Employer Protection -- HR That Works

3. The Secret to Preventing Lawsuits

The fundamental premise of the HR That Works program is that compliance with the law, by itself, is no guarantee against litigation. A great number of sexual harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination claims are filed out of ignorance, because even when the employer is well informed on the law, employees may not be. One key to building powerful employment relationships from the outset is to educate employees. Among the HR That Works tools to accomplish this are:

• Compliance Program FAQ--provides managers and employees an overview of the who, what and why surrounding a sound prevention approach.
  
  
• New Employee Orientation Checklist--provides a framework for training and orienting new employees, with suggestions for making orientation a fun exercise.
  
  
• 50-question Compliance Quiz--to raise employee awareness of compliance exposures and foster dialogue for its prevention.
  
  
• Employee Handbook—encourages understanding of company policies on a wide range of issues such as nonharrassment, drug and alcohol use, employee dating, privacy/right to inspect, voice mail and Internet use, vacations and paid time off, and complaint procedures.

4. Tips and Bullet Points: The Ten Biggest Mistakes When Hiring

1. Failing to clearly identify your company's needs in terms of skills, character and competency.

2. Failing to test prospective employees' skills.

3. Hiring out of desperation when an employee quits suddenly or your business is growing so fast that it creates more jobs than you can fill.

4. Being lazy about "dealing with" the hiring process and taking the first candidate who walks through the door.

5. Becoming infatuated with a prospective employee during the first ten minutes of the job interview and spending the next fifty minutes justifying the emotional decision.

6. Letting erroneous preconceptions ("A woman can't operate a forklift," "A man can't be a nurse," "A minority person can't be an effective executive . . .") affect your hiring decisions.

7. Relying on recommendations from friends without doing your homework.

8. Blindly promoting from within (the "Peter Principle").

9. Failing to do extensive background and reference checking.

10. Failing to recognize when you have made a poor hiring decision.

This list is taken from the White Paper of the same name, available free from HR That Works . A more detailed discussion of each of these points can be found there.

5. Beyond the Law:Employee Management in the New Age

"When I came out of law school," Don Phin tells participants in his seminar and workshop presentations, "I figured I could be a hero by helping poor, victimized workers fight back against their villainous, abusive bosses. Grinding into the wee hours of the night is expected when you are playing the hero role. And sure, I made a lot of companies burn up a lot of money in legal fees and put six-figure settlements in my clients' pockets. But then one day the reality hit me: many of these clients blew the money within three years, just as lottery winners do. Is that what all my sacrificing was for?"

When Don Phin began easing out of a lucrative but high-stress employment litigation practice in favor of a new career as a consultant and speaker, his first instinct was to offer advice on how to avoid lawyers and head off litigation—to show employers how to fight back against the kinds of complaints he had been filing on behalf of his employee clients for more than a decade.

Talking with hundreds of executives and managers in public speaking appearances and writing his first book, Lawsuit Free!™, Phin realized that the current fear-based approach to employment conflicts left a lot to be desired. The standard lawyerly advice ("Cover your ass—and get it in writing") wasn't all that helpful in cultivating enthusiastic employees instead of disgruntled ones.

Phin's philosophy evolved and grew more positive as he put more distance between himself and courts of law. In his second book, Building Powerful Employment Relationships!, he wrote, "The most critical component for today's business success is personnel management. It is the one constant in a sea of change. The failure of workplace relationships results in turnover, disloyalty, unproductivity and lawsuits. The mastery of it results in profitability and joy."

Easy to say, but what does the mastery of personnel management really mean? Reflecting back to the turn of the last century, Don Phin realized that many workplace policies and procedures had been designed 50 years ago, or more, when management's goal was to control employees. ""Do what we tell you to do and we'll punish you when you don't. Please don't think for yourself because that's more dangerous than it could ever be helpful." Managers didn't care whether or not the employee felt good, Phin says. They only cared whether they could get workers to work hard from 9:00 'til whenever.

"But guess what," Phin says. "Now it's a new century and the whole notion of Control is Dead. Gone. Poof. Forgetaboutit! What has taken its place? Management by Agreement. That's right, the New Age of management is here.  It's here alright - whether we like it or not!

Strange words from a man who spent much of his adult life suing bosses for a living. Yet times change, and Don Phin is changing with them. His latest book, "Victims, Villains and Heroes: Managing Emotions in the Workplace",is co-authored with Loy Young. "All the world is a stage, including the workplace," say Phin and Young. "The drama we play is 'Goodness Triumphs Over Evil.' In this drama there are only three emotional roles available--victim, villain or hero. We adopt these roles in life and at work because it is how we have learned to survive. We play out these roles both internally and externally in our relationships, the latter of course being a reflection of the former. Or, as we like to say, 'what comes to you comes from you.'"

In his workshops, Phin explains that it is the natural tendency of workers with a victim mentality to blame others for their circumstances. "They would rather throw a pity party and wallow in their feelings than do anything about their circumstances. Because employees have traditionally been cast in the victim role, we have set up elaborate systems based on this emotional position." Such systems, he says, include performance evaluations, sick pay and disciplinary notices. Such systems have made Dilbert a cultural icon.

"We have to understand that unless we address their emotional energy, employees will continue to play a victim role and blame others for their circumstances, with disastrous outcomes for employer and employee alike. We can't continue to create systems that force management to 'micro-manage' the victim mentality.

In order to be successful today, we have to create management systems that empower people in the workplace and allow them to become their own hero in the process. We can't simply tell somebody what his or her performance should be and then attempt to control that performance. We have to enlighten them to the needs of the organization and help them to 'own' their performance."

"As owners and managers," Phin says, "we have to watch the emotional compulsion to want to do too much for other people because we 'care so much.' If you try too hard, you will be in the other person's emotional space. As a result they will feel unsafe and either fight your efforts or flee from them. It is a sure road to burnout and failed relationships."