Ask Liz Ryan HR: Human Resources for the new millennium
Trust Among Your Team Trumps Policies
Dear folks, here is the new story on BusinessWeek.com about kneejerk
HR policies:
Trust Among Your Team Trumps Policies
Yes, you could ask employees to prove that they were really out sick
or at their grandmother's funeral. Instead, why not treat people like
grown-ups?
by Liz Ryan
Dear Liz,
Our company is growing—that's the good news. I joined in '05 when
there were 200 employees, and we all knew one another to at least a
small degree because we were located in just two facilities in the
same city. Now, we have more than 1,000 employees in several
locations and the culture is rapidly changing. I am the HR manager,
and I'm under pressure from several managers to install policies
meant to prevent some kind of abuse or other.
One policy that managers want to change is the Bereavement Leave
policy. Right now, we don't ask for any kind of proof of death or a
funeral notice, and some of our managers want to begin to do that.
Another policy that I'm getting pressure on is the sick-time policy.
I've got managers pushing me to create a policy that requires a
doctor's note on the second date out of the office with an illness or
injury. These don't feel to me like the right policies for us to be
implementing, but I need some ammunition to fight the "more policies
are better" trend. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Joe
Dear Joe,
It's a tough transition for a company to go from the grassroots stage
to something bigger. It's not uncommon for some infrastructure to be
installed during that phase change, and HR policies are one of the
most common elements of infrastructure. Managers may feel a loss of
control, and that creates a desire in them for more rules, more laws,
more guidelines to keep people in order.
To read the full story and leave a comment, please jump to
http://tinyurl.com/trusttrumpspolicies
HR policies:
Trust Among Your Team Trumps Policies
Yes, you could ask employees to prove that they were really out sick
or at their grandmother's funeral. Instead, why not treat people like
grown-ups?
by Liz Ryan
Dear Liz,
Our company is growing—that's the good news. I joined in '05 when
there were 200 employees, and we all knew one another to at least a
small degree because we were located in just two facilities in the
same city. Now, we have more than 1,000 employees in several
locations and the culture is rapidly changing. I am the HR manager,
and I'm under pressure from several managers to install policies
meant to prevent some kind of abuse or other.
One policy that managers want to change is the Bereavement Leave
policy. Right now, we don't ask for any kind of proof of death or a
funeral notice, and some of our managers want to begin to do that.
Another policy that I'm getting pressure on is the sick-time policy.
I've got managers pushing me to create a policy that requires a
doctor's note on the second date out of the office with an illness or
injury. These don't feel to me like the right policies for us to be
implementing, but I need some ammunition to fight the "more policies
are better" trend. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Joe
Dear Joe,
It's a tough transition for a company to go from the grassroots stage
to something bigger. It's not uncommon for some infrastructure to be
installed during that phase change, and HR policies are one of the
most common elements of infrastructure. Managers may feel a loss of
control, and that creates a desire in them for more rules, more laws,
more guidelines to keep people in order.
To read the full story and leave a comment, please jump to
http://tinyurl.com/trusttrumpspolicies
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