Defensive HR – Managing Employees with a Purpose

How you manage your employees is by far the most critical aspect of bulletproofing your HR and your business. Most employees are forgiving and flexible with an employer’s lax policy or practice, but it's always that one employee that is going to test any weaknesses in your HR. That is why its advisable to set the bar high in your policy and practice in order to prevent issues and close the gap, so you aren’t vulnerable to employee claims and lawsuits.

Whether you have 2 or 200 employees, its critical to have a deliberate purpose in the way you manage your employees. It starts with policy and ends with practice. Here are some tips to make that reality.

HR Policy and your Employee Handbook

Have you updated your employee handbook? Are the policies you communicate to your employees clear and are you also acting consistently and accurately in your practice towards employees? Are there any areas where you have too much gray area, or areas employees have taken advantage of in the past?

Some of those policies that MUST be clear and concise, and backed up by practice:

Meal and Rest Breaks – make sure your policy is clear and there is NO compromise on missed, late or short meal or rest breaks. Make sure you have electronic timekeeping for hourly employees.

Vacation and sick time accrual – Your accrual policies and eligibility rules must be detailed so that employees understand their paid time off. This process should be automated through payroll.

Harassment and Discrimination – Your policy should be clear, that there is no tolerance for anything related to harassment or discrimination. Train your employees and be sure you follow-up on complaints.

Best to have a full review of your handbook on a periodic basis and be sure you update practice to reflect policy.

Some other areas that are just as critical as your foundational handbook:

Designate someone for HR

If possible, its best to assign someone to onboarding, employee changes, benefits, complaints, employee issues and an overall responsibility over your workforce. Be sure to define exactly what these roles are, and that all employees understand.

HR Training

If you have managers, they should be trained in basic HR 101 and how to lead and manage people. Infinium HR offers Harassment Prevention, HR 101 and Leadership training to its clients at no additional cost. These simple training modules can help equip manager to be the hands and feet of workforce management.

Employee Complaint Channel

Employees should have a method to express their concerns to management, free of bias or intimidation. Make sure there is an open door policy and that your employees know how to make their voices heard. Always respond quickly and appropriately to resolve any issues. Get help from HR!

Clear Lines of Communication

Having effective communication across your organization is critical for operational goals and morale. Ensure employees are communicating as individuals and as a team. Learn to spot communication breakdowns and fix them immediately.

Focus on Your Culture.

Your company culture is ever more important in today’s world with so many changes and outside forces affecting every employee. Be sure to define, express and live out your culture. If you have not defined your culture, work with the employees to create an outline of what’s important and what sort of concepts are going to define your culture.

Be Prepared for Terminations

Firing someone is never pleasant. However, being prepared in advance can save you headaches and lessen employer liability. First be sure you have thought the process through and done all due diligence during the disciplinary process. Secondly, take the termination seriously – have a plan, keep emotion and debate out of the process, and prepare for contingencies.

These are just a few areas where weakness can open the door to problems. Its not necessary to implement everything at once but choose an area that you feel is the weakest, and engage that area first, then move on to other important areas you can strengthen.

Infinium HR can help you define and improve your management practice, please reach out to Ana@infiniumgroup.com for assistance.