New HR Seminar Series: Tools to Address HR Issues By Leslie Elsner Bell, Executive Director, Granite HR Consulting, LLC

You have finally hired someone for that hard-to-fill job but that doesn’t end your employment woes. Tardiness, poor quality work, disruptive behavior, and not performing to your company’s standards have cropped up. If you think ignoring these and other employee issues will make them go away, you are sadly mistaken. As we discussed in our August article, “Recruiting and Interviewing for Hiring Managers,” there is a labor shortage in many skilled positions and unemployment is at a record low, so keeping employees is vital.

Of course, employee issues can happen at any stage in the employment relationship, from initial hire to long-time worker. No matter when the trouble occurs, an employer must take swift and decisive action because a belief that management is avoiding a problem or giving preferential treatment to an employee can damage an organization’s credibility.

Inaction also erodes employees’ trust in management, fractures teams, and can lead to charges of unlawful discrimination.

Before resorting to firing an employee, managers should have a toolbox of options to address the problems, including Coaching, Counseling and Disciplinary Action (The topic of our Oct. 10 HR Seminar).  In addition, a company should clearly define the expectations of the job with resources such as a job description and clearly define the workplace culture through tools such as a current employee handbook. Managers should use coaching to promote self-awareness and explain performance expectations. Done well, a manager can clarify work responsibilities, reinforce positive behaviors, and address any performance deficiencies. This process precedes any kind of disciplinary action, possibly preventing the loss of an employee who was so difficult to find in the first place.

To understand how to improve performance and stem the loss of employees, plan to attend the second of three HR seminars on Tools to Address HR Issues on October 10 from noon to 1:30 p.m. to learn more about how to implement Coaching, Counseling, and Disciplinary Action techniques. For more information about the author and presenter, go to www.GraniteHRConsulting.com.