Friday 18 March 2011

Raising Risk Awareness in People Management

I’ve been doing a lot of work recently with managers and supervisors to raise awareness of some of the legal risks that they face in managing their people. Although people management is a key line management responsibility, the legal complexity and risks involved can lead to a situation in which managers at best lack confidence in tackling people issues or at worst make ill informed decisions that can cost the organisation in a variety of ways.  HR professionals have a crucial advisory role but there are also advantages in developing a consistent and up to date level of legal awareness amongst all those whose remit includes managing people.  So how can this be achieved?
Make the case for improved practice Analyse the problems that are being experienced, e.g. numbers of formal grievances or disciplinary cases, high volume of tribunal claims. Produce and share information with managers showing the impact of dealing with conflict situations in terms of indicators such as money, time and reputation in the market. 
Run collaborative workshops – Expound the principles of good practice, encourage experience sharing and apply the law to real life scenarios and cases.  Bring people together from across the organisation to share examples of bad and good practice and establish a problem solving culture. Choose a facilitator who can combine legal knowledge and management experience. An external facilitator often works best in gaining delegate respect and facilitating open and honest discussion. 
Reinforce learning – Keep awareness of good practice alive through embedding it in regular discussions and activities. Team and management meetings provide an opportunity to share experiences and issues. Cross organisational collaboration through mentoring can also ensure the vital clarity and consistency of practice that is crucial to legal compliance and risk management. Regular legal information updates from the HR team are also important in relation to both changes in the law and current organisational practices that are causing concern. 
There are many sources of valuable information on employment law and good practice but I still find that one of the most easily accessible and digestible for the widest audience is  www.acas.org.uk.

Dorothy
18 March 2011