Myself... In profile

I appeared in the Autumn Navitas English company newsletter for their in profile section. Apparently I got a bit too excited when filling in their questionnaire and they had to edit me down to fit in! That aside, if you wanted to know a little bit more about me or what I do - the feature below should give you a better idea.

Complaints - Separating facts from labels

I came across a worthwhile article in HR daily from a few weeks ago. "Handle complaints based on facts rather than labels." Check it out here.

The article focuses on a bullying complaint scenario but the ideas discussed can be expanded upon and used more generally; particularly when you're looking at solid communication techniques or being involved in any type of company investigation. Two points in particular I took from the article were:

1. Call out inappropriate behaviour straight away, when it is small. That way it is much less of an issue for an employee to acknowledge their behaviour and for them to apologise if required. It also helps create a culture where issues can resolve themselves rather than escalate and become much more serious.

2. When 'bullying' complaints to arise, move past the labels and work on the issue. Someone can claim that their being bullied and HR goes into serious formal investigation mode however when you dig down into the core issues of the complaint, it may just be a misunderstanding. The article gives a good example of annual leave being rejected. Jumping straight onto the bullying label can cause things to fester unnecessarily and can potentially sabotage a speedy resolution.

Unless you stay focused, it can be very easy to slip into accepting labels rather than facts, even if you ask clear and concise questions. Take for instance this example below:

Say to the employee: "When you say the person is being inappropriate; what are they saying? What are they doing? How often? How are they saying it?"

"If they say, 'They're rude to me. They always demean me', a lot of those things are labels. Ask, 'What do they do? When did they do it? Can you give me an example?'"

A personal example I can refer to is a complaint against an employee who was allegedly intoxicated. The labels thrown around in this instance were ones like drunk, alcoholic etc. However these were not facts and couldn’t form the basis of an investigation or decision. What could however was the behaviour of the employee, i.e. the facts. How was the employee acting? What did they do? What did they say? As long as you stay focused on the facts, and move past the labels you can be confident you will be making a decision on sound footing.

Changing the language around flexible work

I came across an interesting article in my HR Daily feed regarding flexible work options and the terminology used to describe them. Essentially it argues that "Work-life support" and "Flexible working arrangements" gives the impression that it is for staff receiving special treatment and reserved for the select few.

I tend to agree. Bar the new-age companies known for pushing the boundaries on flexibility such as Google, many other workplaces can have an unspoken stigma attached to flexibility. Even now I am working on a transition to retirement project specifically aimed at flexibility but only for those nearing retirement. The idea of pushing flexibility for staff throughout the organisation regardless of age is still a controversial idea. The term flexible careers, not to be confused transitional ones in the career path sense, is one that the article likes to use instead along with "flexible work" to help buck the stigma.

See the whole article here.

11 Key points from the article around flexibility are:

1. Incorporate flexibility into workplace design. - This includes job design. treat flexibility as a management deliverable
2. Create a culture of flexibility. - Remove the stigma of flexibility, make it part of the accepted culture.
3. Improve leadership around flexibility. - Make sure senior leaders can lead by example and are genuinely committed.
4. Talk about flexibility. - Illustrate success stories and detail examples.
5. Strategise around flexibility. - Include flexibility measurements in standard reporting and identify flexibility as a business need.
6. Make flexibility universal. - Make sure flexibility is truly open to all levels and job types within the business.
7. Provide resources to support flexibility. - Be sure to equip people with the tools they need (i.e IT resources).
8. Measure ROI on flexibility. - Engage in risk analysis and show financial returns.
9. Proactively Seek flexibility. - Try focusing on 'why not flexibility' as opposed to looking for reason to 'block' it.
10. Support team flexibility. - Remember to consider flexibility impacts within and across teams. Welcome feedback. 
11. Promote career flexibility. - Create flexible career opportunities and integrate them into senior roles.