Don’t be one of those managers who rings round the HR team till they get the answer they want.
They say phone calls are monitored for training purposes clearly they do not do anything with the info or else why would the response be so different depending on who you speak to? How come the advice is so different ? This recent exchange with Call Centre staff reminds me of a conversation with the head of HR about managers ringing up different members of the HR team for the “ right” advice.
The head of HR was talking about relationships with operational managers. They were saying that managers about to do something they knew was a bit iffy would ring up HR on the pretext of asking for advice but really wanting to cover their arse. This was sometimes in relation to recruitment but often to do with a member of the team they considered, “ uncooperative” ,” difficult” or “ playing the system” the latter was usually in relation to frequent absences. They would say what they were planning to do and seek HR’s blesssing. When this was not forthcoming they would try again with a different member of the team only this time they would rephrase their intentions to take account of some of concerns expressed in their provisions phone conversation. Mostly though this was a change of tone and language rather than proposed action. For example this time they would not say they wanted to ,” get rid of X because they were a real pain in the arse”. The HR officer would ask some pertinent questions such as have you raised you concerns with the individual, have you set out your expectations, have you given the individual time and opportunity to improve and have you recorded these conversations? Inevitably they had not. The response was often ,” if I did all that it would take months to get rid of them”. Sometimes their frustration would lead then to try one more time later in the week with another member of the team. With no greater success.
My colleague in HR said do these managers not think my team talk to each other! And of course if a subsequent grievance came in from X complaining that their manager was harassing or bullying them then HR are predisposed to think there might be some substance to the complaint in view of the phone calls .
The frustration from the HR point of view was they were very keen to support managers in challenging employees over poor performance, inappropriate conduct or their attendance record. In fact their main concern was managers who let things go rather than risk a confrontation with the inevitable problems down the line. Rather than ask “permission” to do what they wanted if managers instead genuinely ask for advice ,how can I deal with this issue they would find HR very helpful. It might take longer to get the change they wanted but the risk of a grievance being upheld would be removed. Such a joint approach might demonstrate that may be the answer is not always to get rid of the person !
blairmcpherson.co.uk
