Supervisor Training: When Supervisors Should Involve HR

Supervisor training is very important when it comes to ensuring that your company stays legally compliant. Getting supervisors on the same page is critical, and it’s just as important for supervisors to know when to step back and hand things over to HR. HR and the supervisors need to work together.

Supervisor Roles are of Critical Importance

“Just as the folks in HR have an important job to perform, the same is true of the supervisor . . . Any time you’re dealing with the supervisor, it’s really critical to give respect to the job that the supervisor has done—different from yours, but very important.” Mark I. Schickman pointed out in a recent BLR webinar.

The supervisor’s job is to:

• Maintain high productivity
• Maintain a good work environment
• Administer most personnel activity
• Schedule vacations
• Assign work
• Observe and record attendance

Each of these things either directly or indirectly impacts the success of the company.

When you deal with the supervisors, it is also critically important to start with the premise that you’re on the same team with the goal of ensuring the supervisors’ success. It’s not HR versus the supervisor. The goal is to empower, not police. Give them tools and mechanisms to help them operate. Stay positive on what the supervisors can do, as opposed to what they can’t do.

“One way of doing that is to engage in regular supervisory training.” Schickman advised. Train the supervisors on all aspects of legal compliance, but, perhaps most importantly, train them on when to involve HR. No matter how knowledgeable your supervisors may be, there’s always a time when HR should be brought in. The key is knowing when.

Supervisor Training: When to Involve HR

In any situation where a supervisor is dealing with an employee complaint or issue, supervisors should defer to HR where:

• The alleged actor is a “buddy.” In other words, any situation in which the supervisor could be deemed too close to that person to be a fair judge of the situation.
• The supervisor has a history with the complainant, or perhaps this complaint has surfaced before.
• The supervisor took part in similar activity, which would imply they have a bias toward allowing that activity.
• Any other appearance of partiality.

HR should remember when setting up policies that supervisors may be part of the problem. While we hope this doesn’t happen, in the chance that it could, employers need to be sure that employees have a means to complain about supervisors as well. For example, policies shouldn’t give just one outlet for a complaint (supervisor) because that could prompt people to bypass internal remedies entirely if their supervisor is the problem—and you could more quickly have a lawsuit on your hands. Give employees an alternative, such as bringing the problem to HR.

For more information on training supervisors when to involve HR, order the webinar recording of “Handle or Hand Off? Helping Supervisors and HR Work Together to Avoid Legal Headaches.” To register for a future webinar, visit http://store.blr.com/events/webinars.

For the past 30 years, attorney Mark I. Schickman has concentrated on employment and labor law, litigating every type of employment matter and providing advice in avoiding liability for discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, union related charges and all other aspects of the employment relationship.