To help companies prepare for the Employee Free Choice Act I started doing a series of interviews with our former union organizer consultants. We’ll be posting some of these interviews over the next few months and they are wide-ranging discussions that offer a lot of insightful tips for managers and company leaders. This week I did an interview with one of our newer former union folks from the grocery and retail industry. While she laid out a series of tips for managers on how they should respond to the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, we covered one of my favorites. Instead of worrying about what form the law will take, focus on what you can control: the employee relations environment you create. As she laid out some of her tips on creating a great work environment I was reminded again about how you could boil down the best action plans into two simple rules:
- Be Predictable: Communicate clearly and be consistent. Most employee relations problems come out of situations where an employee is surprised or feels “sneak-attacked” by their leader. This doesn’t mean that every situation must be lined out in a company policy manual (or a union contract). It also doesn’t meant that you have to ignore performance and treat everyone exactly the same (another union notion that has crushed many companies). However, you must deal with situations in a clear and predictable way to build trust and loyalty with your people.
- Follow the Golden Rule: This one will sound trite, but it is a cliche because it is true. If you just treat people with respect and take some time to care for them as a fellow human being, it will do wonders for your work environment – not to mention your own work life.
As you think about your own Employee Free Choice Act action plan, remember to focus your energy on what you can control (your own work environment) and make sure you are teaching leaders to remember these 2 simple rules.
