Human Resources Primary Research

Talk to an HR Representative at your company. If your company does not have an HR Representative, talk to a friend or family member who works in HR. Find out and record the answers to the questions below. After recording the responses received, provide a paragraph summarizing your thoughts concerning the information you learned and your thoughts relative to how that HR Representative might improve upon his/her knowledge in the field (do not share your thoughts with that HR Representative). This assignment should be no more than three double-spaced pages in length.

1. What type of training did you receive in order to perform your job?
2. Did you receive training on statutes such as ADA, FMLA, ADEA, and Title VII?
3. Which statute do you find yourself dealing with most often?
4. Describe the most challenging employee problem you had to deal with related to one of those statutes, and how was it resolved (omit the name(s) of the employees)?
5. What is the most common/routine type of employee relation issue you have to deal with?
6. Do you interact with legal counsel, either house counsel (in-house), hired outside counsel to represent the company, or opposing counsel representing the employee? Which ones and how often?
7. What dispute resolution mechanisms does your company utilize when trying to resolve employee relation concerns?

If you could give one piece of job advice to a new HR Representative on how to best handle their new responsibilities, what would it be?