Your company may have the best policies and procedures in the world, but if your managers aren’t implementing them consistently across all departments, you could be opening yourself up to a lawsuit.
Having a handbook is not enough, says S.A. “Sam” Murray, CEO of ManagEase. You have to train your managers and meet with them regularly, both to ensure that everyone is on the same page and to hold them accountable.
“Managers tend to implement their own values,” Murray says. “They impose the ways they have always done things on their employees, which is usually not the same as what managers in other departments are doing and may not be what the business owner wants them to do. In this type of environment, when an employee is fired for some infraction, this person can easily claim that the practice was not fairly implemented across the company and that he or she was somehow discriminated against.”
Smart Business spoke with Murray about how to clearly communicate your vision to your managers and how training can help you hold people accountable.
How do you make sure your vision is being clearly communicated to your managers?
A company leader needs to meet with department heads on a regular basis, preferably weekly, and vision needs to be a part of that meeting’s agenda. When vision is regularly discussed, managers become focused on how they’re implementing the vision of the company, the initiatives of the company, the immediate and long-term goals, and how they are working toward long-term sustainability. Meeting regularly assures that these vital topics are always top of mind.
How do you get managers to implement policy consistently across departments?
You need to train people. You can’t achieve consistency by just telling them or giving them a handbook; you need to have more comprehensive training on how to implement policy. Then you need to have training on how to correct employees who aren’t following policy, what actions should be taken and how to write a performance improvement plan.
Too many times, a company focuses on having managers oversee employees on whatever their job is. If employees are producing widgets, the manager is just checking to make sure that widgets are being produced.
Instead, managers really need to be trained on how to manage employees in a way that correctly implements policy. They need to be very well instructed on what appropriate behavior is, when to correct employees and what kind of climate you — as the business owner — are trying to achieve in the workplace to best manage your liability.
