Robert Bregman,
Senior Research Analyst,
Insurance Risk Management Institute

2. Keeping Clients Out of Court

"When I came out of law school," Don Phin recalls, "I figured I could be a hero by helping poor, victimized workers fight back against their abusive, villainous bosses. Grinding into the wee hours of the night is expected when you are playing the hero role. And sure, I made a lot of companies burn up a lot of money in legal fees and put six-figure settlements in my clients' pockets. But then one day the reality hit me: many of these clients blew the money within three years, just as lottery winners do. Is that what all my sacrificing was for?"

Don realized that he and thousands of other trial lawyers were creating a huge need for strategies and tools to help head off the kind of litigation that too often saps business and their managers of cash, time and energy. He devised ways to show employers how to take precautions against the kinds of complaints he had been filing on behalf of his employee clients for more than a decade. His methods included talking with executives and managers in seminars and workshops, as well as developing policies, contracts and other tools to help them achieve compliance with the law.

While writing his first book, LAWSUIT FREE! HOW TO PREVENT EMPLOYEE LAWSUITS, Don saw that the standard lawyerly advice ("Cover your behind — -and get it in writing") wasn't all that helpful. Compliance with the law, by itself, is no guarantee against litigation. A great number of sexual harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination claims are filed out of ignorance, because even when the employer is well informed on the law, employees may not be. Even though many employee lawsuits are ultimately determined to be groundless, that doesn't prevent them from being filed, nor does it offer much solace through many expensive months of depositions, motions to produce documents and other discovery procedures and the mounting legal fees that come with them.

The real trick, Don discovered, lay in cultivating enthusiastic employees instead of disgruntled ones. His philosophy evolved and grew more positive as he put more distance between himself and courts of law. In his second book, BUILDING POWERFUL EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIPS!, he wrote, "The most critical component for today's business success is personnel management. It is the one constant in a sea of change. The failure of this relationship results in turnover, disloyalty, unproductivity and lawsuits. The mastery of it results in profitability and joy."

Easy to say, but what does mastery of personnel management really mean? As Don said in a recent symposium for employers, "Many workplace policies and procedures were designed MORE THAN 50 years ago, when management's goal was to control employees. Do what we tell you to do and we'll punish you when you don't. Please don't think for yourself because that's more dangerous than it could ever be helpful. Managers didn't care whether or not the employee felt good. They only cared whether they could get workers to work hard from 9:00 'til whenever."

"But guess what. Now it's a new century and the whole notion of Control is Dead. Gone. Poof. Forget-about-it! What has taken its place? Management by Agreement. That's right, the New Age is here. And it's creeping into the workplace. To be successful today, we have to create management systems that allow business owners and managers to empower the workplace and become more inclusive in the process. We can't simply tell somebody what his or her performance should be and then attempt to control that performance. We have to enlighten them to the needs of the organization and help them to 'own' their performance. Only by creating strong bonds between the business and its employees can an employer steer clear of the kinds of workplace conflicts that are likely to escalate into full-blown court proceedings."

Strange words from a man who spent much of his adult life suing companies for a living. Yet times change, and Don is changing with them. Besides spreading his ideas through the Employer Advisors Network, he has tackled issues of workplace dramas in his latest book, VICTIMS, VILLAINS AND HEROES: MANAGING EMOTIONS IN THE WORKPLACE, co-authored with Loy Young.

Do business clients and prospective clients want to hear this kind of message from their advisors? In a world where employment disputes are commonly settled in winner-take-all adversary proceedings, do managers respect advice that guides them toward win-win situations?

You bet they do! (Just take a look at Don's Speaking Schedule.)

3. Personnel management in Cyberspace: The HR That Works Program

With virtually every business hooked up to the Internet, Don discovered that the World Wide Web provides a new tool for disseminating employment law information that has a much wider reach than personal speaking appearances or even books. When a business person is faced with the challenge of personnel management, he or she no longer reaches for the Yellow Pages first. Instead, the fastest, easiest and most informative place to look for help is the Internet. This fact has led to the creation of the Employer Advisors Network, Inc.

Available through Employer Advisors Network members, the HR That Works program is designed to meet the needs of companies who do not have full-time employment law and HR experts on staff. It helps cut through the overwhelming sea of information so that employees can master the nuts and bolts of employment compliance obligations while growing a more productive workforce.

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