Hancock Manufacturing: Leading in Difficult Situations

1. What will be your action plan in order to face the specific problems in the HR Department?

As a vice president of human resources of this company, the core action I will take is rebuilding HR policies and practices, which contribute to the development of a strong company culture. As everyone knows, a company's culture is of great importance that affects in predictable ways how people behave when no one is telling them what to do.

With human nature being what it is, employees will test limits and act "creatively" in workplace situations, so I need a strategy for developing, communicating and enforcing a set of policies and practices that reflect my standards of acceptable behavior. Those policies and practices need to be focused on a primary goal--improving individual performance in the workplace, which is actually about the process of setting expectations and meeting them and creating liabilities in the process.

So how can I make sure the employees have clear expectations and are treated fairly as they work to help improve the company? I would like to address four key elements related to the development and deployment of my policies and practices: roles, rules, consequences and tools.

Roles

People like to have a clear understanding of their role in a company as well as the roles of others. Every successful team has well-defined positions for its members. Everyone knows what he or she is to do, how to do it and how their performance can impact those around them. In business, this means you need to have clear reporting structures that spell out who's in charge and how tasks are to be accomplished in the organization.

Rules

Managers and employees need to share a clear understanding of what is and what is not acceptable behavior within the company. Setting clear and specific behavioral standards in the form of rules establishes a framework for spotting and addressing violations of those standards. If just relies on loosely defined general standards that aren't properly documented, then violations become subjective and open to interpretation. The result of such ambiguousness is often litigation. Taking the sexual harassment in our case for example, this bad behavior affects other employees, clients, other individuals or even the reputation of the company.

Consequences

It's important to clearly state consequences for violations of specific behavioral standards so that employees know what to expect and have fair warning of those expectations.

Think through the over-the-line behaviors that won't be permitted in the company to establish these standards and violation consequences. Similarly, I will list what performance issues may qualify for a more progressive disciplinary approach, and then define the steps involved in that approach.

Tools

Tools address the questions are needed to be specified. The tools include, for instance, building handbook or a policy guide, regularly training the policies and practices of the company, coupled with simple, easy-to-use forms to guide them, giving them a clear directive on working with human resources personnel or legal representatives, or making sure these resources available online, etc.

Whatever the approach, the key to success is to devote the time and resources it takes to develop a policies and practices strategy for the business before the need arises.

2. What changes will you make in your department's personnel? You can replace, retain or transfer internally some of your staff. Justify any changes you make.

I will retain all of my department's personnel, because all of them are capable of their position. Replacing workers usually costs "2 ½ times the salary of the individual, and may include lost customers and business and damaged morale," according to Workforce Planning for Wisconsin State Government. Therefore, I will rebuild my HR team on the basis of following rules.

Relationship

Each company has its unique mix of people, so does Hancock. Janette Morris in our case is a common example in many companies. That she frequently goes against company policies does not indicate that she is really a head-ache staff. Based on the background, we get that the HR department was totally desperate, who should have been mainly responsible for the policies of the company. Maybe it is the ambiguous policies of the company that cause Janette intended to go against the policies. What I need to do is to conduct an in-depth investigation and communicate with Janette about this issue to find out a real reason.

Integration

Like Jimmy Adams in our case who has solid training skills but requires direction and guidance, Derrick Huntington who is a hands-on HR professional and has potential to move up in the company and Sandra Lee, I'd like to use training as a stepping stone to build their confidence, but I will do not let it end there. I will further assign a mentor to work with them to map out a career path that interests them. Show them what opportunities are available and then offer help with further education and training so there is a clearly recognizable path that they know they can take.

Communication

Keep the lines of communication open, especially regarding job details and how the job is done. Taking Mitch Jefferson in our case for example who was very knowledgeable and promoted to safety manager from a lineworker two years ago, but faced resistance from other managers throughout the company and those in the HR department to accomplish his safety goals, this guy lack of communication skill maybe. What I will do is ask him out and to do a heart-to-heart communication to analyze the reason of the situation. Help him to know his co-workers and his peers. This is an important time to make sure he knows how to get along with others.

Working Together

Create processes and systems that help employees feel as if they are team members and that their constructive input is valued. Distributed thinking leads to timely decisions that reflect the true nature of the organization's challenges. No one person has all the answers or can respond fast enough in today's fast-paced environment. In our case, Al Washington was experiencing disappointment that he did not get the VP position. I, as a new VP, will respect him and work together with him while taking him as my co-worker instead that I am his leader. This will make him more comfortable and less disappointed.

3. Prepare