Last reviewed 30 October 2026 against the sources linked in this post.
A supervisor emails HR on a Friday afternoon: an employee has asked for "a few weeks off" after a family emergency, and the supervisor has already said no. Monday's question is whether that was a leave request the law protects. Small slips like that add up: in fiscal year 2025 the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $259 million in back wages for 176,957 workers.
HR compliance training is how you stop those mistakes before they reach a claim. This post maps one curriculum for HR generalists and HR business partners: 17 ready-made courses in 4 groups, what each one fixes and how to roll them out. Each group ends with an Our pick. Most legal points describe US federal rules, with one UK course, so use this as a syllabus, not a ruling.
All 17 courses at a glance
| Course | What it covers | Length | Law behind it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| FMLA for managers | Spotting leave requests, notices and avoiding interference | 40 min | Yes (US federal) |
| Pregnant Workers Fairness Act for managers | Prompt pregnancy accommodations | 35 min | Yes (US federal) |
| ADA & reasonable accommodation for managers | The interactive process for disability requests | 45 min | Yes (US federal) |
| Wage & hour (FLSA) for managers | Paid time, overtime and records | 40 min | Yes (US federal) |
| Menopause at work: UK law and employer duties | Adjustments and the employer's duties | 30 min | Yes (Great Britain) |
| Veterans & reservists in the workplace (US) | Re-employment rights and fair treatment | 30 min | Yes (US federal) |
| Legal hiring, interviewing & pay transparency | Lawful questions, structured interviews, pay ranges | 45 min | Yes (US federal; pay transparency varies by state) |
| Citizenship, immigration status & fair I-9 practices (US) | Fair document and citizenship practices | 45 min | Yes (US federal) |
| AI in hiring and people decisions | Fair, lawful, human-led use of AI | 45 min | Varies by location |
| Discrimination & equal employment opportunity | Protected characteristics and equal treatment | 45 min | Yes (US federal) |
| Conducting workplace investigations | A defensible process from complaint to report | 60 min | No |
| Preventing retaliation | Never punishing anyone who raises a concern | 40 min | Yes (US federal) |
| Code of conduct | Gifts, honesty, conflicts, speaking up | 35 min | No |
| HR and employment-law basics for managers | What managers handle and when to call HR | 45 min | No |
| Psychosocial risks, mental health and workplace violence | Stress, bullying and violence risks | 45 min | No |
| Incident reporting, investigation and recordkeeping | Reporting on time and finding root causes | 35 min | Yes (US federal reporting rule) |
| Data classification & handling | Labelling, storing and sharing sensitive data | 25 min | No |
"Yes" means a law sets rules on the topic. In the sources cited here, those laws set rules on the topic; they do not require a course.
Leave, accommodation and pay
FMLA for managers
The Department of Labor says the Family and Medical Leave Act entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for qualifying family and medical reasons. HR tracks eligibility, notices and designations, but the request usually lands with a line manager first. This 40-minute course teaches managers to recognise a possible FMLA request without the employee saying "FMLA", avoid interference and pass requests to HR in time. Try a Do / Don't sort of real supervisor replies.
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act for managers
The EEOC says the PWFA requires a covered employer to provide a reasonable accommodation to a qualified employee's or applicant's known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless it would cause undue hardship. The course shows managers how to answer common requests, such as water, toilet breaks or the chance to sit or stand, quickly and without unnecessary paperwork, and when to bring HR in. Try a scenario that asks the room which of four replies is unlawful.
ADA & reasonable accommodation for managers
ADA.gov says Title I applies to employers with 15 or more employees and requires them to give people with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from employment opportunities, from hiring to training and pay. HR owns the interactive process, but managers hear the request first, often without the words "ADA" or "accommodation". This 45-minute course covers spotting the request, leading the first conversation without unlawful medical questions and keeping records confidential. Try a scenario where the request is phrased as a complaint.
Wage & hour (FLSA) for managers
The Department of Labor says that, unless exempt, employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at not less than time and one-half their regular rate. Supervisors create most unpaid time: pre-shift tasks, interrupted meals, after-hours messages. This course teaches managers to spot paid time and correct records through payroll. Add a Pick Answer quiz on which of five tasks counts as work time.
Menopause at work: UK law and employer duties
The Equality and Human Rights Commission says that where menopause or perimenopause symptoms amount to a disability, an employer is under a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments, and that workers may also be protected from discrimination, harassment and victimisation on the grounds of age and sex. The guidance covers Great Britain. HR teams there need managers who can hold that conversation well and know when to involve HR. You could add an Open Ended round on the adjustments people would find useful.
Veterans & reservists in the workplace (US)
The Department of Labor says USERRA requires returning service members to be promptly re-employed in the position they would have attained, with the same seniority, status and pay. HR handles the return-to-work paperwork, and managers need to know these rights before the employee comes back. You could poll the room on one scenario: a reservist returns after six months and the role has changed.
Our pick: FMLA for managers. Leave requests arrive every week, usually through a manager who has no idea a law is involved, so this course prevents a frequent slip.
Hiring and fair employment practice
Legal hiring, interviewing & pay transparency
The EEOC says it is illegal to discriminate against a job applicant because of race, colour, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. This course covers structured, job-related interviews with consistent scoring, pay-range disclosure and salary-history rules for your locations, and offer paperwork. Run a scenario: show five interview questions and ask which ones to rephrase. For a deeper hiring plan, see our interview training for hiring managers.
Citizenship, immigration status & fair I-9 practices (US)
The Department of Justice says federal law prohibits citizenship status discrimination in hiring, firing or recruitment, and unfair documentary practices during employment eligibility verification, generally Form I-9 and E-Verify. HR usually runs that verification, so HR is where a mistake starts. A before-and-after quiz on what the law allows works well here.
AI in hiring and people decisions: fair, lawful and human-led
HR is often asked to adopt AI for screening, scoring or drafting letters. The EEOC says the laws it enforces prohibit neutral policies and practices that disproportionately harm protected groups when they are not job-related and necessary. That page does not mention AI, so ask your lawyer how it applies. The course walks through what to check before, during and after using AI, plus grey areas such as enthusiasm scores and public chatbots. Scenario: an AI shortlist drops everyone with a career gap.
Discrimination & equal employment opportunity
This 45-minute course is the baseline for everyone in HR. It covers disparate treatment and disparate impact in everyday decisions, the right to reasonable accommodation for disability, pregnancy and religion, and how to report discrimination internally or to the EEOC, which says it is illegal for an employer to base job assignment and promotion decisions on race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. A "What would you do?" round puts a borderline decision to the room.
Our pick: Legal hiring, interviewing & pay transparency. It stops the costly mistake at its source, the question asked in the room, and pay transparency rules keep changing.
Investigations, conduct and retaliation
Conducting workplace investigations
HR runs most internal investigations, so the process has to stand up later. This 60-minute course covers planning interviews with the complainant, respondent and witnesses using open, non-leading questions, weighing evidence on a "more likely than not" standard, and writing a factual report that closes the loop. Run a Pick Answer round that asks which of four interview questions is leading.
Preventing retaliation
The EEOC says it is unlawful to retaliate against applicants or employees for filing or being a witness in a discrimination complaint, or for communicating with a manager about discrimination. The course helps HR and managers recognise subtle retaliation, separate legitimate decisions from retaliation and document them. Try a scenario: an employee who complained last month is left off a project. Is that retaliation?
Code of conduct
This course gives everyone one clear standard for gifts, honesty, conflicts of interest and speaking up, with a four-question decision test for grey areas. Try a scenario: a supplier sends a manager gift vouchers after a contract renewal. Ask learners to vote on what to do, then show the policy answer.
HR and employment-law basics for managers
This is the briefing HR delivers to line managers: what they handle themselves and when to call HR. It covers leave, absence and flexibility, a first response to a concern, confidentiality and good notes. Managers who know it, and the supervisor skills around it, bring issues to HR earlier. A "What would you do?" round asks managers to choose their first step when someone raises a complaint.
Our pick: Conducting workplace investigations. An investigation is where HR's own process is judged, so this is the course that protects HR most directly.
Health, safety, wellbeing and data
Psychosocial risks, mental health at work and workplace violence
OSHA describes workplace violence as any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation or other threatening behaviour at the work site, from threats and verbal abuse to physical assault. HR designs the response to stress, bullying and violence risks. This course covers preventing and responding to psychosocial risk, early warning signs and de-escalation, support routes and mental health first aid. Add a Rating Scale poll on how often people see early warning signs.
Incident reporting, investigation and recordkeeping
OSHA says a work-related fatality must be reported within 8 hours, and an in-patient hospitalisation, amputation or eye loss within 24 hours. HR often keeps incident records and supports the investigation when someone is hurt. This 35-minute course covers collecting facts without blame, finding root causes with five whys or a fishbone, recording and notifying on time, and corrective actions. An ordering exercise puts a chain of causes in sequence.
Data classification & handling
HR holds some of the most sensitive data in the business: medical notes, pay, investigation files. This 25-minute course teaches labelling, storing, sharing and disposing of data by level, spotting mishandling red flags and reporting a misclassification. Try a case-practice round that asks where a doctor's note should be stored.
Our pick: Psychosocial risks, mental health at work and workplace violence. Stress and conflict show up in HR's inbox long before an incident does, and this course gives managers the words to act early.
How to roll the plan out
Start with the courses marked Yes in the table, because they carry the legal risk. In fiscal year 2025 the Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $259 million in back wages, an average of $1,465 per worker, so a 40-minute pay course is cheap by comparison.
- First month: discrimination and EEO, preventing retaliation, and HR basics for managers for every new people manager.
- First quarter: the four leave, accommodation and pay courses, plus legal hiring for anyone who interviews.
- Each year: a refresher quiz on the Yes courses, plus the AI course whenever your tools change.
- Role-specific depth: investigations for HR partners, incident reporting for site supervisors, and data handling for anyone with access to personnel files.
- Regional add-ons: the UK menopause course where you employ people in Great Britain, and the I-9 and veterans courses for US teams. Add your state's rules where they go further.
Ask a lawyer what applies where you operate.
Ways to run these courses on AhaSlides
You can build any of these as a self-paced course with the AhaSlides course creator, run them as a live Q&A deck, or both, with a post-course survey and a 30-day check-in to measure what changed.
New to AhaSlides courses? When you have no courses yet, the Courses page opens on a library of 600+ ready-made course templates, so you can filter by region or audience, claim one and start editing straight away (see how it works).
- Pick Answer: "An employee asks for a few weeks off after a family emergency. What should the manager do first?" Use it in the FMLA course, or ask which of five tasks counts as paid time in the FLSA course.
- Word Cloud: "What words might an employee use when they need an accommodation?" The answers show how rarely people say "ADA" or "accommodation".
- Rating Scale: before and after the investigations course, ask "How confident are you planning a fair investigation interview?" from 1 to 5.
- Open Ended: collect anonymous questions for HR on retaliation or leave, so people ask what they would otherwise keep to themselves.
FAQ
What is HR compliance training?
It is training that teaches HR teams and managers the employment laws on hiring, pay, leave, accommodation and discipline, and how to apply them day to day.
What compliance training is required for HR?
It depends on your country and state. The federal sources cited in this post set rules on leave, pay, accommodation and discrimination but do not require a course, so check your own state's rules.
How often should HR compliance training be done?
Annually for the core topics, with a short update whenever a law or a company policy changes.
Can HR compliance training be done online?
Yes. Short self-paced modules with a final check, plus a live quiz session for questions, are easy to run and track online.
This post is general information, not legal advice. For a decision about your own workplace, speak to a qualified employment lawyer or the regulator.
