Employee Relations Scenarios: How HR Leaders Can Rehearse Complex Workplace Decisions
I once consulted with a construction company that had a major problem - their top performing salesperson, who held a territory too large for them to handle alone, was refusing to engage in any conversation about dividing "their" territory. Any attempt by the CEO to address the issue was met with strong threats to leave the company and intentionally inflict harm to their reputation amongst their clients.
I was called in to help when the situation boiled over in a heated conversation. The salesperson quit their job, started their own competing company and began targeting the company's clients.
The situation looked like a dire emergency - but as I examined the performance I noticed that the company's sales had been declining for 5 years. I wondered how good this salesperson really was, or whether the only reason they had been the top salesperson was because their territory was huge - a goldmine - and they had an endless list of prospective clients. We subdivided this large and lucrative territory amongst three salespeople, we almost tripled the revenue from this region in just a few months. Not only that, but the clients were now being fully served. They were happier, and there were no lost opportunities left on the table because of lack of time to get to them.
Employee relations is undeniably one of the most complex, difficult and messy areas of decision-making for leaders.
Wisdom, experience, judgement, fairness and emotional intelligence are essential skills for positive and lasting outcomes.
Here are some examples of complex and difficult HR scenarios:
Addressing a high-performer who's toxic behavior is damaging the team.
A senior employee delivers exceptional results and holds knowledge that is difficult to replace, but several colleagues report bullying, intimidation and public humiliation. Previous managers ignored the behavior because of the employee’s value. Leadership must decide whether to coach, discipline or remove the employee while managing operational risk, team morale and the message that the decision sends about acceptable conduct.
Managing a complaint against a respected executive An employee privately reports harassment by a well-respected executive but is afraid of retaliation and unwilling to make a formal complaint. Other employees may have had similar experiences, although no one has spoken publicly. Leadership must decide whether it has enough information to begin an investigation, how to protect confidentiality and how to ensure fairness to both the employee and the executive.
Political pressure to remove a highly-valued, high-integrity employee A high-level employee produces an analysis that is accurate but conflicts with the position preferred by senior political officials. Leadership is pressured to reassign or dismiss the employee, even though performance records are strong. The decision requires leaders to balance employee rights, organizational independence, public trust and the practical consequences of resisting powerful stakeholders.
Workplace accommodation versus team workload A highly-valued, high performing employee requests a long-term workplace accommodation because of a medical condition, but request is outside of policy, and would shift demanding duties to an already overworked team. Some colleagues believe the arrangement is unfair, while the employee believes private medical information has been discussed without permission. Leadership must decide how to respect legal obligations and confidentiality while addressing workload, resentment and declining trust within the team.
Misconduct discovered during major layoffs Shortly before a large restructuring, HR receives credible evidence that a senior leader manipulated performance ratings to protect preferred employees and place others at greater risk of termination. Pausing the restructuring could cause serious disruption, but proceeding may result in unfair dismissals and legal claims. Leadership must decide whether to delay the process, remove the leader or continue with additional safeguards while communicating honestly with employees.
I'd love to hear in the comments about some of the complex employee-relations decisions you have had to face in leadership.
The question is - how do you develop wisdom, experience, judgement, fairness and emotional intelligence in making these decisions?
Is your team equipped with the skills they need to handle complex decisions like these?
How well does your leadership handle complex employee relations decisions?
Not well at all - it almost always ends up badly
Needs improvement - somewhat messy and lots of drama
Fairly well - most decisions seem to work out alright
Excellent - our team makes the right decision every time
Want to fully test your leadership team's decision-readiness? Try our FREE scorecard
The short answer is: you can't teach them - but you can develop them through experience, but that can take many years, or even decades. But what if you don't have that kind of time to build high-level cognitive acumen in your leadership team? Decision Rehearsal™ is a facilitated scenario-based experience using audio scenarios and mental simulation to immerse decision-makers in a "choose your own adventure" style of decision-making, where they "pre-experience" the consequences of their decisions and can rewind and reset and try a different path.
To find out more and to access a demo of a Decision Rehearsal™ scenario, visit https://decisionrehearsal.com
I'd love to hear your thoughts and questions, so please take the time to comment. Those who comment will be entered into a draw to win a free printed copy of my book, "Learn to Imagine: A Leader’s Journey to Discover the Powerful Secret to Effective Professional Learning" https://a.co/d/5O9rGmS
With thanks, Russell Cullingworth, CEO, ProDio
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