In many aspects of our lives, but particularly in work we hear a lot about people “knowing their rights.” Overall, this is a good thing as it reflects an increased awareness of how we should be treated and how we should treat others. 

But it is easy to forget the other side of the coin.  This is understanding our responsibilities.  In order to be fair in our dealings with other people, we do need to understand our rights, but also fulfil our responsibilities. 

Do we really know what they are when we step through the office door? 

As an employee, our rights are...
 To be paid
 That our employer exercises reasonable care of us
 To have access to a grievance procedure
 To have mutual trust and confidence

To balance these, our responsibilities are...
 Duty of obedience; to accept a manager has the right to ask us to do something providing it is reasonable, safe and lawful 
 Duty to adapt; to accept changes are needed in workplaces
 Duty to exercise care; of ourselves, our colleagues and our employer’s property
 Duty of fidelity or good faith; that our actions are in the best interests of our employer at all times 

We are all operating in an uncertain climate at the moment, where there is often a lot of mistrust between employees and their employers, so being reminded of these rights and responsibilities from time to time can be a very useful way of ensuring we are building strong working relationships, which are based on trust.

One of our clients saw the benefits of this approach and last month we ran a highly interactive session for thirty team members on this very subject. The participants welcomed the opportunity to discuss openly the balance between having rights and understanding their responsibilities. One team member commented that it was useful to remember that there is a dual responsibility when you work for someone and the challenge is for both parties to live up to them. 

As Bill Maher, the American comedian said “We have a bill of rights. It is about time we had a bill of responsibilities”...

With Valentine’s Day just round the corner, how do you manage the thorny problem of relationships at work?

Romance at work is widespread – many of us spend a good third of our time at work, so it is not surprising that relationships often develop here.

And it is not all bad! Happy people are more motivated and more productive. Having a partner at work can mean couples have someone who can share the stresses and understand the strains.

But there are potential dangers. Most companies recognise it is unworkable, not to mention draconian, to try and ban interoffice relationships. 

Better to focus on the risks that might arise, such as unwanted romantic attention, relationships between line manager and team member, managing the fallout from a broken relationship, considering how to manage confidentiality concerns. 

Some companies have a specific Relationships policy, which will give guidance around what is appropriate and inappropriate for family relationships, as well as romantic ones. For example, ensuring managers are not involved in the recruitment of a close family member.  This sort of policy can offer clarity on romantic relationships, such as whether the company tolerates relationships between line manager and employee, without it being solely focussed on romantic situations.

A Conflict of interest policy could broach similar issues, without it being seen as an attempt to “ban” relationships.

Relationship breakdowns are one of the trickiest areas to manage, particularly if one of the couple brings a claim of harassment, because of their ex partner’s behaviour at work. In this situation, the employer could be partly liable and needs to take steps to make it clear this is not acceptable behaviour. Your harassment policy will be vital here.

Most of all ensure your managers have confidence to deal with difficult situations arising from inter office relationships. If a couple’s behaviour is leading to problems - which could be anything from flirtatious behaviour making people uncomfortable to the relationship causing distraction and loss of focus for the people involved – then the manager needs to deal with it.

As always, it is these grey areas which often cause managers most angst. Having some guidelines written into a “Behaviour at work” policy and getting managers discussing these situations and how to handle them can go a long way to ensuring they are dealt with before they get out of control.

If you are interested in exploring the whole subject of Managing Appropriate Behaviour at work, come along to our free seminar run in conjunction with Penningtons Solicitors on the 21st Feb. It will be a chance to ask questions on any aspect of behaviour at work and network with like minded professionals.

Look forward to seeing you there!

And have a happy, conflict-free Valentine’s Day!

There is currently a heated debate raging in the HR community about whether organisations should have a Social media policy. Neil Morrison Group HR director at Random house sparked the debate by insisting that using a social media policy demonstrated a lack of trust in employees. Many have responded that it is about giving people clarity rather than being patronising.

We would agree with that view. Generally people in a work environment want boundaries – they want to know what is expected of them and where the lines are. This extends to many areas of behaviour at work, not just use of social media. Having a policy provides that guidance.

One comment made was that what you call the policy doesn’t matter; you just need to be sensible. We wholeheartedly agree with being sensible – we have been advocating a common sense approach in these blogs for a while – but actually we do think the language you use and what you call the policy makes a difference

Even using the word Policy may distance the people it is meant to relate to – “Guidelines” has less of a dogmatic ring to it. If the content is written in plain language with examples that relate to day to day activities, it will sound less legalese. It’s about ensuring it does what it says on the tin. For example, if you call a policy about appropriate behaviour “Dignity at work” (which many organisations do) does that tell people it is about appropriate behaviour or suggest it is more about equal opportunities policies?

Working a great deal with organisations in this area we were interested to see what terms our clients used – so we have been asking them. We suspected that while we call support in this area Managing Appropriate Workplace Behaviour, managers would use other terms and the results have been very interesting. Many will use the words that reflect the situation as they see it eg dealing with office banter, managing difficult people, conflict in teams. That has been a very helpful insight for us in terms of marketing our support in these areas. But it also underlines that getting the language and terms right when you communicate with your audience is key.

So we don’t agree with Neil Morrison – companies should have policies, but they should think about how to word them and how to communicate them so that they are meaningful. 

Hot on the heels of our last blog looking at the perils of employees using social media comes an incident of an employee being sacked for posting defamatory comments about their employer on Facebook.

An employee of an Apple store had written derogatory comments about Apple on his Facebook page, which were then passed to his boss by a Facebook “friend” and co worker.

He was dismissed for gross misconduct.

He bought a claim of unfair dismissal, which failed because Apple had such clear policies around the use of social media. As brand and image is so central to Apple’s success, they particularly made it clear that any derogatory remarks that damaged the brand would not be tolerated.

What Apple also did was to make sure that their policies weren’t just handed out in a document, but were also made part of the induction programme. This crystal clear communication ensured Apple could defend and protect their commercial reputation in this situation.

Once again, the lessons are

• have a clear social media policy (see our last blog for some guidance as to what to include)
• communicate it to your employees and make sure they understand it
• make sure managers are confident in dealing with breaches of any policy

The latest survey by DLA Piper in People Management highlights an area that is posing a real problem for employers – the use and misuse of social networking sites.

Many employers seem confused by the boundaries they should be setting and how to deal with behaviour they deem as unacceptable

The survey highlights how torn employers are in their attitude to social networking sites. On the one hand use of these sites can offer a valuable way of promoting brand awareness and marketing the company. On the other, its use is fraught with the dangers of negative or defamatory comments being posted and the damage that can do.

But is it really that difficult?

We have been advocating a common sense approach for while now and are delighted to see that Acas takes this line in its newly published guidelines, urging employers to “draw on norms that apply in a non virtual setting.” In other words to “treat electronic behaviour as you would treat non electronic behaviour.”

The key of course is to have clear guidelines so people understand what is acceptable and what is not.
For example, it may be fine and indeed you may encourage your employees to network to fulfil business objectives, but it probably isn’t acceptable for people to load up holiday snaps on facebook in work time. 

Over a third of employers surveyed felt that they were exposed to risks posed by comments and information posted on social networking sites.  So here are some practical steps to help ensure your organisation is protected…
• have a dedicated social media policy
• communicate to everyone in the company so they understand the boundaries
• train your managers in how to deal with situations where they suspect someone has breached the policy

Our support around developing appropriate behaviour at work  will help on each of these steps.

Acas has some great guidelines on what a policy should cover, but as a brief overview consider
• The scope – what does the policy cover?
• What is acceptable and what is not
• Monitoring of employees activity on networking sites
• Consequences of breaching the policy (link to disciplinary procedures )

Don’t leave it until you have to deal with a disciplinary issue – taking preventative action could save you a lot of time and hassle.

How many company websites have an impressive sounding set of values proudly listed?
How many of those values include “ethical” and “integrity”?
How many of the staff in that company
a) really understand what those values mean in their role?
b) believe them?

Let’s take the belief issue first. If the latest research by the ILM and Management Today is anything to go by, then a high percentage of employees currently believe their bosses do not use ethics when making decisions. Over half of those surveyed believe their companies put financial goals ahead of ethical considerations.

The lack of trust which inevitably ensues will have a huge impact on performance, motivation and the reputation of the organisation.

It is surely an area that needs attention if organisations are to emerge from this tough market with a loyal and motivated workforce, rather than one which is jaded, cynical and ready to jump ship as soon as it is safe.

Let’s take the understanding issue then. If these values are so important, how do you ensure your teams buy into them and live and breathe them in their day to day roles?

Partly it depends on how those values are arrived at.
What is the process you go through to establish what is important?
Do you involve people at every level of the organisation?
Do you ask people what these values mean to them?
Do you get them thinking about how they demonstrate them in their roles?

For example, what does acting with integrity mean to the senior management team? What does it mean for someone working on the front line? Articulating these specific examples will help to bring them to life and give them meaning.

Once they are identified, ensure they are referred to. Talk about examples of ethical behaviour and integrity in one to ones and team meetings. And make sure your top level managers are visibly role modelling them.

Perhaps then we may start to see values which are more than just a list on a website... values which actually have meaning and build trust.

Managing inappropriate behaviour during the festive season – prevention is better than cure!

The Christmas festivities are fast approaching –a time when most of us can look forward to an office party with our colleagues. But for some managers the arrival of the festive season creates an additional worry.  We encourage staff to “let their hair down” but what if this goes too far and people’s behaviour crosses the line...what should we do then? 

Managing inappropriate behaviour is one of the things most managers find difficult to deal with. And although there is a lot of advice out there surrounding your legal obligations as a manager or employer, there isn't a great deal of guidance on actually dealing with such situations. One of the key steps is to make sure your people are clear about expected standards of behaviour... it is never enough to just issue a policy. .. people never read them! You need to talk to your teams about what is acceptable and what is not and have some clear examples to ensure they really understand. Taking some simple steps like this can help prevent so many incidents from happening in the first place.
 
Take a look at our checklist for some steps that may help to ensure you  don’t end up having to have those “difficult conversations.”

We worked recently with the Markets in London - work places steeped in tradition - and helped them create a more comfortable working environment for everyone there. This was about getting people to think through that acceptable/unacceptable line and really consider the impact one person's behaviour has on another. Have a look at the case study to see how we approached this.

It is far better to try and prevent theses situiations from occurring than have to deal with them afterwards, but if you do have  an ongoing behaviour problem in your team we can help. Click here to have a look at our approach. Or call us for a chat.