Gauri Chhabra
Mr. Gupta was in a pensive mood. In the past few months, almost 7 employees had left his company and the attrition had been close to 45 per cent. That was a huge loss. The time, effort and money involved in training them had been wasted. He stared at the ceiling, thinking, “what is wrong?” They were one of the best names in the region, the customers were happy,the employees were given good salary hikes- then what was going wrong? Something was definitely wrong. The way they were losing all their employees to their competitors. He had a peculiar, awful feeling- his company that was breaking. The signs were there…
What kills a company? Incompetence and fear are the two culprits, and they always work hand in hand. Sub-par leadership is afraid to hire people who could make a positive impact, for fear of being shown up or not being the smartest people in the room.The mediocrity cascades downhill until every supervisor and team lead position is filled by the same feeling and good people start flying out the door. You can spot a dying company very quickly by reading its Employee Handbook, so if you’re on the interview trail, be sure and ask for a copy of the handbook before you get to the job offer stage.
And if you, like Mr Gupta are scared of losing your employees to your competitors, here are some HR policies you need to avoid:
Attendance policies that gag:
I have been an HR chief for years, and see the direct correlation between time off policies that assume your employees are adults and the efficiency that comes back. You don’t need to track one- and two-hour absences and tote them up in columns called Short Leave. You only need to track vacation. That’s it. After all, you hired them, right? Don’t you trust yourself to hire adults?If you nickel-and-dime too much, you will have your employees reporting to work, but they won’t work.
Don’t gag them, let them breathe…
Signatures that suffocate:
Talent-aware employers give their employees room to move, to make decisions and come up with great ideas. Fearful zombie companies quail in fear at the thought of an employee having an independent thought, much less acting on it. When my brother worked for a major chip maker, he got called on the carpet one time for assembling in a conference room with four other team mates prior to traveling to a remote location to check on a testing center. Some blowhard manager walked into the conference room and said “Who called this meeting? I don’t see anybody here at a level to authorize a meeting!” That’s a broken company. Policies that require three signatures to make the smallest move will get your best employees updating their resumes.
Comparisons that kill:
At times managers are forced to rank their team mates. It is an unhealthy practice whereby managers are forced to list their employees in best-to-worst order, as though human beings could be boiled down to one dimension and measured against one another like pieces of lumber. If you are hanging on to this turkey HR practice, you are headed straight downhill. If you’re working for them, bail! If you’re holding stock in a company like this, dump it!
Each one of us is unique, comparisons have never helped, and never will…
Perks that pinch:
It’s always a good idea to save money, but not at the expense of your own employees. When your sales reps and other staff members stand in airport lines, and indulge in those delicious little bags of airline peanuts, they’re earning the frequent flyer miles they accrue. Stealing your employees’ airline miles is the mark of a penny-wise and pound-foolish organization. If you value your employees’ personal time so little that you consider their lost evenings, weekends and other travel hours worthless, you don’t deserve to have them on your team.
Sick leaves that have to be proved.
Are you sick? Prove it. Some policies are like bedbugs – once they get a foothold, it’s hard to get rid of them. Sometime in the 1990s it became popular to require your employees to bring in a medical certificate in order to get a few days of paid leave when you were sick. Just when the employees wants the company to stand by its side, you prove- “No, we do not trust you, prove your illness”. Remember, if anyone has to befool you and shirk work on account of his feigned illness, he will do so, nevertheless. Just for that one miscreant employee, you are losing the trust of all those high flyers who stood by you when you most needed them.
If you don’t trust yourself not to hire people who will invent relatives and kill them off for a few days’ pay, you can’t call yourself a leader. When you’ve got an employee in personal distress due to a family member’s death, or illness don’t add insult to injury by requiring them to prove it. This will drive any self-respecting employee straight to your competitors, and you will have only yourself to blame.
Performance Reviews that scare:
Today, companies proudly talk about bell curve performance reviews that allot a fixed number of slots to managers when they review their employees once per year. Only twenty percent of the team can be Excellent, Twenty percent can be very good, and so on. Twenty percent of the team must be found to be bad employees, worthy of termination. Why on earth would a leadership team want twenty percent of its employees to do a bad job? Fear is in the mix again. They don’t trust their managers. They fear that managers will be ‘easy graders’ just because it’s hard to give constructive feedback. If you don’t trust yourself to hire great managers and set them free, why do you trust yourself to lead?
Social Media policies that clamp:
It is prudent and appropriate to teach employees how to use Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media tools with grace and dignity. It is ridiculous to shut down the use of these tools altogether as many organizations have done. It is like saying “We can have an online presence, but you can’t.” Run away from employers like that. You need to work among people who can grow your flame, not snuff it out!
Moonlighting that darkens:
Another suffocating policyis the one that prohibits team members from holding outside employment of any kind. It is reasonable to expect your employees not to compete against you on their off hours. But lots of employers forbid holding a second job of any kind, from spinning disks at weddings to bartending on Friday nights. You are your own person. Insist on employment that lets you put as many oars in the water as you like – after all, it’s not like your employer is guaranteeing your income for any period of time!
There is a difference between moonlighting and conflict of interests. Of Course, you would not want your employees to work for your competitor, but if your IT Project manager wants to set up a music school, there is no harm in his doing that. In fact, it would increase his productivity as the company is allowing him to follow his heart’s calling. If you are working for such a company, it is a huge red flag that tells you that the company doesn’t trust the very people it relies on to delight customers and shareholders. Talk them into ditching the anti-moonlighting policy, or start looking for your next job. You deserve to work among people who treat you like the professional you are. Go, find them…
If you are a leader that suffocates and gags his team in the name of processes, its time you change. Remember. processes are for people and if you hold your manifesto too close to your heart, at the end you would be holding it … ALONE…
So, get rid of policies that suffocate, and become a winning team and a winning company…
From a company that kills to a company that thrills…
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