{"id":7309,"date":"2013-03-07T11:26:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T11:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/affinityhrgroup.com\/2019\/05\/common-hr-mistakes\/"},"modified":"2013-03-07T11:26:39","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T11:26:39","slug":"common-hr-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theworkplaceadvisors.com\/common-hr-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Common HR Mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day we get calls from our clients about challenges they are facing at work.\u00a0 As is often the case, most of the concerns we handle are easily avoidable. Below are three common HR mistakes from recent months.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#1 \u2013 Failure to Document Critical Conversations <\/strong>\u2013 Bob, who owns a small business, called and said that he needed to fire Arnie.\u00a0 Arnie has been around a long time and essentially stopped doing his job about three years ago.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Bob hasn\u2019t documented any of the corrective conversations he\u2019s had with Arnie over the years.\u00a0 So, if Arnie sues Bob for age discrimination, there\u2019s very little evidence to show that the real reason for the termination was poor performance.<\/p>\n

To avoid this fate, be sure to document all of the critical conversations you have with employees. It doesn\u2019t have to be formal and it doesn\u2019t have to be signed-off by the employee.\u00a0 But simply making a \u201cnote to file\u201d on any corrective conversations you have with employees will enable you to demonstrate to the employee (and a judge if necessary) that you have had specific concerns about performance and have made efforts to address those concerns over time.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

#2 \u2013 Failure to Have a Proper Employee Handbook<\/strong> \u2013 For years, Lilly operated her company without an employee handbook because she didn\u2019t think it was necessary given the small size of her seven-person workforce and she didn\u2019t think a book could help her how to manage her employees.\u00a0 Eventually, she thought better of it and borrowed a handbook from a colleague in another state.\u00a0 But with employment laws varying widely from state to state, she\u2019s not certain whether the handbook she is using is doing her any good.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably not helping her very much at all and, in fact, it\u2019s probably harming her.\u00a0 She probably is not complying sufficiently with the laws in her state and is instead obligating herself to the laws of another state. To ensure (and prove!) your workplace is compliant with federal and state employment law, \u00a0get a proper handbook that is tailored for a company of your size, in your state and in your industry.\u00a0 And because laws change frequently, have it reviewed once every one to two years to keep it up to date.\u00a0 Not only are handbooks an essential way to protect yourself and reduce your risk of lawsuit, they are very helpful for communicating to your employees what behaviors and standards you expect of them.<\/em><\/p>\n

#3 \u2013 Failure to Screen Candidates Sufficiently<\/strong> \u2013 Jack had just lost his third sales representative in as many months when he called us.\u00a0 All were new hires and none turned out the way he wanted.\u00a0 When we asked him how he had screened them when they were candidates, he told us \u201cI\u2019m a great judge of character \u2013 I go with my gut.\u00a0 Then I see what Bongo thinks of them \u2013 if Bongo doesn\u2019t like them, they won\u2019t work here.\u201d\u00a0 (Bongo is the office dog. I\u2019m not making this up.)<\/p>\n

Properly screening candidates is difficult and it is quite common for a hiring manager to rely on his gut. (Fortunately, relying on a dog\u2019s gut is a little less common.) But those of us who recruit for a living know that one\u2019s gut is usually a terrible predictor of good performance on the job.\u00a0 This is especially true when trying to screen for a sales person who is trying to sell YOU!\u00a0 Our advice is to carefully structure your job interview process, interview in teams and assign team members question topics ahead of time.\u00a0 Ask behavioral questions such as \u201ctell me about a time when you\u2026[add your question here]\u201d and ALWAYS use a professional style assessment tool to deepen your understanding of how a candidates will perform if they are hired.\u00a0 At all costs, avoid using your gut to make a hire. <\/em><\/p>\n

Alas, the challenges that Jack, Lilly and Bob have are not uncommon. We get calls like these each and every day.\u00a0 The good news is that an ounce of prevention can ensure you can avoid these mistakes in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every day we get calls from our clients about challenges they are facing at work.\u00a0 As is often the case, most of the concerns we handle are easily avoidable. Below are three common HR mistakes from recent months.\u00a0 #1 \u2013 Failure to Document Critical Conversations \u2013 Bob, who owns a small business, called and said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nCommon HR Mistakes - The Workplace Advisors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theworkplaceadvisors.com\/common-hr-mistakes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Common HR Mistakes - The Workplace Advisors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every day we get calls from our clients about challenges they are facing at work.\u00a0 As is often the case, most of the concerns we handle are easily avoidable. 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