in trouble, but don't be paralyzed. All right. This doesn't mean that you can't get legitimate information that you need. So how to do this? Focus on genuine job tasks. Is travel or working on weekends required? Are there legitimate physical demands that people need to be successful in this job? If so, then you can ask all applicants whether they can meet the specified work schedules, including travel or working weekends. You can ask them if they're able to carry out the necessary job assignments and perform them safely. Notice, how the questions in the green boxes are worded very differently from the questions in the red. So again, choose a proactive and professional attitude in which the law helps you remember good practices. Okay, as a third and final example, first I'm gonna target this towards HR managers. If you're an HR manager, do you see yourself as the HR police? Do you see the focus of your job being to ensure compliance with policies and regulations or do you see yourself more as an HR partner? Where, yes, part of your job is to support managers, to apply policies and regulations consistently and fairly, but that shouldn't be seen as the largest part of your job. Rather the focus of your job as an HR partner, is to support managers and employees in getting their work done successfully. Okay, so which is it? HR police or HR partner? HR police, again, being a very defensive strategy focused on the law. And the lesson of this video is don't be the HR police. Rather, HR managers should be an HR partner, and for line managers, don't let your HR person be the HR police. Demand that your HR support people be HR partners. So to conclude, right, laws are important. That's why we spent two whole lessons on them. But don't manage defensively, where everything you're doing is primarily done to avoid legal action. Always be consistent and non-discriminatory. Always focus on legitimate job needs and performance issues. Yes, that's what the law demands. But don't do it simply because that's what the law demands, do that because that's what makes you a good manager. And lastly, if you're an HR professional, don't be the HR police. If you're a manager, don't let your HR person be the HR police. Demand that they are an HR partner. So again, pay attention to the law but don't be paralyzed by it.
