Joel Zeff, work culture expert, improvisational humorist, and author, gives a sneak peek into his 2026 DMEC Compliance Conference keynote presentation. It focuses on the value of investing in fun at work and how that helps organizations of all sizes and industries become more productive. Listen in for details and a story you won't forget about a magic harmonica, and join us for the 2026 DMEC Compliance Conference April 13-16 in St. Louis, Mo., for four days of educational sessions, networking, and fun that will set your whole team up for success!

Register your teams today: https://dmec.org/compliance-conference/registration/

Resources:

• 2026 DMEC Compliance Conference
• FMLA/ADA Training for Supervisors & Managers
• DMEC Membership

DMEC: Welcome to Absence Management Perspectives: A DMEC Podcast. The Disability Management Employer Coalition, or DMEC as we're known by most people, provides focused education, knowledge and networking opportunities for absence and disability management professionals. DMEC has become a leading voice in the industry and represents more than 20,000 professionals from organizations of all sizes across the United States and Canada. This podcast series focuses on industry perspectives and delves into issues that affect DMEC members and the community as a whole. We're thrilled to have you with us and hope you'll Visit us at www.DMEC.org to get a full picture of what we have to offer. From webinars and publications to conferences, certifications, and much more. Let's get started and meet the people behind the processes.

Before we start into our conversation, I'm hoping you will talk a little bit about how you got into this work after starting your career as a journalist and then becoming a corporate communications consultant. Your website mentions that you noticed your clients were and I'm using air quotes here, starving for fun. And I'm hoping you'll tell us a little bit more about this journey to set the stage for our conversation.

Joel Zeff: Awesome. Thank you for having me. Very excited to bring the TA DA and the energy and fun to the conference in St. Louis. And Heather, your question is how I got started. I don't know. I don't even know how I got on this podcast sometimes. I went to journalism school. I was a newspaper reporter. I'm very proud of that. And I worked for some newspapers and I loved it. I found myself unemployed because the paper I was working for closed. And if you want to hear that story,

that's a great story. I don't tell that story in my keynotes, but I would. If you want a little later, we can tell that story because it involves a magic harmonica. So I lost my job and I had a lot of free time.

And in a severance check, I was single, I had a severance check and I had a lot of free time. And that is always the origin story to start standup comedy. Always. That is every standup comic’s origin story.

I lost my job, and so I started also doing improv comedy. And eventually I had to find a job to, you know, I like to eat and pay rent and have a car and gas. You know, the basics. And so I started, I worked at a PR agency and then an ad agency, and I was still doing comedy. So these two very different worlds, improv comedy world and this very corporate PR world. And I realized actually the skills that made each successful were quite similar. And I found a way to combine the two.

Heather Grimshaw: It's a great story. It's a great origin story. So it would be great to hear you talk a little bit about how you combine improvisational comedy and work culture in your presentations, because frequently those are not two things that most people would put into the same sentence.

Joel Zeff: So I was doing improv at a theater on the weekends, and I Loved it. I was absolutely passionate about it. The first weekend I moved to Dallas, a friend took me to see a show at this improv comedy club. And it was like the movies where the protagonist is sitting there, and all of a sudden the music changes and the light shines. It was literally. I was like. I was just taken. This was just an amazing moment in my life, and I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to get on that stage or what I need to do, but I'm going to get on that stage. And I took some workshops, and it was a process. And maybe a year later, actually, I think it was about two years later, they had an audition,

and I auditioned and got in the comedy troupe, and I just, absolutely, just fell in love with improv. Just as a. As an art form, as a performance, as just something that really, that I connected with. I took classes at Second City in Chicago and flew up every week for classes. And. And so I had this opportunity to share this love and this passion, what improv gave me. And so I found a way to combine my skills as a communicator, my skills in business and working with clients, and my skills as an improvisational comedian. And so it. And I never had this huge, grandiose plan. It was just. It's like somebody would ask me to speak, and I didn't have a plan for my career. I didn't have a plan even that day to speak. I would just like, well, let me try this improv game. And then I started talking from the heart, what improv talk taught me and what it meant to me. And that process just.

It evolved every time that I spoke, and I. And I had more opportunities, and people would ask me to speak. And, you know, people would give me, like, you know, $50 in Chili's gift cards and a hoodie.

And I was like. I was like, you. Are you kidding me? You're gonna give me $50 in Chili's gift cards and a hoodie? Oh, my God.

Heather Grimshaw: Bonus.

Heather Grimshaw: One of the things that we do share quite a bit is that compliance is a very serious topic, and there are a lot of rules, regulations that you have to follow. Yet people always talk about the fun that they have at this conference, and it's really because these are very passionate people who truly care and. And want to support employees at every level. So I think this message will. Will resonate on. On every level.

Joel Zeff: I love being around people that are passionate about what they do. Helping people, mentoring people, taking care of people, helping your company, helping your organization.

That is all fun. Fun means a lot of different things. It's not just a pizza party and we're all having a blast and, you know, laughing at each other's jokes, that's fun. But fun is also being successful and helping people and being Supportive and being a great leader and a great teammate. That's fun, too. So we have to find our fun, and that fuels our passion.

Heather Grimshaw: Absolutely. And I think that that in and of itself will resonate with these accommodations and leave management professionals your message about celebration and fun,

igniting passion and also boosting morale is a concept that will really resonate with these folks specifically. And I'm. I'm hoping you'll talk a little bit about whether that concept is new to some of the folks you talk with at first, at least, or if you see it becoming more common or if it's always been more accepted.

Joel Zeff: Well, that's really a great question. I was doing a workshop recently with a manufacturing client, and we were talking about positive support. And I did a little exercise where the whole audience gave this one person a round of applause. And I asked them, you know, how'd it feel? And they said, it was kind of awkward. And I go, awkward to receive positive support. Have everybody in the room applaud you. That should be awesome. It should never be awkward to receive positive support,

but it is for a lot of people. And that's what I want to change, and I want to help. Because that positive support, that appreciation, it fuels everything that we do. It fuels our passion. It fuels being a leader and being a communicator and fuels reaching our goals. That same person emailed me a couple weeks after the workshop, and they said, you know, I went into the plant and I made it a point to give people positive support, to appreciate them. And she said in her email that many people there were eye rolls. There were strange looks, like, what do you. Because this was foreign. This was different. Which is. Isn't that sad? Oh, my God.

Heather Grimshaw: It is sad, isn't it?

Joel Zeff: Sometimes. That's the culture. And she didn't give up. That was awesome. This is just an amazing email. And she did not give up. And she said it just became commonplace, and other people were giving other people positive support, and it just was growing and building. And it just all started by someone taking that first step and not giving up because we have to celebrate. And that celebration, it energizes us. It fuels us. And if we don't, what happens? What takes over is frustration and stress and impatience because we forget that we love what we do. We forget that how much we enjoy this because we're in the weeds and we're getting frustrated and something broke and somebody said something we didn't like,

and somebody made a mistake, and the weather's bad and the coffee machine, somebody didn't clean the coffee machine. You know, just on and on and on. That little moment of appreciation and positive support is. Is just absolute gold. And it's. It doesn't barely takes any time, doesn't take a budget, doesn't take. You know, you don't have to put a PowerPoint presentation with an upside down triangle or interlocking circles. You don't have to use AI. You don't have to do any. You don't have to download an app. You know, you don't have to. I have to say, hey, I really appreciate what you did, or I really, you know, thank you for taking the time. Or, man, that was awesome. And you know how it feels when someone says it to you. It feels awesome. And that's a gift. It's the best gift you can give anybody. And again, it barely takes any time.

Heather Grimshaw: It is a gift, and I think it's so wonderful to hear that that woman reached back out to you to tell you how that lesson learned influenced behavior of others. And as someone who's also seen that eye roll, like, oh, come on, it's not that big of a deal. It's just my job. That's you. You know,

it really. It's. It is sad. And I think that it does hopefully have an effect that is passed on. I love what you said, that it's absolute gold. I agree.

Joel Zeff: I mean, I'm lucky. I have a job where I get a round of applause.

Heather Grimshaw: That's right. Yeah, exactly.

Joel Zeff: Like, I do my job, I'm gonna get applause. I don't even have to be that good. Like, I have an off day. But you know what? People are still gonna go, ah, he was all right, but they're still gonna. Still gonna clap. And then I walk off stage and like, well, I got my positive support, you know, for the day. I mean, that fuels me. It's fueled me for a long, long time. And, you know, I have many psychological issues that I probably are undiagnosed and need to take care of. But one is I definitely need a lot of positive support. I need. I need attention and a lot of applause.

Heather Grimshaw: We all need that reinforcement, right? It is that recognition. You're on the right path. This is a positive step, even if it's a baby step. So. And I love what you said, too, about there's no budget required and you don't have to do a PowerPoint, which will be music to their ears. Frankly, since you've worked with so many different types of organizations, I'm wondering if there are if there's kind of a consistent list or really would love to hear you talk about some of the biggest challenges you've seen with workplace culture in the last few years. And as an addendum to that, what role Covid might have played in that, and if you see that dissipating or continuing.

Joel Zeff: What's this Covid you speak of? Is that. Was that in the news? I don't.

Heather Grimshaw: It might have been. It might have been just a blip. Just a blip.

Joel Zeff: Okay. Because I spent a lot of time, you know, just offline, so I didn't see what. What was going on.

Heather Grimshaw: Right.

Joel Zeff: I think. I think culture wise, that everybody. There's just so much change and there's so much disruption, so many new ways of doing things, and that's really hard. Change is very difficult. And that's actually. When you mentioned Covid, you know why that was so difficult? Because we didn't change one thing during COVID We changed everything. We changed how you socialized, how you bought groceries, how you paid for things, how you worked, where you worked, how you went to school. You want to know why everybody was frustrated and why there was issues is because we changed everything. And people change is hard and scary and difficult and. And disturbing and. And. And that's. That's. What if we don't communicate what's happening? If you don't communicate what's expected and communicate well, not just throw out words, but communicate well in different ways,

then stress and frustration and impatience is going to take over. And so there's a lot of change disruption, even today. And it's never going to go away. We're never going to have a day where we're like, we're all done changing. We're just going to order pizza on Friday because we finished. We finished all the changes and all the. It's. We're good for, probably we're done. Change is going to be constant. And improv teaches us to embrace change, to not be afraid of change, because most change is completely out of our control. We only control how we react to change. And we're going to talk about this in the keynote. What improv teaches us is that our power is how we react. And if we focus on reacting positively and being supportive and helpful and patient and understanding that change is not going to be as difficult. It's not going to be. We're going to reduce our stress, not be as frustrated, not be as impatient, because we're going to have more control. We're going to have more.

More of a Power and that actually, that's a good time to talk about the magic harmonica. All right. So when I talked about being a journalist, and that was, you know, back in the 90s and I lost my job, I had a, they said, come clean out your desk. The paper is closed. And you know, that was very, very difficult. And I just moved to Dallas and I was living in a one bedroom apartment with hardly any furniture. And I had just moved to Dallas six months prior. And they said, you just lost your job.

Heather Grimshaw: Oh, wow.

Joel Zeff: Yeah, that's pretty tough. I walked out of that one bedroom apartment, they said, come clean at your desk. Tomorrow's the last paper. When you lose your job and you're in a situation like that, there's a range of emotions. Some people are angry and some people are confused and some people, some people are sad and disappointed. And there's a range of emotions. And for some reason, I know we're on, we're just audio, but I'm going to show you this. This is the magic harmonica. This is the actual magic harmonica. And so, and I bought this in college and I don't really remember,

I think I was at a lecture, obviously it must have been a famous harmonica player and they were selling harmonicas. Cause that's, I don't, I don't know why else, but I, I, that memory's gone. So I did remember that I did buy at a college lecture. And so I didn't walk out of the door, walk out the door grabbing this magic harmonica very often or at all really, because I'm tone deaf.I don't have any music ability. And so I don't know why I did this. This day that I lost my job. And I went down to the newspaper again, people are cleaning out their desks and there's, you know, people are crying and angry and sad and disappointed and it's tough to lose your job. And so I found myself at the back loading dock and the media had gathered, radio stations, TV stations, other newspapers to cover the close of this newspaper. It's a big, it was a big deal. And so for some reason I surveyed the scene. I, I don't know how I got to the backloading dock. I don't know why I did this. I don't know if I had a pre conceived plan, if it was just in the moment. I literally have no idea how all this happened because it was a long time ago. And so let's see if the harmonica is working. Do you hear it?

Heather Grimshaw: I do.

Joel Zeff: Sometimes the streaming, sometimes streaming will. So again, I Have no music abilities. And one of the reasons the harmonica is magic is because you can blow into it and sounds like. You may know what you're doing, but I don't. But I did one okay. Blues note. The media was there. I was by myself. I don't know why I did this. I was just nuts. And so I started. I started a little blues song. I said, I just lost my job. I got no money. I just moved to Dallas six months ago. They told me to come clean out my desk. I'm taking the three hole punch. I got the newspaper blues because I just lost my job. I don't know what to do now because I got the newspaper blues. And so that went on for a few minutes.

Heather Grimshaw: That's great.

Joel Zeff: Yeah, it's a true story.And so let's clap. Let's get clapping. I just applauded my own blues song. And so what happened was the media, they were like, wait, this isn't. This is different.

This is unique. This isn't something body just. Just taking boxes out to their car. And the cameras again, it's like the movies. The cameras are like. I mean they were just focused in and, and I kept doing more and. And so then somebody. And again, I've lost this memory. I don't know if it's a man or a woman. Grabbed my elbow, physically grabbed my elbow and said, you need to stop. And they said. And it was like a. It was like a film noir movie. They said, you'll never work in this town again.

That's a direct quote. I do remember this person saying, yes, exactly right. Dun dun. You'll never work in this town again. They were serious. They were absolutely serious. So yeah, later that night, we're at someone's apartment. You know, it's awake. You know, everybody lost their job. And so we turn on the news. And not only. I think it was the NBC affiliate and the ABC affiliate. I might be wrong. I know it's two. Started their broadcast with me, the idiot, playing the newspaper blues on their harmonica. And nobody knew that I did this. And so everybody in the. In the apartment just kind of turned their very slowly and just looked at me like, what are you doing? And then people would call me. This is before social media. This is before the Internet. People would call me from across the country because other news stations would pick up this story. And they said, were you playing the harmonica with the closing of the newspaper? And I'm like, yeah, that was me. And there's a huge picture of me playing the harmonica in the. In The Fort Worth newspaper. And so what did this all. You know, we're talking about change, disruption. What did this teach me, this magic harmonica. And by the way, it is my absolute. I wrote this in my book. You can't see it because we're just audio. Make the right choice, lead with passion, elevate your team, and unleash the fun at work. And it's chapter two. It's my favorite chapter. And I talk about losing my job in this magic harmonica. And it's really about change and disruption because, you know, everybody listening is going through change and disruption. And what did the magic harmonica teach me, you know, under reflection and. And I talk about. It reduced the stress that just the act of playing this harmonica, making this choice, reduced the stress of me losing my job. And that is huge. When you reduce stress, what takes the place is that your attitude and your just your tone and your approach and everything changes because you're reducing that stress. It helped create confidence that, yes, I lost my job, but I still have the same skills and I should have confidence in my abilities and confidence in what I can do and confidence in who I am.

That's what the magic harmonica taught me during this change. It taught me to embrace change. We talked about that a minute ago, Heather. But it taught me to embrace that I didn't control that I lost my job, but I do control how I react to losing my job. It taught me to focus in that moment, focus on what I'm going to do and who I am and be happy and be confident. It taught me to take a risk and be who I am. You know, it taught me to choose my attitude. And I talk about this in my book, in that chapter, chapter two. And again, that's my favorite chapter. But it's all these messages. And we're gonna share some of these messages about change and disruption at the keynote in St. Louis.

Heather Grimshaw: I love that story and I love the harmonica. And I mean, listeners have just gotten a free little concert, which is a. Again, it's a little bonus. You started out the conversation and I say ta da. I think you said ta da. So it's maybe an inflection potato potato.

Joel Zeff: Yeah, sometimes I ta da. Sometimes I ta da.

Heather Grimshaw: Will you share a little information about what that is for listeners who aren't familiar with that concept and. And how it ties into your presentation?

Joel Zeff: Yeah, and. And it's a little. We're a little teaser. Cause we're all gonna ta da at the conference. And Ta da is a celebration. You know, it's a Flourish, you know, like the magician goes, ta da. Well, you know, when your kids are younger and I'm sure I have two and mine are old and barely talk to me. They do. It's hard to get a hug, though. It's hard to get a hug.

Heather Grimshaw: Oh, yeah. Worth working for, though.

Joel Zeff: It is, it is. Usually you have to give them gas money. Today I bought Einstein's bagels, but I didn't get a hug. Perfect. Yeah, I didn't get a hug. I barely got a thank you.

And so the ta da. When kids are younger, you know, everything is a celebration. When you're, when your kids are little and, you know, they use a spoon for the first time, they walk, they,

you know, they say mommy, they say daddy, they. They eat a cheese sandwich. You celebrate everything in their life. Everything is tada. You did it, buddy. Ta da. Way to go, right?

And what happens is that when we celebrate, it builds our confidence. Their eyes get really big, they get a big smile. Whatever we're celebrating, they're going to do more of, you know, because we're building confidence and we want them to do that. Whatever we're celebrating, want them to do more.

And that's their whole life. Everything they do, mom or dad, celebrates. And then as you get older, you still have these moments. You still celebrate, but they're fewer and fewer and fewer. And then we become adults. We get together once a year, maybe we give out a few awards. We need to celebrate.

And every day, every person, you know, every person, every disability professional, compliance professional, everybody does something each day that deserves a T.A. d.A. Deserves a celebration. And they think, well, that's just part of my day. That's what I'm supposed to do.

That's, you know, that's my job. But if we stop celebrating, where again, do we get the fuel to be a great leader and a great teammate and a great communicator and take care of us and be passionate and energized. And so we have to celebrate these moments because we are helping our team and helping the people in our company, in the organization, and, and we are doing, especially the people in this audience. Oh my gosh, how much, how, how much are you helping people and the company? And so that. That celebration is so important, that ta da is so important. And it, it is a celebration. It is a ta da. Right? And so we have to think about what we're doing and making sure we take time to celebrate these moments.

Heather Grimshaw: I like your point about how, as, you know, parents do celebrate all the moments and then it wanes. And it is something, it seems like almost a cultural piece that, you know, oh, it's not that big of a deal. And as you were talking about earlier, the woman who told you when she was thanking people and celebrating things, the eye roll. And it is sad, but it is common. So I think that it seems like you're, you're almost asking people or encouraging people maybe to shift their thinking a little bit and maybe go back to those earlier times when you do recognize and celebrate the small steps.

Joel Zeff: Yeah, everything we do, absolutely everything, is a, you know, we have these moments each and every day. And that celebration is so important. These ta da moments and just, you know, coming to the conference, networking, learning from each other, meeting people, connecting. They're going to have so many ta da moments. And we just think it's part of our day. And these are really actually very special moments.

Heather Grimshaw: One of the things that we do hear from human resources professionals quite a bit holistically is that a lot of the work happens behind the scenes and they're not recognized for the ways in which they enhance the culture. They encourage better performance, and they help people stay at work and return to work. And so I think this component of your presentation, of your messaging is so important and will really resonate with folks who, frankly, again, as we talked earlier, compliance is a really big issue and it's frankly a frightening one.

You know, there can be real ramifications when things do not go according to not only the plan, but the law. And so being able to celebrate when things do go according to plan is so important.

Joel Zeff: You know, I'm sure everything, you know, it's very complicated and can be very stressful and detail oriented. And, you know, we do great things and it's important to celebrate and appreciate each other. And all that's going to do is help the people around you and help your team and help the organization. And that's really what the whole point is. And that's, you know, these ta da moments are there and we need to spend more time celebrating each other and celebrating these moments because it all goes back to fueling our passion, fueling and creating that energy and that engagement that allows us to be successful.

Heather Grimshaw: Okay, so one last question for you here.

Joel Zeff: One last question.

Heather Grimshaw: After watching videos from previous keynote presentations, it looks like there's a fair amount of improvisation involved in the presentations. It almost looked like you were having one person act out either, like a next step for another person. I was very intrigued and I'm hoping that you'll share a little bit more about that or is it a surprise for attendees?

Joel Zeff: Uh, well, you know, anybody can do their research and take a look at some of my… there's plenty of video on. On the Internet. Um, but I do use improv, and we're going to have some audience volunteers join me on stage. And so some people might be going, oh, I'm not going on stage. Well, isn't there, like, how many people are going to be at this conference? Like, 500, 400? 500?

Heather Grimshaw: Yep.

Joel Zeff: Yeah. I don't need everybody to join me on stage. No, it's like I need nine.

Heather Grimshaw: There will definitely be willing participants, for sure.

Joel Zeff: I think we'll have plenty. I think we'll have plenty. And so we're going to do some improv games and we're going to laugh and have fun and. And it's very unique. And in improv, there's no script, there's no rehearsal, there's no plan. So I'm just going to give a few minutes of instruction. We're going to play this improv game. And what's awesome for the audience is that they're going to participate vicariously because that's their friend or that's part of the team. That's. That's another person that's at the conference. That's. That's us. We're going to connect. And so I want to. I want them to be successful, and I'm going to cheer them on. And then what's great is I'm going to be entertained and I'm going to laugh, but then I'm going to talk about the choices that the audience volunteers make during the improv game. And so it's like a visual storyboard instead of PowerPoint. I'm using these visual storyboard improv games to illustrate these choices and messages. And that's going to the audience. They're going to be more open to the message, they're going to be more engaged with the message, and more importantly, they're going to retain that message because they're going to put that memory with that choice. And so the games are certainly entertaining and fun and exciting. And if, again, if that's all we get, that's a pretty good day, that's a pretty good hour. But we're going to talk about the choices that these audience volunteers make as working together as a team, the choices they make as leaders, being adaptable, dealing with change and disruption, being accountable, taking ownership, staying in the game, being present in the moment. And we're going to talk about how important these choices are to every individual, every conference attendee, and how they can take it back to their organization and be better communicators and leaders and teammates.

Heather Grimshaw: I think that's great. Okay, so I lied to you. I said that was the last question. But I do have one more. I'm hoping that you'll share maybe like a first step for an organization or that an organization could take to create a culture of celebration, which is one of the I'm using air quotes again. It's one of the comments or the quotes that you make online.

Joel Zeff: Okay, here's the easiest thing. This is a good way to end this awesome podcast, is that every day, think about all the people that you had contact with and say, did I give the people that deserved it positive support and appreciation. And if you didn't because you were busy and you got in the weeds, I get it. Then we're going to think about it on the way home. And so tomorrow, we're going to make sure we give that positive support, you know, and I don't. We can email, you can text them, you can see them in the hall. You can go into their office and go, hey, I forgot. Thank you. I appreciate you. And, you know, there's no expiration date on a thank you. Nobody's ever gotten a thank you late. And like, oh, I was pretty late. I mean, it made me feel great. But I mean, it was, you know, that appreciation really made me feel awesome. But it was. It was late. I don't know. Nobody knows. Because it made you feel great. There's no expiration date. And so you want to make sure that's the challenge. On the way home, think about all the people, and not just people in your organization, your partners, your vendors. I know there's a lot of great partners that. And organizations that partner with the association and. And, you know, your partners, your vendors, the people that. Your team, you know, the people in your organization that. That you're working with, make sure you give this positive support and appreciation. And they want to hear it. And it's a gift. And again, it's the best gift you can give anybody, and it's awesome. And what happens is when you start throwing it, giving it out there, it's gonna come back. We kind of notice these things when people give you positive support, when they're supportive, when they're helpful, we notice it's gonna come back. And then we create this culture of positive support and appreciation. That would be my first easy step. And it's just, you know, we can all make Those choices. We don't need a big, again, we don't need to have a big meeting and you know, we don't have to put any money into any of this. It's just all of us making these choices to create the culture that we want.

Heather Grimshaw: I think that's fantastic and I love that as the close because it is really about those choices. Thank you so much for your time today. I'm really looking forward to seeing you in April and appreciate you giving us a sneak peek of the presentation.

Joel Zeff: Thank you. I cannot wait to see everybody in St. Louis. This is going to be probably,

I'm going to just say right now and I don't know, we don't have to, but I'm going to say right now this is probably going to be the greatest conference in D M E C history. This is going to be the greatest probably. You have to say probably. We're going to be probably the greatest conference in history. It's going to be amazing. And I can't wait to see everybody in St. Louis. And we're just going to have so much fun and St. Louis is a great city. We're going to. Hopefully everybody gets some toasted ravioli. And if you don't know what that means, look it up, Google it. But St. Louis is very famous for toasted ravioli. It's like every, at every restaurant. It's, it's actually, you're contractually obligated to order toasted ravioli as an appetizer in every restaurant you go to in St. Louis. It's part of the contract.

Yeah. So I cannot wait. I can't wait. Thank you for having me and thank you for the invite for the podcast and I will see everybody in St. Louis.

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Ensuring compliance is a top priority for employers. Yet sometimes training frontline managers fall through the cracks. In fact, DMEC's Employer Leave Management Survey shows that 42% of employers struggle with training due to limited time and engagement. This gap often leads to non-compliance supervisor missteps remain a top violation cited by the Department of Labor nationwide.

To address this critical area of concern, DMEC created the FMLA ADA Training for Supervisors and Managers. This online training subscription helps frontline managers and supervisors identify potential FMLA or ADA requests from an employee and provides information about rights and responsibilities once an event is identified. For those who aren't yet familiar with these acronyms, we're talking about the Federal Family and Medical Leave act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

DMEC's self-paced training program includes a 25 minute animated video that walks supervisors and managers through the critical information they need to know about the FMLA and the ada. By the end of the training, managers and supervisors will understand the company's responsibilities as well as their own, be able to recognize when and to whom FMLA and ADA laws apply, and know how to direct employees appropriately and confidently. Following the video, participants will complete a 10 question quiz to test their knowledge and upon successful completion, they will receive a certificate of completion. As an added bonus, the program includes two roadmaps that can be downloaded, one for FMLA and one for ada. These act as quick, reliable reference guides when a potential request arises.

Purchase this online training today to provide your supervisors with the tools they need to lead with confidence and to ensure compliance. Visit dmec.org for more information and get the direct link in the Notes section of this episode.