Law & Order: strict policies may be bad business

By Elaine Varelas, 3/6/2006

In the seedy underworld of corporate America, offenses stemming from rigid office policy are considered particularly heinous. In many organizations, there are dedicated professionals known as Human Resources Managers who must commit themselves to ending these "crimes" against employees. These are their stories...

• Case #1: Several employees at an engineering firm would walk during their lunch hour for 30 minutes and then eat for 30 minutes. A small group of miscreants decided to walk for the entire hour and then have lunch. Instead of dealing directly with those that were behaving improperly, the organization instituted a "No Walking at Lunch" policy. Everyone was unfairly punished for the impropriety of a few.
• Case #2: At a company where the office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., a high-performer asked if he could come in at 9:00 a.m. so that he could drop his kids at daycare in the morning. His manager had to say "no" on the grounds that it was against company policy, even though the employee was always at work until 6:00 p.m. By tying the manager's hands with an inflexible office rule, the organization risked losing this stellar employee.
• Case #3: An employee in her last trimester of pregnancy was wearing Birkenstocks in the office because her feet had swollen so badly she could not fit into anything else. Her manager chastised her, citing the company ban on open-toed shoes. In desperation, the woman went to her doctor who suggested she take disability leave until the baby was born. This strict policy could have led to the employee missing work for a few months-because of shoes!
• Case #4: A company refused to reimburse an employee $8.00 because he ordered coffee via room service (the organization had a "No Room Service" policy). The next day he got his coffee and nothing else at the $19.95 buffet. This tab was approved. The office rule ultimately cost the company more money.
• Case #5: An organization would not allow employees to roll over their unused vacation days from one year to the next. Meanwhile, the company had a huge project during the last quarter and discouraged employees from taking vacation during that time. There were no exceptions to this policy. The company sent mixed messages about vacation, but the message was clear to employees that the organization was not willing to be accommodating.

These and other more egregious infractions against employees occur everyday in organizations across the country. Not only are they bad policies, but they are bad business. While these may seem like minor inconveniences for employees, it is the so-called "small things" that are often cited as the reasons why employees leave a company.

Why do bad policies happen? There is a trend among some organizations to "digitize" the human resources system. Leaders are attempting to run companies by manuals and policies where all human interactions are coded and can be neatly input into a spreadsheet. Some companies are doing this to stave off lawsuits, while others are trying to streamline processes and cut costs.

But taking the "human" factor out of human resources interaction just doesn't work. There is no tidy way to code and digitize HR. Companies must take human resources functions out of spreadsheets and policies and put them back in the hands of managers-and make sure they have the skills to guide their employees well.

Gifted managers often get into trouble under strict policy regimes. Good managers look at individuals, not policies. When necessary, they make exceptions-and get caught. This is where HR needs to step in and give managers back that control. Instead of insisting they "arrest" employees for breaking "laws," give them the skills, tools, and authority needed to assess particular situations. Let them make decisions based on what is best for the individual employee, the department, and the organization. Train managers to think strategically and globally, and help them develop their people and management skills.

Organizations also need to look at how they approach fairness. We learn in third grade that "fair" doesn't always mean "the same." Yet, many companies trip up when they try to define what is fair, equitable, and consistent. In many cases, there is no better way to lose an employee than to treat that person "fairly."

Many companies today are instituting strict and often ridiculous policies to try to control the HR function. HR managers need to fight against the trend of running organizations solely by manuals. It is not only frustrating and sometimes infuriating for employees and managers, but this practice ultimately says to employees "You don't matter." By empowering managers and giving them the tools to do their jobs well, organizations are more likely to keep valuable employees.

Coming next month: companies that get it right.

Elaine Varelas is Managing Partner of Business Development at Keystone Partners, a career management firm headquartered in Boston, and has over 20 years of career development and HR experience. She also serves on the board of directors for Career Partners International, the world's largest career management partnership. E-mail her at .