Employee Relations - Managing your People
First, select your people, then make them your most valuable asset by applying competent people management processes.
What do we mean by competent people management processes?
- Effective induction programmes
- Good management communication processes
- Fair and consistent absence management and capability procedures
- Information and consultation structures
- Fair and consistent discipline and grievance procedures.
Why do you need these?
The first reason is to minimise the risk to your business by preventing unnecessary and costly disputes with your employees - most of which, in our experience, are completely avoidable. The second, but equally important reason, is to maintain the commitment and motivation of your high performing employees. Persistent poor performance and perceived 'skiving' that are not properly managed, seriously affects those who are expected to work harder to cover those who don't pull their weight.
Case Study
Our client had acted with the best of intentions by giving one of his junior employees more responsibility, which she had indicated she was ready for. The employee then changed her mind and proceeded to behave badly. Our client let his frustrations with the situation be known, which resulted in a grievance against him for sex discrimination and bullying. A claim was presented to the Employment Tribunal for constructive unfair dismissal on those grounds.
CHaRM investigated the grievance fully on our client's behalf and worked to minimise the impact of the ET claim, whilst managing the expectations of our client and coaching him in how the sitaution could have been handled differently.
The result? An out of court settlement that was significantly less than originally claimed, as well as a change in management practices to ensure that there is no room for people to raise unfounded claims of unfair treatment.
"Working with CHaRM has given me confidence to handle difficult situations and has shown that these issues can be dealt with without long term damage to the working relationship. Seeing CHaRM operate has shown how things should be done."
