Blog Post: Managing Your Managers: Telling the Self-Proclaimed Experts What to Do

I was speaking today to a group of bright, informed HR professionals from the Oil and Gas Industry.  We talked about avoiding liability in terminations and about doing the best you can with what you have.

Here's the rub that all HR professionals understand:  You can only control so much. 

Consider this scenario:  You are appoached by a member of the C-Suite, with a demand that you terminate Jane.  Unfortunately, this manager is SO busy and SO important that they have created none of the helpful documentation that could make your job easier and help dodge potential liability along the way.  What do you do?  Do you refuse to terminate Jane (who may very well have earned a pink slip) and alienate your supervisor?  Or do you set an uncomfortable Monday or Friday meeting (depending on the article you read most recently) and hand Jane her last paycheck.

Realistically, because you like pink in your windswept cheeks and not in your paycheck envelope, you probably deliver Jane the bad news.

Is there anything you could say or do to get through to this able business person to prevent this from happening again?  Successful people rarely have time for things that they view as unnecessary.  How do you make HR documentation necessary?

Individual Liability:  Many statutory and common law claims can be brought against individuals with discision-making authority - Claims under the FMLA, FLSA, CADA and the NLRA to name a few.  Talk to your managers about the potential downside to them, personally, if they flout laws.

Morale.  Some people are just plain grouchy.  There is very little you can do to make these people happy but you can strive to make them loyal.  A sense of fairness is one large contributor to loyalty.  News, bad or good, delivered at performance review time should be no surprise.  The same goes for a termination.  Talk to your supervisors about the importance of a loyal workforce; loyal employees do not sue.

Cost.  The cost to a company for awarded unemployment benefits could be avoided if you are able to document that an employee failed to follow an established work rule.  And, in my experience, documentation that clearly demonstrates that an employee was given written notice of the work rule violation goes a long way in appeal hearings.  Likewise, a papered file can go a long way to discourage a plaintiff's lawyer from filing a complaint on behalf of your rif'ed employee.

Become an Expert.  If you do not feel you have a place in the C-Suite, push!  Take courses and strive to be a resource for your colleagues.  Take the time to learn more about the ways in which HR strategy and new laws affect the overall company strategy.  If you are able to talk the talk, if you are able to articulate why and how HR plays a role in furthering the goals and objectives of your company, you mind find that there is another seat at the table.

And I could go on.  The hitch in working with people is that they are, well, human.  If you want to succeed in your attempts to institute a successful performance management system and to train managers in how to improve the documentation of their solid management, think about them as individuals.  Design a training that goes to what moves them, individually, and try your best.  You may not be able to control all of the people all of the time, but you can do your part to try! 

Laura J. Hazen is a Director at Ireland Stapleton Pryor & Pascoe, P.C. In her employment practice, Hazen provides day-to-day advice and coaching to public and private companies on various employment matters. She also has an active litigation practice where she concentrates on representing business in all aspects of complex business and employment disputes. You can contact her by email at lhazen@irelandstapleton.com or by phone at 303-623-2700.

This article is intended as a general discussion and information on the topic covered, and is not to be construed as rendering legal advice. If legal advice is needed, you should consult an attorney. This article may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner without prior written permission of the author.