HR mistakes can have serious implications for
a company. They can create distrust between employees and employers, reduce
engagement and negatively affect an employer brand.
In fact, in the 2015 SHRM
Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement survey, the 600 responding employees
ranked “respectful treatment of employees at all levels” and “trust between
employees and senior management” as the top two factors affecting their
job satisfaction. Remarkably, "respect" and "trust" topped
even benefits and compensation.
It’s the difficult job of human resource
professionals to create consistency in the organization's core vision and its
relationship with employees, to foster a positive and engaging workplace.
And when HR mistakes happen, it’s their job to pick up the pieces.
Companies never intend to upset their
employees, of course, but when that does happen, it’s important to learn
from others' shortcomings. Here are three of the worst HR mistakes from 2015 and
what each company could have done differently:
1. Urban Outfitters
asked employees to “volunteer” during the holidays.
What happened: URBN,
the parent company of Urban Outfitters, sent out an email asking for employees
to volunteer their weekend time at its fulfillment centers in order to prepare
for the holiday season.
Despite the fact that
URBN’s career site boasts that the company “value[s] both individual and
group achievements,” the leaked internal email made it clear that employees
would receive only lunch and transportation for their hard work in this
instance.
Why this was an HR no-no: Aside from the issue of asking employees to
work six-hour shifts without pay, the main big mistake here was not
acknowledging the value of employees’ time and efforts.
And underappreciating
employees can lead to poor employee retention. In a 2015 LinkedIn survey of
more than 10,500 employees who had recently changed jobs, 32 percent said they
did so because of dissatisfaction with how employers recognized their contributions.
How to do better: It’s understandable that URBN was asking its
employees to band together as a team in order to better serve its customers
during a busy time of year. But who wants to be part of a team that doesn’t
appreciate your hard work?
When communicating with employees,
consider how that communication will be received. Does the message align with
your core values as a company? Is it transparent in both meaning and intent?
After digesting the communication, will employees feel valued and respected?
Even the simplest request can seem unreasonable, if it doesn’t recognize the
important part the employee plays in the success of the company.
2. Walmart fired an employee over
$5 worth of discarded recyclables.
What happened: A Walmart cart collector found $5.10 worth of cans and
bottles and redeemed them for cash via a machine inside the store where he
worked. The employee had found $3.10 worth of recyclables abandoned in a cart
next to a trash can in the parking lot and another $2 worth in
a cart located just inside the store’s entrance.
His employers determined that the cans and
bottles turned in from the cart inside the store were Walmart property and that
therefore taking them constituted theft. The man was asked to sign a statement
about the incident, even though he did not have his glasses with him and could
not read the document. He was also denied a copy of the statement after he was
fired.
Why this was an HR no-no: There
was a complete lack of clarity in the communication between the employee and
his employers.
Whether or not it’s reasonable to release an
employee over $2.00 of garbage is not the real issue at hand. No matter what
the cause of the disciplinary action, Walmart did not take the time to ensure
that its employee understood what he had done wrong or what signing the
document meant for this employment.
How to do better: When
it comes to the codes of conduct employees are held to, it’s important for
organizations to be transparent on what is and isn’t acceptable behavior. When
infractions occur, especially in gray areas, employers should take the time to
fully discuss why employees are facing consequences and what those consequences are.
3. An unpaid U.N. intern lived in a
tent because he couldn't afford housing.
What happened: Twenty-two-year old David Hyde accepted a prestigious
unpaid internship with the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, even though
he knew he’d couldn't afford the cost of living in that expensive city. After
being denied other internships because he lacked the means to live while
working without pay, Hyde lied during the application process and lived out of
a tent while working for the U.N.
Once his story broke, Hyde quit the
internship and admitted he was trying to draw attention to the fact that unpaid
internships inherently exclude young people with less wealthy backgrounds from
valuable career experience.
Why this was an HR no-no: As controversial as the motives behind Hyde’s
decision might have been, the big HR mistake in this
situation was a lack of alignment between the organization’s mission and values
and how it was treating its employees.
Article 23 of the United
Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights states that, “Everyone, without any
discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.” How can employees
be expected to be engaged in their work to promote this belief when the interns
they work beside are not paid? By choosing to not pay its interns, the U.N.
created a disconnect between what the organization says it believes and
how it acts.
How to do better: An organization’s mission statement should be
a part of everything it does, from the work to the company culture to how
the organization engages employees with that mission. Alignment must be clear,
at every level, so that the company is living up to its own core values.
What other HR mistakes occurred in
2015, and what lessons can be learned from them?
Written
by: Andre Lavoie
Credit:
entrepreneur.com
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