People + Culture Strategies

People + Culture Strategies Founder and Managing Principal, Joydeep Hor recently gave a thought-provoking and well-received presentation to leading HR professionals on how employers should rethink handling discipline, termination and grievances in the workplace. In taking the audience through ten key guiding principles, HR leaders were provided with a strong foundation to deal with challenging employee relations situations.

The Challenge

Every HR professional can relate to being asked to reflect on the most challenging employment relationship they have had to deal with. In having this scenario at the forefront of their mind, Joydeep tasked the audience with considering what it was that made it difficult and what tools they could have incorporated that might have yielded a different outcome.

Ten Guiding Principles

The ten guiding principles set out by Joydeep were in strong contrast to how a traditional law firm would approach handling challenging employee relations situations. The focus should be shifted from a compliance-based approach, which tends to view these situations in a vacuum, to an approach which considers the whole context and environment in which it occurred. As noted by Joydeep, this is particularly important as these days people are far better informed about their workplace rights then they used to be, and issues are becoming more prevalent earlier in the employment relationship. The conversation, he surmised, needs to be reframed and his guiding principles provide a practical toolkit in being able to do so.

1. Embrace quadrant methodology
Managing people should be undertaken through a wholistic approach. Instead of simply focusing on the commercial aspects of a decision, consideration should be given to each of the four quadrants: commercial; legal; psychology and sociology. It is often these last two quadrants which are overlooked, yet the importance of understanding how the person thinks or feels as well as considering the bigger impact on the organisation can lead to better outcomes in resolving the issue.

2. Embrace the “Kingdom”
Joydeep provided the audience with the powerful analogy of viewing the workplace as a kingdom, where the ruler (employer) is entitled to impose any rules (policies) they want to apply in their kingdom (of course within limits), the ministers (managers) are to ensure the rules are complied with and the ruler is entitled to evict anyone they wish provided they do so in the right way. The implementation of appropriate company policies are important to ensure the kingdom runs smoothly.

3. The importance of substance over process
HR is often viewed as process driven rather than substance. It is important to challenge this perception so that it becomes more about substance and value over process.

4. Grievances: Understand the core of the issue
HR professionals must seek to understand the root of the grievance. Getting better at going beyond what is being said to find out the core of the issue will assist in being able to improve it.

5. Little things matter
In people management issues, it is always necessary to think about how the employer’s actions will make that person feel. Empathy and common decency can go a long way.

6. Explain, don’t convince
In handling challenging performance related situations, the aim is to infuse your language with words that seek to explain why you have come to the view that you have.

7. Honour the promises you make
Employers often make promises to employees, whether it be at induction, by way of company policies (which should be limited wherever possible) or in their values statement. These promises should be followed through with.

8. Assume nothing and take nothing for granted
This principle is particularly relevant in relation to confidentiality. Whilst HR professionals often do things in a certain way because we are often fixated on the legal quadrant, it is worthwhile investing more time in optics management and counter-messaging.

9. Right and wrong have nothing to do with it
In the context of workplace investigations, it is very easy for the investigation to take on a life of its own where the investigation itself becomes a pseudo institution and the employee’s concerns about their job security is thereby intensified. To avoid this, HR professionals should commit to undertaking an investigation quickly, with minimal fuss and disruption and form a view on the balance of probabilities.

10. Specifics around termination
Often the most unrecognisable yet dominant category in termination decisions is based on the aspect of a lack of a cultural fit in the organisation. More energy should be invested in determining an answer to the question, “what does good look like” in the organisation. If employers invest in answering this question, they can then create the infrastructure necessary to put them in the best possible situation in dealing with termination decisions.

In providing these ten guiding principles, Joydeep provided HR professionals with practical advice to implement within their organisations straight away. People + Culture Strategies can assist with the implementation of Joydeep’s powerful people management strategies. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested on (02) 8094 3100.