As a business strategy consultant, I have seen many organizations violate the trust of their employees by not having documented procedures. It isn’t enough to tell someone your expectations. You must document them for permanent record, for training, and for communication. It doesn’t matter if you have one employee or thousands; each employee expects and deserves to have an environment safe from injustice.
Several years ago I managed the merger and acquisition of a collections company. I stayed on for 11 months during the transition, which meant that I managed the personnel issues as well as the transition issues between the two companies. We used a temporary agency to assist us with staffing. The temporary person would complete their ‘probation’ time as a temp and then transition to a full-time employee. Unfortunately, we had some conflict between the HR policies of the two companies. This particular time, one of the new temporary employees filed a sexual harassment complaint against one of the full time employees. Since I filled the executive leadership role for this national company, it meant that I had to manage the temp agency policies and our office policies, and that was a problem.
The recruiter wanted me to terminate the full time employee immediately. I made the decision to allow the employee to continue working but did move the temporary employee to a different shift to separate the two. To be honest, I had already concluded that the employee was guilty of the offense, but I owed him due diligence regarding the process. I had drawn this conclusion due to prior disciplinary problems. Thank goodness I did perform the due diligence process! As it turned out, the temporary employee couldn’t substantiate her claim of sexual harassment. Not only that, but she wouldn’t remove herself from the situation. She sent him text messages and left him voicemails. She would even wait for him at his car when he was leaving in the evening. All of this essentially constituted harassment on her part, so I had to tell the agency to remove her from the job. She was causing a disruption to business.
Due diligence is a strategy that must be a documented process within your company. It protects the organization, as well as the individuals within the company. If I had removed the employee, the company would have been negligent and potentially libel to lawsuit by the dismissed employee. It is important for executive leadership to maintain objectivity and not rush to judgment. We must represent our company and our employees ethically and fairly. Each occurrence should be measured and evaluated on its own merits. If I had allowed my personal opinions to skew the process, I would have put my organization at risk and might have destroyed someone’s reputation unjustly.
Many people see documenting policies and procedures as a chore or valueless process. As a former risk manager, who performs operations assessments I see them as a safety net for the entire organization. If executive leadership does not establish the processes, educate and communicate them, and then enforce them with follow-up, we have done our company and its employees a disservice. It isn’t enough to talk about the strategies that the company employs–they must be acted upon so that all involved can be the best they can be.
