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OK at Work, hosted by Offit Kurman attorneys Russell Berger and Sarah Sawyer, is a weekly podcast that discusses current events and legal issues impacting business owners. From updates on the ever-changing employment law landscape to the risks and benefits of integrating AI into your workplace, subscribe to stay up-to-date on issues and events that may impact you and your business.
Sarah Sawyer: Welcome to this week's
OK at Work in person um, with myself,
Sarah Sawyer and my colleague Russell
Berger, both attorneys at Offit Kurman.
And today we are talking about
building teams, managing employees.
Russell, what do you think is
a happy employee or an unhappy
employee more likely to sue you?
Russell Berger: I'm gonna go with unhappy.
Sarah Sawyer: So I think that, obviously
we talk a lot about performance
management and documentation and being
proactive and managing teams from
like a legal compliance perspective.
And that is a really important exercise.
Just like having a handbook is
important and, you've gotta be
checking the boxes of, documenting
things, having policies in place.
Doing performance
improvement plans perhaps.
But what about managing employees
on a day-to-day basis in a practical
way, Russell, what's the impact and
how does that play into everything?
Russell Berger: Yeah, I mean, obviously,
we give the advice a lot of the time, have
you talked to your employee about this?
Have you warned them?
Have you given them coaching on this?
Have you documented that?
We have those conversations all the
time when clients call us and say,
I wanna let go of this employee.
Because it's critical
factors in reducing the risk.
One of the things that really jumps out
is besides the fact that the answer to
those questions should be, yes, I've
done this, I've documented, I've had the
conversations it's a lot less risk for
you as the business if those conversations
are effective in change behavior.
While we can help manage legal
risk, it's best if it never gets
to the level of legal risk at all.
And so while all those things are
still true, have proactive management
identify things, put people on PIPs,
do those sorts of things, it's better
if you're thinking about how do I
actually get through to this employee?
How do I actually change their behavior?
This isn't just checking the box.
It is checking a box, but it's
more than just checking a box.
How do I actually compel this person
to change the way they're behaving in
a manner that is best for the content?
Sarah Sawyer: Yeah, I think it's important
if you're actually trying to effectively
change and actually have a good workforce,
build a good team, have a productive team.
And what comes to mind for me is
also obviously I scroll Instagram,
like a lot of us throughout the
day or at night or whatever.
And there's a lot of funny pages
around HR and people management.
Around bad ways to do this that
are box checking and the employees
know that it's box checking, right?
And sometimes that might be your
desired reason for doing it.
And you might want them to think that
way depending on what your goals are.
But if your goals are actually to build
a good team, have a productive workforce,
make sure that expectations are clear,
then you wanna be thoughtful about
that approach and how you're doing it.
'Cause I think, people are smart often
if you've hired them and they're good
at their jobs and they'll understand if
it's a box checking exercise versus you
actually trying to build a team, trying to
improve their skill sets and, help manage
their performance in both a way that is
documented and helpful to the company,
but also a way that's helpful to them and
helpful to building a successful team.
Russell Berger: And I think one
of the key pieces of doing that is
really understanding your audience.
So no two employees are
gonna be exactly the same.
There is no one size fits all.
This is how I'm going to coach
everyone who's in this situation.
It really requires a knowledge of your
team, knowing what motivates them, knowing
what they're hoping to get out of it.
And by it I mean their employment
with you and speaking to them.
And building a message that
resonates with that employee.
Going through the process of, I like
to use something called the desk method
where you describe the problem, explain
the negative effects that it's happening.
You specify solutions and then you call
for a commitment from the employee.
But even within that method, there's
a lot of customization that can go
to the person that you're talking to
your audience, and I really encourage
everyone to take a minute and think
about like, how does this message that
I know I need to deliver to make my
company better, to reduce my legal risk.
How does it really
resonate with this person?
How do I really get through and,
hopefully solve the problem?
'cause, if I can get this person
on the right track, that's the best
possible outcome for the business.
Sarah Sawyer: Yeah.
And it all comes down to communication
and being thoughtful about it and what
you might document behind the scenes and
how you might note that narrative of a
conversation you had and documenting the
file or documenting things for yourself
should probably be a little bit different
than what you're saying to the employee
as far as, how you're messaging things.
It's a different impact and
they serve different purposes.
So, important to be thoughtful.
Well, thanks Russell.
See you next time.
Russell Berger: Thanks, Sarah.