20 Reasons HR is Ineffective in Resolving Bullying in the Workplace

Question: My Human Resources department refuse to take me seriously. Instead, it seems like they are doing everything they can to support the bully, and trying to get rid of me, instead. Why is this?

Answer: From dealing with thousands of cases in which this happens - albeit a self-selecting audience which may not scale up nationally - I've identified the following 20 reasons:

1. Human Resources (HR) people are not trained to deal with bullies - it's not in their textbooks, nor in their training.

2. The HR profession seems to attract a number of people who are not people-focused and thus not good at dealing with people problems.

3. HR is not there for employees. The role of HR is to keep the employer out of court.

4. Since HR personnel are human and are just as susceptible to charm, which happens to be one of the bully's main weapons of deception.

5. By the time HR get to hear of the bullying they are faced with an articulate, plausible, convincing, charming "bully" and a gibbering wreck of a "target" who is traumatized and thus unconvincing, inarticulate, incoherent, obsessed, apparently paranoid, tearful, distressed and highly emotional. By this time the bully has already convinced HR that the target has a "mental health problem", is a liability to the organization, and needs to be got rid of.

6. When it's one word against another with no witnesses, HR take the word of the senior employee (almost always the bully).

7. Most employers don't have an anti-bullying policy so it's not a disciplinary issue. 

9.

If an employer does have an anti-bullying policy, it's just words on paper.

10. The bully is a tough dynamic manager who gets the job done and the high turnover of staff in the bully's department is because they're all wimps who can't meet the demanding standards of performance demanded by this exemplary manager. Yawn.

11. If HR recognizes it has a bully, they're not going to admit it because to do so is tantamount to admitting liability for this - and previous - cases.

12. HR is not going to admit that they've made a mistake recruiting an incompetent individual who bullies to hide his or her inadequacies.

13. When push comes to shove, HR does what they are told to do by management, regardless of the rights and wrongs.

14. HR is often outsourced, thus has little influence to effect change.

15. The constant change, reorganization, restructuring, downsizing, outsourcing, etc means that there is no continuity in treatment of staff and thus the bully is able to hide the fact that he or she has a history of conflict with employees.

16. Bullying cases are so long and complex (a situation the bully fosters) that most HR Managers (and most people) don't have the time, energy or resources to unpick the case.

18. Owners and upper management don't provide resources and training even when HR sees the need. 

19. When HR wants to investigate or hire an outside investigator, more often than not, they are overruled.

20. HR (and management) is probably just as frightened of the serial bully - and sometimes more frightened than the employees.

10 Easy Tips for Improving Employee Productivity

How productive are your employees? Having employees usually means a business owner is focused on increasing sales and profitability. But having employees means you have to focus on something else, too: managing employees and getting them to be productive.

Working with people is an art—not a science, and getting the most out of your employees probably won’t happen without the skill of a superior manager—one that knows the balance between managing and trust.

1. What’s Your Pay Scale?

If you pay low wages, expect lower quality employees, in general. The better employees will go where they can make more money and you’ll be left with the people who couldn’t land the higher paying jobs. Want great employees? Pay great wages and expect more.

2. How Does Your Office Look?

People don’t want to work in a dungeon or some office that looks like it hasn’t been cleaned or decorated since the early 80s. How about your office furniture? Do they have a comfortable chair, a computer that works well, and a desk that’s in good shape? All of this contributes to morale. You want them to be excited about coming to work.

3. Is There Reason To Work Hard?

It’s your business and you want to see it grow. Your employees should have some buy-in to that vision but they have families to feed and the costs of things like food keep rising. They want to work for somebody that offers advancement opportunities and they’ll work hard to get there.

4. Do You Have a Culture?

Great companies have a culture or DNA. Only certain people will fit in to the culture regardless of their skill level. They use certain words and phrases, and they love the culture so much that it becomes just as important as their work. Your employees will work to protect the culture. Successful companies always have a culture.

5. Don’t Play Favorites

There will always be employees that resonate with you better than others but keep your treatment of all employees consistent. Morale will plummet if your employees see you developing a stronger relationship with one over another.

6.  Be Direct

If you care about your employees, you won’t want to hurt their feelings but when it’s time to have difficult conversations, be direct and clear. Don’t try to come up with the flowery language that will lessen the sting. They might not like it at first, but they’ll grow more if you’re direct while still being respectful.

7. Minimize Meetings

Sometimes meetings are important but when your employees are sitting at a conference table talking, they’re probably not doing what you hired them to do. Let your workers work and only hold meetings when it’s absolutely necessary.

8. Time Management is Key

Just like at home, there’s plenty of stimuli for employees at the office. Side conversations with other employees, social media, and phone calls are the more common ones. Encourage your employees to manage their time well and set deadlines and benchmarks that keep them busy throughout the day.

9. Hold Annual Reviews

Each year you should have a one-on-one employee review where they’re eligible for a raise. Spend a lot of time focusing on the positives while intermixing the negatives.

10. Know When to Say Goodbye

If you’ve given warnings, worked with them to improve, and tried everything else you could, say goodbye. This not only gives you the opportunity to hire a better performer, it sends the message to your employees that you care enough about them to protect the company and their work environment. It also shows them that underperformers won’t have a job for very long.