Avoid Potential Management Mishaps with Outsourced HR

4 Tragic Tales & How Human Resources Experts Could Have Prevented Them

The old HR adage states: “If you have two people in your business, you need human resources.” No matter the size of a company, how long it’s been in operation, or how well employees might get along, trouble is bound to appear at some point. As a business owner, your experience lies in increasing profits and taking care of customers – not resolving employee workplace concerns. By partnering with a trusted provider of outsourced HR, you can address these troubling personality types before they become a harrowing HR horror story.

Slacking-Off Sally

We’ve all worked with this person. She starts off her career with impeccable style, class, and grace in everything she does. Sally was the person you pointed new hires to as the model for the utmost professionalism.

But at some point, things started to slide and with very little warning. She started showing up to work looking downright unprofessional – the opposite of who she used to be. You weren’t sure how to broach your concerns without seeming like you were harping solely upon her outward looks, as that could be interpreted as a breach of HR etiquette.

The solution? Hire an outsourced HR partner to help you draft an employee handbook, complete with a formal company dress code. With those policies set in stone, it’s easier to have a productive conversation with Sally about how she presents herself at work. The dress code provides a firm foundation for the entire discussion, as you don’t want to sink into the shifting sands of subjectivity regarding her attire.

This also gives you an opportunity to talk to Sally about any possible underlying issues behind her unprofessionalism. If there are some “real life” situations causing her trouble, your outsourced HR partner can connect her with the right tools, assistance, and even treatments she needs.

Obnoxious Oliver

Few people like working with this guy. He tells tasteless jokes, pulls awful pranks, and often makes tacky comments, but he never seems to cross the line. It’s like he knows just how far he can go, so he walks right up to that line and declares some version of “I’m just joking!” or “No one can tell a good joke any more in this PC culture.”

In short, he’s a serious HR complaint just waiting to happen. It’s more of a “when, not if” situation, so you need to step in before things get worse.

You can head off this problem at the pass with an outsourced HR partner who can help you develop a clear code of conduct available for your business. With this document as the basis for your discussion with Oliver, you can showcase how seriously the company takes creating a healthy workplace environment for everyone.

You must clearly state the consequences for him and the business if he continues with his behavior. More importantly, it puts the onus on Oliver, as he’s the person who signed that document when he started working for the company.

An outsourced HR partner can also provide the necessary sensitivity training for Oliver so he better understands how his comments and “jokes” can hurt others.

Tardy Timothy

Timothy is a curious case. Thanks to his sharp and creative mind, he consistently does great work for the company. The problem? That innovative mind of his seems rather averse to using a calendar or planner. You get the sense that his college professors were consistently giving him extensions because he was really talented and they wanted to see exactly what he could do.

But that doesn’t often work in the business world. Clients and customers don’t give extensions for delayed projects, and his co-workers are beginning to resent the fact that he’s late for everything all the time. You don’t want to treat him like a teenager who needs to be constantly reminded about deadlines and due dates. He needs to take responsibility for his actions and show respect for his team.

To ensure your chat with Timothy is a success, teaming up with an HR outsourcing firm provides the following resources:

• Using your attendance policy as a guide, you can have a very frank conversation with him about how he isn’t fulfilling the terms of his employment.
• You can set up Tardy Timothy on a time-tracking tool where he clocks in and out every day.

The goal is to help Timothy improve his punctuality and overall professionalism. An HR partner provides a premier opportunity to showcase leadership and mentorship skills with a promising young employee.

Light-fingered Lucy

There are few easy answers to this one. No one wants to keep an employee who steals from the office, but some employers might ignore the occasional pen, note pad, or six-pack of sodas that goes missing from the supply closet on rare occasions. Chalk it up to the cost of doing business, right?

Wrong. You should confront Lucy as promptly as possible with the code of conduct and disciplinary procedures. An experienced outsourced HR provider can deliver such processes so your discussion with Lucy follows this course of action:

• She must know that theft is wrong – no matter how minor it might appear – because what starts as a box of granola bars once a month can quickly escalate into reams of paper, client gifts, and outright credit card fraud.
• Be direct with her from the get-go, outlining exactly what will happen if she continues this behavior.
• Outline in very clear terms the methods of progressive discipline so she understands exactly what will happen, up to and including termination of her employment.

The goal is to help Lucy but also protects the company from the effects of her theft and any unlawful termination suit she could bring if she’s fired.

Ready to choose an outsourced HR company who can help manage employee mishaps and prevent these HR horror stories from coming to life in your business? G&A Partners is ready to help. Let’s talk!