In my own HR practice, I encounter a wide variety of leadership teams, cultures, workforces, practices.  In doing so, I have noticed a pattern of those who experience chronic employee issues, and those who rarely encounter employee issues.

What I have noted that is the obvious distinction between the two, is the existence of policies, standard operating procedures and well publicized practices.

I can draw a correlation between how traffic is controlled with rules, guidance, signs, limits, lights, lines, road tests, etc. and the known consequences for not following the rules of the road.  Without the rules of the road, accidents would occur at will… mayhem!

When managing any group of people, no matter the size of the group, the employee handbook, labor laws, policies, standard operating procedures, job descriptions, training checklists, corrective action documentation, etc., all control how an organization handles people issues and how people are treated in our organization.

This is similar to the rules of the road as without all of these in place, and communicated to the workforce, “accidents would occur at will…mayhem.

Employees need to know the boundaries which they must abide by.  However, many practices don’t have a handbook which is regularly updated and reviewed.  Some practices don’t have a policy on how a no call no show will be handled.  When there is not stated policy, it becomes arbitrary to the individual or situation.

When you handle employee issues in an arbitrary manner, claims of discrimination tend to arise as employees don’t know the guidelines and assume nefarious reasons are in the background for the decisions made by their leaders.

Simply, ensure you have an updated employee handbook, standard operating procedures as to how you want things handled, and the work accomplished, communicated all of this and review with your staff regularly so that everyone understands the parameters with which they are expected to work under.

This is how we avoid the “accident”….mayhem in your workplace.