HR Management & Compliance

Is There Dilbert®-Level Dysfunction in Your Workplace?


We’ve been taking a humorous look at dysfunction in the workplace. Today, more indicators of trouble, and a look at a checklist system that can be HR’s “dysfunction detector.”


Yesterday, we reported on 10 signs of a dysfunctional workplace, as cataloged by blogger Scarlett Pruitt on HRWorld.com. Here are three more:


1. Top managers are cc’d on every company e-mail, whatever the topic. This usually happens, says Pruitt, when employees are not empowered to make decisions within their scope of responsibility. Unfortunately, it usually backfires on managers—they’re spending all their time reviewing e-mail.


2. The only path to promotion is if someone in the upper ranks dies. “When there is no hope of advancement, productivity, quality, and enthusiasm will suffer,” warns Pruitt.


3. No one ever gets fired. Employees need expectations and standards. If doing a bad job doesn’t get you fired, why bother to do a good job?



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Head Whirling with Dysfunction?


As you’ve been reading these symptoms of dysfunction, no doubt you’ve silently added a few of your own. They’re all funny in a way, but unfortunately, there’s also a little too much truth in these statements.


We asked our editors what HR’s role is in identifying problems like these. Their prescription: You can identify organizational problems, as well as other issues such as compliance needs, through regular auditing with a good program of HR checklists.


Why checklists? They’re completely impersonal, and they force the auditing manager to jump through all the right hoops, one by one. They also ensure consistency in how operations are conducted. And that’s vital in HR, where it’s all too easy to land in court if you discriminate in how you treat one employee over another.


The program the editors recommend is BLR’s HR Audit Checklists.


Just as an example of how it compels thoroughness, it contains three checklists relating to recordkeeping and digital information management. One lists 34 types of data, and also covers confidentiality, emergency planning, efficiency, compliance with laws, and safety. You’d likely never think of all of those possible trouble areas without a checklist, but with it, it’s a matter of minutes to scan down the list and see where you might get tripped up.


In fact, housed in the HR Audit Checklists binder are dozens of extensive lists organized into reproducible packets of materials, for easy distribution to line managers and supervisors. There’s a separate packet for each of the following areas:




  • HR Administration (including communications, handbook content, and recordkeeping)
  • Health and Safety (including OSHA responsibilities)
  • Benefits and Leave (including health cost containment, COBRA, FMLA, workers’ compensation, and several areas of leave)
  • Compensation (payroll, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and job descriptions)
  • Staffing and Training (incorporating Equal Employment Opportunity in recruiting and hiring, including immigration issues)
  • Performance and Termination (appraisals, discipline, and termination)



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Anatomy of a Checklist Packet


What’s in those packets? Let’s take the one on Employee Handbooks as an example.


Before starting the checklist itself, there’s a 3-page overview of legal and practical issues relating to the subject. One issue discussed is how a sloppily written handbook can actually form unintended contracts with employees.


Then the lists turn those issues into actionable items to check on. This is part of the checklist on writing a handbook:


* Have you asked your attorney to review your handbook? __Yes __No
* Do you reserve the right to unilaterally alter your handbook? __Yes __No
* Do you require employees to acknowledge that employment is at will? __Yes __No


When you can answer “Yes” to all these questions, you’ve skirted a real danger … the possible abrogation of the employer-at-will relationship. But would you have thought of asking them without the prodding of a checklist? Now multiply that “save” into hundreds more like it, and you’ve got a sense of the value of this program.


HR Audit Checklists is available for a no-cost, no-risk evaluation in your office for up to 30 days. Click here and we’ll be happy to arrange it.

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