Workplace Management: The Appropriate Way to Handle Work Related Issues/Concerns

Let’s admit it. All workers have faced internal concerns at our work at some point. Moreover, if there is anyone who says he/she hasn’t come across any issues throughout their entire work journey, chances are they might be bending the truth a bit or have a form of selective amnesia! Because work places you into regular contact with people and circumstances that might not always be comfortable at times or might place you into regular contact with people who you don’t have much in common with, it often normal to have issues with others at work from time to time. Working professionals spend almost more than 8 hours in the office dealing with people of differing mindsets and belief systems, values etc each day. So, it is natural for most employers to need to deal with incidents like disputes and conflicts between their employees at some point.

While its almost inevitable at some point, what’s important is to find the right way to address internal issues and make each employee feel equally valued and protected at work before an issue emerges. Here’s some ideas on how to get organised in advance.

PROVIDE UP-TO-DATE EMPLOYMENT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

An up to date set of employment policies is essential for every organisation as it clearly states company’s expectations for employees on how to communicate or report their work-related concerns.

Providing employee with up-to-date information about the company’s policies and guidelines helps prevent misunderstandings amongst the employees about what’s ok and what’s not. This is especially important for all new starters, so that right from the beginning of employment, the expectations and arrangements for all employment issues, including workplace disputation, is clear.

DEVELOP EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK CHANNELS

There are times when employees want to raise a concern about issues at work but might not feel comfortable about letting the employer know for fear of repercussions. This causes situations to tend to fester and give mean an escalated response over time to a relatively minor issue because of the built-up tension. Alternatively, employees that feel like they are on the receiving end of a workplace dispute can take things into their own hands and leave to get away from the stress. This type of response where the employee is a good performer can impact negatively on morale, turnover and overall business productivity.

It is essential that the employer and its management team work to identify (though formal and informal feedback channels) how employees are feeling and aim to head off workplace disputes and complaints.

ENSURE AN ACCESSIBLE HR DEPARTMENT

The HR department of an organisation plays a strategic role in managing and advising on the most important asset of the business, its employees. Human resource professionals are the people that employees look to for guidance and support when they want to discuss their workplace concerns and issues. Unfortunately, sometimes employees report that their HR department is part of the problem, not the solution in circumstances such as workplace disputes.

Regardless of company size and nature, employees must have a clear communication channel through which they can confidently discuss their issues and have them addressed in a timely fashion. An approachable and functional HR department allows for proper communication and handling of employees’ concerns while creating a safe and productive workplace environment.

WRAPPING UP

Where there are diverse workplace environments, and the people that we work with might not always be easy to get along with for a variety of reasons, employers and employees need to be able to see a way through workplace disputes when they arise. The simple suggestions in this article will help to tackle employer and employee issues better. But its hard work.

If you would like to find out more about workplace dispute resolution advice and assistance, contact HBA Consulting on 02 62474490 or via our website at http://www.hbaconsulting.com.au

Workplace Redundancy: How to Get It Right

No business wants to make their staff redundant. But sometimes, even with the best business model and workforce planning efforts, unforeseen, unexpected changes can occur in the business environment that mean that the workforce that was once needed and could be afforded, now is no longer needed in its current form and can’t be afforded based on revised revenue/budget forecasts. In the public sector, these changes can often be driven by changes of Government at election times, changes in the shape of Government driven by policy re-directions etc and in the private sector it can be driven by mergers and acquisitions, competitors entering the market, share price fluctuations and technological and consumer changes.

However, there are ways to get redundancy right and minimise the risks to the business while still ensuring that redundant employees are treated fairly. To help employers with the redundancy process, we have pulled together a few key considerations to think about.

What is actually going on in the business?

Some careful analysis of what is changing, what is driving it and where the impacts are being felt before launching into any redundancy program is key.

Things to look at and consider include:

• What is driving the change? Is it a long term or short-term issue?
• Can contingency plans be put into place to build time into the decision-making process while more information is obtained about longevity and impacts (e.g. stopping/slowing recruitment, reducing overtime/work hours, etc)?
• Are all parts of the business equally impacted? If not, where are the impacts and where are the ‘business as usual’ elements?

Can it be managed by other means?

Once the problem and scope is clear, consider possible options and risks to managing the required changes to organisational shape and size. These include:

• Recruitment freeze
• Natural attrition rates
• Contracted and casual worker profiles
• Working patterns

If the answer is that these considerations will only help to partly resolve or slow the pace of required further reductions in staff, then a redundancy program is likely to be needed.

‘Hands Up’ vs Targeted Redundancy Options

Often organisations experiencing a requirement to reduce staff numbers resort to a ‘hands up’ voluntary redundancy process. They take this route to reduce perceived potential conflict with staff as jobs are reduced, speed up the process as those who receive a redundancy are those who have expressed an interest in a redundancy and they achieve savings and reduced staffing targets at the ‘bottom line’ quickly.

From our experience, the reality of this approach is that it almost always results in fixing one problem (i.e. delivering reduced across the board staff numbers and costs with minimal staff and Union angst) but often results in a range of longer term, difficult to manage problems such as:

• Loss of key personnel – good performers with strong and marketable skills often take redundancy to realise the financial benefits knowing that they can find employment easily elsewhere;
• Retention of average/lower performing staff – those staff that are not confident in their abilities to find new work if made redundant stay and don’t take up voluntary offers
• Loss of capability in areas where it’s needed – a fixation on staff numbers and financial savings via voluntary processes often mean that capability gaps quickly emerge in key areas.
• Loss of corporate knowledge – long term staff often have extensive corporate knowledge that they take with them when they leave – often this isn’t thought about until too late.

Having a robust and industrially compliant redundancy procedure

As stated at the beginning of this article, no business hopes to find itself in a position where it needs to conduct a redundancy program.

However, better practice risk management, HR and IR as well as the historical realities of trying to deal with a redundancy program when its thrust on an organisation, often with little warning, means that planning should be undertaken early to ensure that a robust, complaint, fair and respectful process is in place should this occur and be needed.

Final Word

Though redundancy is a legitimate way to reduce staff numbers, making an employee or a group of employees redundant is never easy for an employer. Follow the tips mentioned above to make sure the process is fair on both your business and the redundant employee(s).

HBA Consulting has advised private and public-sector organisations on redundancy management processes and programs through the provision of practical, professional and experienced HR and IR advice and assistance. At difficult times like redundancy, its helpful to have assistance that supplements existing capability in an area that isn’t often available internally to an organisation.

Here’s Why Every Organisation Need Strategic Workforce Planning

Amongst all the core operations and duties that HR teams within every organisation is responsible for, workforce planning is one of the core fundamentals. .

High-performing organisations are almost always testament to the positive impact of strategic workforce planning on business. While many other companies engage in workforce planning initiatives seeking to improve their workforce shape and capability to align with current and future business needs, they are still struggling to be successful at aligning business and workforce plans.

The message here is – don’t give up. It’s hard because its complex and requires structure, judgement, discipline and persistence in order to work.  However, the profound benefits associated with workforce planning makes it essential that organisations who want to be successful stay ‘the journey’ and arrive at a workforce plan that works for them. Put the other way around, management teams that don’t have a working workforce plan are deploying whats usually for most businesses their biggest expense without knowing if its properly structured and sustainable into the future.

Having said that, set out below are some suggestions about some key areas to think about in terms of workforce planning and why its important:

Eliminate unwanted surprises

Workforce planning is a proactive approach that involves planning ahead effectively to avoid/minimise potential talent shortages or surpluses.

In addition, by forecasting the talent needs as well as the available or required supply of talent, HR can easily avoid urgent hiring and layoffs that tend to affect the core operations, reputation and productivity of the business.

Streamline business cycles

Every business cycle has periods of growth and recession. Determining a customised approach to deal with different of the business cycle helps prepare the organisation for changing phases and keep business operations running at peak efficiency.
With appropriate procedures to be implemented in both good and bad times, the organisation can meet intended production goals while preventing project delays and unfavourable outcomes.

Identify skill gaps in the workforce

Not only does a good workforce planning assessment assist in hiring new employees and determining appropriate staffing needs, but it also helps to put in place proper employee development initiatives identifying and addressing skill gaps in the current workforce.

With a well-though out system in place to identify employee needs and link this to budgets and performance management schemes, it becomes easier to alert organisational resources of potential problems and insecurities and minimise potential risk and damage.

Conclusion

Workforce planning is not just limited to identifying, recruiting and deploying the right employees but also analysing current and future workforce needs and goals to keep the business operating at peak efficiency.

Laying out a strategic workforce plan might seem intimidating at first but when implemented appropriately it can yield rewarding results for the organisation. Remember, without a workforce plan your biggest expense and asset is not being efficiently and effectively used.