HR Solutions: Job descriptions, training programs necessary first steps

Lynne Haggerman is president/owner of Haggerman & Associates, a firm providing outplacement, retained search and management consulting/training on human resource issues.

Employees hired and the decisions made regarding how to manage staff will determine if a new business will be wildly successful, fail to achieve the heights it might have attained, or close.

Start by preparing detailed job descriptions for each position. The experience and personality traits required for the ideal candidate will then become clear, leading you in how to recruit and who to hire. You will significantly minimize conflict and frustration between yourself and your subordinates due to misunderstandings of expectations. Be sure to provide a copy to the worker, and if he does not perform, it will serve as a guideline for areas requiring coaching, formal discipline or possible termination. If the associate is effective in the job, you will be able to decide the amount of yearly salary increases based upon whether he met or exceeded the standards expected.

Pay competitively or you will waste months, or possibly years, in the selection, training, conflict, discipline and termination cycle. Provide medical benefits if at all possible, but if you cannot afford the ever-rising, extraordinarily high costs, you might want to offer additional pay to offset your inability to purchase benefits.

Complete all required new employee paperwork. Begin a personnel file on each new hire and ensure adherence to legal requirements. Create an employee handbook so everyone understands company policies and procedures.

Develop and conduct a thorough orientation and provide all necessary training. A poor, incomplete and confusing orientation and training period is one of the main reasons why workers quit.

Rapidly and effectively handle true performance issues and prepare thorough documentation. The first time you notice an inappropriate behavior, talk to the worker. Consider it a training meeting. Determine in your mind how many times you will allow him to perform the same behavior before you begin formal discipline. Three is the average number of chances, depending upon the offense. Retrain him each time he chooses the same improper action. If you notice he is truly trying to change but his turnaround will take longer than originally expected, increase the number of chances. If he chooses to make the situation worse, you may decide to decrease the number of chances. During retraining, at his last chance, warn him that if he chooses the behavior again, you will begin formal counseling. Traditionally, three formal disciplines are performed prior to a termination. However, if a behavior is extremely offensive, such as stealing, you may decide to fire him immediately.

The majority of managers do not like conflict and confrontation, do not want to hurt team members, or feel uncomfortable due to a lack of training in proper discipline techniques and the law. But doing nothing is a behavioral choice that sends several signals managers do not intend. The employee will continue his behaviors and begin even more wrong actions. Other staff know exactly what he is doing. Some will believe the behavior must be OK since management is not stopping him, so they begin doing it, too, spreading the behavior like a cancer. You also stand to lose your best subordinates. They get tired of picking up the slack, will soon decide they can't work in an environment with low standards, become tired of the wrongs that others get away with and lose respect for managers who do not deal with obvious issues.

The solution is to obtain solid training in human resource management prior to opening your establishment.