It’s clear that your supervisors are the first line of defense in preventing lawsuits, but don’t forget, that means they’re the first line of offense as well—the people in position to make the biggest and most costly mistakes.

Your supervisors are good people, well meaning and capable. But especially when they are new, they don’t know how to handle tricky situations like discipline, harassment, intermittent leave, and disability accommodation.

That’s not their fault; you didn’t hire them for those skills. But that leaves it up to you to train them.

Where to start? You have to begin by blunting some of their eagerness. They will be thinking, "I’ve got to take charge, be decisive." That’s dangerous until they have been trained. Start supervisors out with some very basic guidelines. Then, over time, give them more details and more latitude in solving problems.

Report, Not Resolve

For instance, at the beginning, tell them, "There are certain situations that are’report’ situations, not’resolve’ situations. When you hear these phrases, don’t even respond—just come straight to HR."

  • “Accommodation” or a related phrase (“I need an accommodation.” “I can’t do my job because of a physical limitation.” “I need special equipment to do my job.” And so on.)
  • “Harassment” or a related phrase (“I am being harassed.” “I am being bothered.” “Joe makes me uncomfortable.”)
  • "Leave" or a related phrase ("I need a few days off to care for …" "I need to take FMLA leave …”

You don’t want your new supervisors trying to handle these situations. They could cause a lot of damage, even with the best of intentions.

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As you train them, give them handouts to reinforce their training, like this one on discipline from BLR’s 10-Minute HR Trainer:

Act Fairly

  • Make sure the incident or behavior warrants discipline under the policy.
  • Check that the employee knew and understood the rule that was violated.
  • Find out if there were any circumstances beyond the employee’s control that affected what the employee did.
  • Determine if the employee knew and understood the penalties for rule violation.
  • Make the discipline match the offense; don’t treat minor infractions the same as serious ones.

Act Consistently

  • Discipline the same or similar violations in the same way.
  • Be sure you’re not coming down especially hard on an employee because of personal dislike or other problems.
  • Be sure you’re not looking the other way on violations committed by employees you like or who are especially important to your group.

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Act Legally

  • Act promptly after a violation occurs, even if you’re just giving a verbal warning.
  • Be sure to follow the steps of progressive discipline.
  • Document what the rules violation was, when it happened, and what disciplinary action was taken and when.
  • Check that disciplinary action was fair and consistent in terms of what has happened with other employees.
  • Ask whether a reasonable person could interpret this discipline as retaliation for exercising legal rights.
  • Ask whether a reasonable person could interpret this discipline as discriminatory.
  • Ask whether a reasonable person would feel that the "punishment" fit the "crime."

In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll get some tips for supervisors dealing with terminations, and we’ll take a look at a unique daylong boot camp for supervisors.

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