Coach, Correct, and Communicate: The Three Cs of Employee Discipline

Employee discipline can be hard. It’s time-consuming. It’s often speculative, turning into a he said/she said game. It’s easy to feel like, as a supervisor, you’re responsible for the poor employee behavior. However, if you follow the three Cs of employee discipline, you may be able to create more engaged, committed employees who want to better serve your business.

1.       Coach: As a supervisor, you are a leader and therefore the coach. You’re there to make sure the whole team does well, and if one or two individuals are jeopardizing the team’s success, you must address that immediately. To act as a coach of your organization, try the following:

• Encourage. Employees are more likely to repeat positive behaviors when a supervisor recognizes their efforts. Even if it is a small task or duty, consider praising your employee for a job well done.
• Redirect. Rather than disciplining for the sake of punishment, try to redirect employee behavior. For redirection, stop and address the situation with the employee. Find a way to adjust or correct the behavior that encourages the individual to learn from their actions. Finally, follow through with the individual by ensuring that they have changed their behaviors or have another discussion if change still needs to take place.
• Provide feedback. Coaches rarely leave the locker room without discussing the game with their teams, so why would you neglect to discuss workplace performance with employees? One of the top reasons employees leave a company is because they feel they’ve received a lack of coaching or feedback. Remember, feedback is more than just a written annual employee review, so talk with (not at) your employees.

2.       Correct: Disciplining employees should not be about control, but rather about correction to redirect behaviors. Your policies should be firm, fair, and consistent to avoid any accusations of favoritism and create a more equal working environment. When deciding on how to correct behaviors, remember that you should have an open conversation with the employee. Never mandate a behavior change without explaining yourself to the employee.

3.       Communicate. Without communication, discipline will likely be seen as a negative punishment, rather than an opportunity to grow and develop. To encourage positive employer-employee communication:

• Set clear expectations. If your expectations are clear and enforced firmly and consistently, you can successfully avoid many issues brought on by a lack of communication.
• Keep up a constant conversation. As a coach and a behavior corrector (not controller), you should continually speak to your employees. Open dialogue is a proactive way to recognize and deal with any problems before they get out of control.
• Answer the 5 Ws: When you need to address specific employee behavior, answer the questions who, what, where, when, and why to better understand the situation and determine appropriate action. Be exact about what did or did not happen.
• Be clear about future actions. Leave any employee discipline discussions with an exact plan of action. Be sure that both the supervisor and the employee understand and agree upon what behaviors need to change and when.
• Never make it personal. When communicating with employees maintain a sense of professionalism and never bring personal comments into a discussion about employee behavior.
• Always be honest and open. Remember, feedback goes two ways. Help employees feel comfortable enough to address any potential issues with you as a supervisor, and don’t be closed to employee feedback. Their perceptions of you may help shape you into a better coach and leader.

Contact us for an appointment by April 6, 2012, and you will be entered to win a FREE workplace seminar, “Zap, Don’t Sap, Your Employees,” where you and your staff leadership will learn how to maintain and enhance self-esteem, listen and respond with empathy, and ask for help and encourage involvement from staff.

The Biggest Mistake in Hiring

No kidding, hiring is a bit like dating. Everyone is on their best behavior and it’s an exciting time to bring the “newbie” who is going to work wonders in the company. And, sometimes we get lucky and find our perfect person.

But more often than not, we find that there are warts on our Prince and somehow we missed that in the early stages.

Hiring too fast is often the biggest mistake small to mid-size companies make. Sometimes it’s lack of planning, sometimes it’s an urgent need brought on by new business; but whatever the situation hiring in desparation will always end up a disaster.

You’ll be left shaking your head in dispair and another person will have cycled through your business. Having an HR plan can alleviate your biggest hiring mistake. Using an outside firm, like ours, can give you the benefit of objective insight that will guide you through the hiring process so that you aren’t alone in assessing potential employees.

We can help you with testing, interviewing, background checks and training when the “perfect one” comes on board. Give us a call. Let’s talk before you make another hiring mistake.

Karen Young HR Resolutions® LLC

5441 Jonestown Rd. Harrisburg, PA 17112

Phone: 717-652-5187

Fax: 717-652-2187

karen@hrresolutions.com

www.hrresolutions.com

Keys to Effective Hiring

In a recent article on hiring, Matthew O’Connell of Select International, Inc. gave these tips that we thought might be helpful for you.

• Identify what really needs to be evaluated.

Assessing candidates based on 25 competencies might work for some organizations, but that approach isn’t appropriate for all, 10 good ones is enough.

• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Simply put, don’t just give a personality test. Or just conduct an interview. Because performance is multifaceted, a single assessment method just isn’t enough to accurately predict performance.

• Use assessment tools appropriately.

Don’t use cognitive ability tests to measure personality, and don’t use personality tests to measure how well someone can solve problems. Different tools serve different purposes, and you need to know which to use and when

• Put the least expensive tools up front.

In addition to identifying the most qualified candidates, an effective selection system also saves your organization money by reducing the time spent on applicants who are not qualified or would be a poor fit.

• Look at accuracy, time and cost.

Focus your attention first and foremost on accuracy, followed by tim involved for both your organization and the applicant, and lastly cost, the cheapest isn’t necessarily the best.

• Measure the results.

Are we doing a better job than we were a year ago?

What changes can we implement to make sure we’re doing even better a year from now?

How accurate have we been in making good hires?

How many bad hires have there been?

What do the bad hires tend to have in common with each other?

Here at HR Resolutions we work with clients to help them through the hiring process so that they are surrounded by the best people possible. Developing a good team starts with hiring right. Let us know if we can help.

Can the Swine Flu infect your business?

With the Swine Flu all over the news and other illnesses such as the Bird Flu looming over our shoulders, does the thought ever pop into your head…

“What happens if no one comes to work?”

If so, you are moving in the correct direction. If no thought or planning has gone into this issue and another pandemic comes around, a business owner or manager could be left stuck with no workers and no plan to implement.

It’s estimated that, during a pandemic, 40% of your workforce will be either sick, caring for a sick loved one, or too afraid to come to work due to fear of getting sick. What will you do when 40% of your employees do not show up to work on Monday morning?

It’s best if every company implements a Business Continuity Plan, such as major companies like Sprint, Microsoft, and IBM. Sprint has an Emergency Incident Management team as part of their Business Continuity Plan and many companies have restricted travel when alert levels rise to a specific number. Another option that IBM started in 2006 is to do an assessment of how many employees can work from home and what skills can be covered by other employees if someone were to get sick.

Whatever the Business Continuity Plan includes, it is a necessary tool for each company, large and small. If you need assistance creating a Business Continuity Plan you can get help from the PA Department of Health or call us to help you devise your plan so you are prepared for any pandemic that may hit.

Welcome to our new blog…

Can’t believe we’re almost at the end of 2008 and planning for 2009.  It’s been a good year for HR Resolutions and we are looking to an even better year in 2009.  Even though the economy is tough, we believe that in these times, HR becomes even more important in keeping your employees fully engaged in your business.  So, join our conversations on this blog and let’s continue to explore the HR world and the solutions we can offer to your company.