Make Your Workplace a Hard Target: Practical Strategies to Prevent and Prepare for Violence in the Workplace

Join ACC TN and Baker Donelson's, Martha Boyd, as she takes a look at violence in the workplace and suggests strategies on what employers can do to prevent it and prepare for it.

Lunch will be served from 11:30 - Noon.

The CLE will begin at Noon, ending at 1:00 pm.

Make Your Workplace a Hard Target: Practical Strategies to Prevent and Prepare for Violence in the Workplace

Employers are struggling to come to terms with the recent surge in mass shootings in the workplace. Employers worry that the next termination will trigger an angry employee to engage in violence against the company, while employees wonder whether there is anything they can do to keep themselves safe if an attack occurs. We'll discuss:
• Strategies for keeping your workplace safe, including recognizing the signs of a potentially violent employee;
• Training employees on how to respond to workplace violence; and
• Some of the legal considerations you must take into account when you face a situation that signals impending violence by an employee.

Presenter: Martha Boyd

Martha Boyd assists managers in running the company by creating legalese-free employee handbooks and employment policies that employees can actually understand and follow. She also advises businesses on their obligations regarding employee leaves of absence, such as absences under the FMLA and military leave laws. She counsels clients on responding to harassment claims, and investigates those claims when an outside investigator is desirable.

Martha guides managers through discipline and discharge, walking them through the process of ensuring that disciplinary action is supported and can be defended later on if necessary. She trains managers and first-line supervisors in a variety of topics through interactive sessions, including discrimination, harassment, and workplace violence, and provides real-life examples that they can relate to so that the training is meaningful and engaging. She helps business leaders understand employee and independent contractor worker classification and provides advice for wage and hour compliance. She also advises businesses on the use of noncompetition and nonsolicitation agreements for employees, and how or when those agreements should be leveraged in light of a particular labor pool.

Martha has also performed human resources due diligence in a number of corporate acquisitions. When representing acquiring parties, she reviews all HR policies and practices, identifying potential risk for liability so that the acquiring party can factor that risk into the transaction. Gaining the familiarity required to provide this service necessarily puts Martha in the position of being able to help prepare the new company's policies – whether those policies come from the acquired company, the acquiring company or a combination of both – and ensure they reflect best practices.

A U.S. Army veteran who served in Baghdad, Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Martha also has a robust government contracts practice, advising companies that are competing for and executing contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies.

Parking at CAT:

Enter from West End Avenue. The driveway is between the CAT building and Loew's Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel. Pull up to the closed garage door and announce yourself using the intercom. Security will raise the garage door. Enter the parking garage and drive up to the guest parking deck behind the building and enter the building from the back of the building.