SERIES ON - WHAT HAPPENS IN CORPORATE OFFICES …. ?! STRATEGIES FOR BEING SEEN AS A FAIR BOSS - sudhanshu

SERIES ON -? WHAT HAPPENS IN CORPORATE OFFICES …. ?!

STRATEGIES FOR BEING SEEN

AS A FAIR BOSS - sudhanshu

Fairness is all about perception. You may believe that you’ve been fair to your employees, but what really counts is that they perceive you as fair.

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Here’s why:

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A climate of real or perceived unfair treatment typically spawns negative attitudes and destructive behaviours, such as low commitment to the organization, distrust in management, job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, psychological stress, aggressive behaviour, retaliation, theft and turnover.

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Clearly, all of these outcomes are damaging to employee morale and the organization’s bottom line. Your employees always expect you to be fair, but they tend to closely scrutinize for fairness in two key areas:

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? When they receive unpleasant news, such as negative performance feedback, denial of a promotion or a lower-than-expected pay increase.

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? When managers are implementing changes in policies and procedures, such as overtime calculations, work rules or reporting relationships. Your employees will naturally be concerned about how those changes will affect them, and they will be on the lookout for any evidence that the

changes were handled unfairly.

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It’s particularly important to up your “fairness ante” at those times by heeding the following? strategies:

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1.???? Tell the truth.

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Nishant, a supervisor, expected a promotion to assistant manager. But his boss told him budget constraints prevented the promotion. Nishant felt let down but didn’t feel he had much to say if the company couldn’t afford to promote him. The following month, when another supervisor, Suneeta, was promoted to the position Nishant had sought, he was furious. Although he liked Suneeta and thought she was competent, he was angry because his boss had lied to him. From the grapevine, Nishant learned he hadn’t been promoted because his boss thought he “just wasn’t ready yet.”

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Nishant’s boss erred in not telling the truth. Not only are you doing an employee a disservice by trying to soften the blow, failing to disclose information leads to perceptions of unfairness, says Brij, SPHR, director of human resources at Fortune ?Hospital System in Gurgaon, Haryana India.

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Employees deserve sincere and honest explanations about how the decision was made, who made it and what factors were considered, although not every detail of the decision is necessary.

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2. Provide counseling.

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To keep the conversation on a positive note, demonstrate your interest in the employee’s success and offer resources when available. For example, in Nishant’s situation, his boss could have told him specifically what he needed to do to improve his chances for a promotion and encouraged him to sign up for training opportunities, take advantage of the company’s tuition assistance or pursue other avenues of career development.

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3. Be accurate.

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Tina, a customer service representative, was a little nervous when a larger competitor bought out her company. Still, she knew she was a valuable employee; she had the highest performance rating among her peers in her geographic region. Several weeks after the buyout, Tina was bewildered when her new manager, Ben, told her she was being moved to accounts receivable.

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Ajit hadn’t even bothered to read her previous performance reviews. When she insisted that Ajit requested her HR file and read her reviews, Ajit be grudgingly agreed that Tina’s performance had been exemplary. But he stuck with his decision to transfer her. Tina never again trusted Ajit to look out for her best interests and, eventually, she left the company. The lesson here? Make sure you base decisions on accurate information.

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If you aren’t well informed about an employee’s situation, take the time to learn the whole story. If performance is the criteria for granting pay raises and promotions, use recent, factual performance data. If it’s obvious to the employee that you ignored her performance appraisals, or that performance was not documented, she will view your decisions as arbitrary. In some cases, if you suspect that performance information may be biased or inaccurate, postpone making a decision until more valid information about performance can be documented.

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4. Pay attention to your bias.

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Sati wanted to offer her 27 employees the option to work flexible schedules. She communicated the policy changes and met individually with employees to determine their schedule preferences. Laura, with three children at home, later realized that she had encouraged employees with children to take advantage of the flexible schedules, while subtly discouraging childless employees from doing the same. Sati immediately scheduled a meeting with all of her employees and apologized for the inconsistency, offering each employee the opportunity to submit a request to change their schedule preferences.

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One way to prevent bias is to avoid making decisions in a vacuum. When appropriate, seek out other managers who can provide additional perspectives and ask for their honest opinions. Pay extra attention to colleagues who have a different “take” on the situation; they may help you keep an open mind. You also can try to put yourself in your employees’ shoes. Ask yourself, “Is there anything about this situation that might suggest the possibility of favoritism?”

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5. Be consistent.

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When you use different sets of rules to judge people, employees will view your actions as capricious and untrustworthy. It’s not uncommon for managers to “ignore” rules for certain employees or apply rules more rigidly to one over another. By doing this, you are virtually guaranteeing that your employees will see you not only as unfair but also unethical.

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On the other hand, it’s important to recognize that consistency needn’t be rigid. Leave some room for common sense. For example, Brij described a situation in his organization where an employee who had outstanding attendance for several years suddenly missed several days of work. According to policy, the employee should have been written up and disciplined, but Brij encouraged the employee’s manager to take the employee’s individual situation into account rather than inflexibly adhering to policy.

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6. Give employees ‘voice.’

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Ray, an engineer in a large construction firm, was surprised when his manager announced a new policy to assign projects among engineers. “You know,” Ray grumbled to co-workers during lunch that day, “we could have come up with a better system for assigning work. They didn’t even ask us what we thought.” The other engineers nodded in agreement. From that day forward, productivity plummeted as the engineers frequently complained to managers that projects weren’t distributed fairly. Months later, the policy was abandoned.

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When possible, solicit employee viewpoints when you’re planning major changes. Employees will be more likely to see their organization as fair and be committed to the outcome if they’ve had some ?voice,” or input, into rules and procedures that affect them.

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7. Take corrective action.

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Even after hearing your rationale, some employees may seek an impartial review of the decision through a formal grievance system. If they do, don’t make them feel guilty or rebellious for seeking another assessment of the situation. If you felt that a decision made about you was unfair, you’d want

the same opportunity for review. Give your employees the same treatment you’d expect yourself.

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And if, during the formal review process, new data appear that support your employee’s viewpoint, admit your error and correct your decision. Refusing to change a decision after you’ve received new data could be viewed as unfair. You may be afraid that changing your mind makes you look “soft” to your employees, or that you’ll become an easy target for employees who don’t like what they hear. On the contrary, employees will be grateful for your willingness to reverse a decision based on solid information, and perhaps, more importantly, they will respect and trust you when you insist on standing firm on future decisions.