The best way to avoid three common HR problems before they occur

June 20 2021 - Most people may think the main job of a HR department is to solve problems and disputes that happen within the workplace. In fact, most good HR departments should be trying to avoid these problems from even happening in the first place. If you’re a human resources worker looking to lighten your workload, here’s a look at the best ways to avoid three common HR problems before they occur.

Make sure all communications are accessible to all

When you work in an office or in fact any company, it’s highly likely that you’ll be sent lots of different communications every day. Whether it’s emails, phone calls or even posters put up in communal spaces, often a lot of these contain vital bits of information. That’s why it can be very frustrating and even dangerous if people are unable to access these pieces of information. If a manager sends a document to every email address in the company, they probably expect that everyone will be able to access it. Unfortunately, there may be colleagues with sight or hearing problems that are unable to read or understand certain images or graphics and unable to listen to things like Zoom calls. That’s why it’s important that you make sure there are other methods in which people with these disabilities can access this all-important information. This is an important practice that every brand should not only be doing for their staff members, but for their customers as well. When it comes to designing things like websites and marketing materials, it’s all about inclusive design as well as showing off products and services to their best. When coming up with a marketing plan, make sure it includes marketing methods which everybody can access no matter what disabilities they may have.

Remind managers of their responsibilities

Whilst many managers might be focused on making sure they get the most out of their employees to make sure they make as much profit as possible, they also have another more important role to think about. They also need to look after the mental health, physical health and welfare of every employee they’re responsible for. Train every manager to spot the early signs of problems that employees might be facing in their work or personal life, and encourage them to speak to any employee in confidence if they’re worried about them.

Create guidelines to distinguish correct from incorrect behaviour

When people get called into HR after someone has made a complaint about their behaviour, many people will try and justify it by saying it was a joke or banter.

Often many of these workers will truthfully believe they were being funny rather than being offensive. That’s why it’s important to set guidelines on what is deemed inappropriate behaviour. That way, there can be no disagreements on exactly what is a joke and what is seen as offensive. By writing these guidelines out and making them accessible to everybody, it will hopefully also make workers understand what is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable before they do something that might offend their colleagues.

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