Honesty in HR matters: It really is the best policy

by Susan Llewellyn Deniker

According to one of Billy Joel’s many great songs, “Honesty is such a lonely word, everyone is so untrue. . . . Honesty is hardly ever heard, but mostly what I need from you.” Sure, honesty is admirable and virtuous, but it’s also the best policy for handling employment matters. Even though it seems like common sense, it’s often hard for HR managers and supervisors to tell the truth about employees when it matters. And that often gets them into trouble. Let’s make sure that honesty is what’s heard at your workplace. 

Evaluations
There is certainly no legal requirement that says you must complete performance evaluations. However, evaluations are an effective tool to force you to regularly address your expectations of employees, issues and concerns with their performance, and growth opportunities and needs such as training and mentoring. Without conducting regularly scheduled performance reviews, you will likely get too busy with everyday business to focus on those issues.

However, performance evaluations are effective only if you are honest when you do them. We understand that it’s difficult to address someone’s shortcomings, and no one wants to upset or anger an employee. But the evaluation process is rendered pointless if you aren’t honest in critiquing employees’ strengths and weaknesses. Not only will you fail as a manager by not addressing problems with employees, but you will also create a documentation nightmare if you ever have to defend a discipline or discharge decision and your documentation contains glowing evaluations that never addressed the problems you later claim led to your decision.

Performance evaluations aren’t a time to be nice; they’re a time to be objective and truthful. That being said, use common sense in how you address performance issues. Remember, your attempts to be funny or clever are likely to come back to bite you later. A comment like “This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot,” while funny (and perhaps true), just isn’t appropriate in a professional performance appraisal. You should also think about what your comments would look like to a jury, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or even your company’s top gun.

Discipline and discharge
Like performance evaluations, written warnings and other disciplinary documentation are worthless if they aren’t truthful and accurate. If you receive an administrative charge of discrimination or face litigation over an employment decision, you must be able to defend your decision with the supporting documentation. If your records don’t spell out the true issues you had with the employee, you won’t seem credible when you attempt to argue that they were the “real” reasons for your decision to discipline or discharge her. Disciplinary write-ups and discharge forms should truthfully and accurately outline all the reasons that led to your decision. These documents will be scrutinized in any later litigation or administrative hearings, so consider your words carefully.

Many employers attempt to avoid telling employees the reasons for their discharge at the termination meeting, likely because it’s so awkward. Again, while honesty in these situations is often uncomfortable, it’s absolutely necessary. Briefly explain to the employee the actual reason for the discharge. Don’t be vague, skirt around the issues, or refuse to give a reason.

Juries often find it “unfair” when employees aren’t given a reason for their discharge. Additionally, some employees are spurred to file claims against their former employer because they were never given the real reason for the discharge decision. A jury or an administrative agency may doubt your credibility when you later provide a different reason for the discharge decision than you gave the employee in the termination meeting.

Honesty continues to be critical when you receive an unemployment compensation claim from a former employee. Many employers are stumped about what to write as the reason for an employee’s discharge. It isn’t rocket science—either truthfully and accurately provide the reason for the discharge, or just don’t submit a response.

When we defend an employment case, one of the first things we look at is the employer’s explanation for the discharge on the unemployment compensation form. Again, your credibility can be gone in an instant if the information on the form differs from your documentation or what you told the employee at the discharge meeting.

Bottom line
Failing to be honest with employees not only will cost you credibility but may also cost you serious money if you’re unable to defend your employment actions because your explanations were vague, inaccurate, or simply nonexistent.  It’s perhaps a cliché, but it’s nonetheless true that honesty really is the best policy.

Susan Llewellyn Deniker is an attorney with Steptoe & Johnson PLLC, practicing in the firm’s Bridgeport, West Virginia office. She may be contacted at susan.deniker@steptoe-johnson.com.