Supervisors play a particularly critical role in compliance. They must be familiar and comfortable with organizational policies and with employment-related laws. They have to adhere carefully to proper and legal practices, and ensure that their employees do the same.
But they also have to get things done.
You’re asking quite a lot of your supervisors. They have to supervise, select, motivate, train, and give feedback. They have to manage tight resources and their own careers. They’re responsible for ever larger groups of employees, with ever greater pressure to perform, in an environment where change is a given and there’s never enough time.
Unfortunately, that means that they are likely to make some off-the-cuff decisions that you’ll regret, probably in court.
Here are the 6 Common Mistakes Supervisors Make
1. The Knee-Jerk No
The knee-jerk no comes in many forms:
- Are you kidding me?
- We’re trying to run a business here!
- You’re going to leave us in the lurch at crunch time?
- Sure, you’re going to work from home … Not.
Yes, you do have the budget and time to train managers and supervisors with BLR’s 10-Minute HR Trainer. Try it at no cost or risk. Get details.
These phrases all translate into the same thing—“I’m begging you to sue me.”
The requests that generate knee-jerk responses:
- I need to take time off for bonding with my new son.
- We’ve got an appointment about our upcoming adoption.
- I have an appointment.
- I think I need to come in late because of my new medication.
Requests like these have to be responded to professionally. Typically, your rule will be to check with HR before responding. You really don’t want your supervisors trying to deal with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and other technical questions. HR needs to evaluate the situation in light of law, policy, reasonableness, and past practice.
2. Ignoring Employee Complaints
Here are some typical complaints and typical (untrained) supervisor responses:
- I’m being harassed. (Typical response: “Ah, that’s Jimmie being Jimmie. No harm meant.”)
- I’m not going in there; I don’t think it’s safe. (Typical response: “If you want to keep your job, get in there.”)
- I’m not being paid for all my overtime. (Typical response: “You want to complain about your pay, find some other job to complain about.”)
3. Documentation Details
Supervisors hate dealing with documentation. It’s just busywork to them compared to their real job of production, and they are not comfortable with it. You probably didn’t promote them to supervisor because of their writing skills. Provide them with sample write-ups or fill-in-the-blanks forms.
Train your line managers with BLR’s 10-Minute HR Trainer. There won’t be time for classroom boredom. Try it for free.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll look at the last 3 common mistakes supervisors make, plus introduce you to a unique 10-minutes-at-a-time training system.