It’s Not Them…It’s You!

I love the start of a new client relationship.  It’s exciting to start digging into a business; you never know what you’ll find.  I particularly enjoy learning about an organization’s culture, especially when the organization has never had formalized HR before.  It is so interesting to talk with owners and managers about the good, the bad, and the ugly as it relates to the employees.  While no two companies are the same, most can agree that there are opportunities for improvement around employee behavior.  What most owners/managers don’t realize is that change has to start with them. 

I recently started working with a company to provide outsourced HR services.  Their first questions to me were regarding employee attendance – can we/should we require ‘reasons’ for employee absences?  Who should monitor attendance problems? 

Here it comes…sigh

Am I surprised these are the new client’s first questions to me?  No.  Am I concerned about how they treat employees and the effect on culture?  Absolutely.

Here was my response to them:

1. Attendance issues are symptoms of bigger problems. 

2. Managers have to be trained on how to identify and deal with the bigger problems (like employee engagement and company culture).

3. We’ll review this during our manager training session. 

4. We’ll address attendance during the handbook review. 

I’m a big proponent for companies holding the mirror up to themselves first.  But they rarely do.  Pointing fingers at employees is the usual course of business. 

This is a significant area of opportunity for HR.  We have to help leaders and managers see the value of self-reflection for the organization.  Doing so will reduce recruiting costs, lower turnover, and enrich corporate culture.  Everyone wins!