Hiring and working with people on a daily basis requires numerous skills in order to communicate requirements and expectations for the jobs at hand. Managers working in other areas of the business, such as engineering and accounting for example, may not be well trained in working with employee issues. Employee issues rarely start out big. Usually small issues are left to fester and grow and oftentimes continue for some time before Human Resources is brought into the mix.
Work with your Managers to train them on how to address issues when they are small and when to escalate the issue to the Human Resources department. A guided tour on how to handle issues with employees is often appreciated.
Here are some examples of how to effectively handle problems with employees.
Small Issues:
It is best to correct and modify behavior on small issues as you go along. Don’t allow little issues to build and become bigger issues. If you see something that needs attention, mention it immediately and be specific about what modification is needed.
For example, telling someone to dress professionally when going to a client may be too vague. A more specific request would be indicating professional dress is a suit or skirt and would be the type of clothing you wear to an interview. In this case, your instructions were to the point and very specific. Don’t just ask someone to dress “professionally” as this term means different things to different people. By citing examples of what your company considers ‘professional’, you will eliminate ambiguity. It is my experience that most people want to follow the rules if they are clear about what that means.
Perpetual Issues of a small nature:
When an issue has come up several times and has been addressed by you in the above manner, it is now time to call on a more somber tone. For example, ‘We’ve talked about making sure your outstanding issues on the monthly report get resolved in a timely manner. I have told you twice now that timely means within a 10 day period. I noticed your October report has outstanding issues still not resolved by November 20th. Not following procedure is serious, especially after we have talked about this previously. What seems to be the issue?”
Allow for the person to address the current issue. If the reasons are still not acceptable, then indicate failing to follow procedure again next month will lead to a note in their personnel file and additional follow up. Depending on where you are in the process, if this were a very serious issue which could lead to their termination, you need to say the words……this could lead to your termination if not immediately corrected. In our example above, especially noting this to be a small issue, it is unlikely this could lead to a termination. However, if this were the final straw breaking the camel’s back of a thousand small issues, or if this were of a more serious nature, you may have to say the words……this could lead to your termination. I used to believe people understood this actuality without saying the words. However, since working for nearly a decade at running my own staffing company, I have learned people don’t always think the issue at hand could be serious enough to warrant termination.
Your tone should be serious and firm, but not angry. You can mention that you value them on your team or that you like their skills, but this situation needs to be addressed right away.
Serious Issues:
Most serious issues start out as small issues of a perpetual nature. If you resolve those issues quickly, hopefully you won’t have serious issues. Serious issues are certainly those issues that could lead to termination or may have just led to their termination. Let’s address serious issues that can be corrected. Always consult with the Human Resources department before you take action.
Firstly, don’t overlook serious issues and wait until there is no hope for remedy. Immediately contact your Human Resources professional and ask for guidance on working through the issue. It is customary for Human Resources to be involved in the actual meeting with the employee. If the situation can be remedied, usually the meeting with discuss the issue at hand, the fact it is quite serious and could have led to immediate termination, and the actions required by the employee to keep their job. The meeting representatives should clearly communicate the issue and listen intently to the arguments of the employee for validity. Most likely the meeting will include the scheduling of follow- up meetings to ensure the issue is resolved fully and that conduct /work is now acceptable.
In these cases, try to get buy in from the employee. If the employee realizes their behavior/ work is unacceptable and you are offering a way to correct this issue and move forward, the employee is likely to have a better outcome. In the end, we want all employee/employer relationships to be successful. It is best for the company, for the manager and for the employee. By ensuring the employee understands the expectations clearly going forward and through periodic meetings are held accountable to those expectations, many serious issues can be remedied.
Once the corrective actions are concluded and everyone agrees the issue is now fully resolved and ongoing expectations are in place, do not continue to bring up this dead issue. Once the issue is resolved, leave it lie. If there are new issues or continuing issues of course you must deal with those at that time.