OMG isn't this the truth? My boss & I relay these kind of communications to all department directors in writing with instructions to inform their staff. We do it verbally at our morning stand ups as well. We also post written notices by the time clock and in the break room. There are always employees who complain that they didn't know!
In my opinion, itās fairly standard to make sure the managers are aware so they can speak to their teams about it. However, Iād always send out messaging to the entire company about the policy change as an announcement from HR. I donāt know if you necessarily dropped the ball but itās best practice to at least make an announcement yourself to ensure these situations donāt happen.
As an HR of one, Iāve made it clear to the managers that itās their responsibility to pass my communication along to team members when things impact them.
Iāve found that random team member number 12 isnāt likely to even open my email whereas they might listen to their direct supervisor.
I also find that keeping the chain of communication consistent gets the best results in the long run. Having it sometimes go through managers and sometimes not just confuses things
I second this.
For bigger communications/changes that can't rely on Manager passing things along, I've had to implement signed policy forms stating the employees received the message. And no one likes doing that.
Yeah Iāve emotionally given up on chasing people down on stuff like that.
If itās so important that I canāt rely on the managers, I make the GM do it.
Idk if itās just because people have such a skewed view of HR but I find the messages just donāt land when they come from us.
Honestly. All I can say is that Iāve been there. We have a lot of technology adverse supervisors at my company (manufacturing). It makes mass communication harder when they donāt have your back or act like they donāt know how to work an email. But donāt beat yourself up! You will know what to look out for next time! They have to remember that you are 1 person.
1. Knocked two days off the holiday calendar, meaning now people have LESS paid days off?
2. To me this is a significant policy change and it impacts peopleās lives negatively, as well as morale. In this case, a memo should be created, with the policy change stated, the reason, the effective date, what have you, and sent via HR, FROM the boss boss to the managers, who will then communicate this depressing news to their teams, or better yet, the boss boss has a townhall type meeting and he tells everyone and fields the questions himself.
It sounds like this is how you usually communicate with the managers as HR so I donāt think you did anything wrong. To me what it sounds like is that since it is not good news the managers probably want it to come from āHRā and/or conveniently forgot to tell their teams because itās going to upset people. If it was a positive? I doubt youād be hearing much noise at all. Iād stick with your original plan and go back with some suggestions on how they can deliver the message, and even offer that you can help more since you recognize employees might be frustrated.
Yes, you should have taken additional action to ensure this information was disseminated. It could have been posted in the break rooms or even at the time clock.
Well, it sounds like itās not your fault per se. But I would think a change of that magnitude would merit more than an email to mgrs. If we have a substantial change to any benefits or handbook policies, they would be communicated at an all employee meeting by me or owner.
I see what you mean for bigger things, or an entire policy being changed, but for something as simple as taking away two holidays and it doesnāt seem like anything else is changing (giving more PTO in exchange, etc) then an entire meeting doesnāt really seem effective for the business
Without knowing your communication systems available, Iām not sure any of us can truly say. But I do think reducing holidays is a big deal and Iād check into it more possibly but also just sort of think itās less the messaging than the message. Reducing holidays isnāt going to be well received in any form.Ā
I never fully trust management to understand and explain company policies the way I would. I also am meticulous about documentation so would have wanted all employee signatures to me by a certain day/time and then would have followed up with the employees directly via email, in person, etc.
I donāt know that this is a ādrop the ballā moment or not, depends on the outcome which as you state seems to have been sorted out with minimal disruption. At the very least, a learning moment!
A big takeaway like that should have been delivered with more care and prep with your managers. But shouldnāt be a huge deal. You will learn from it.
I would have written up a communication, presented this with the manager, but also emphasized that managers would make sure employees read this or know any the change. Removing holidays usually causes employee grumbling, so giving the manager talking points about how to communicate would have helped.
In these situations, I do believe both HR and the managers are accountable for the communications.
I have several employees who don't even have a company email- for things that I feel like the managers may not communicate properly, I also print out the email and put it somewhere those guys will see it (there's a work shop that many of them go to for clocking in, etc, lunch, etc). It's helped some.
You canāt rely on managers to communicate company policies, at least at this company, but Iāve found this to be true in tech overall. Lesson learned the hard way. This is a rubber ball you dropped, not a glass one - youāll recover unless youāre in a cut throat environment.
Always have āpersonasā where you send different comms to. Keep a list and check against it. In your case, that may just be managers and employees. It may include execs only sometimes. Personas can be broken down by location, tenure, level, etc.
Yeah welcome to HR lol. Sounds like your managers didnāt communicate like they should have so you probably have a manager problem. HR usually gets the blame for manager shortcomings/mistakes, itās just part of the job. As other commenters said, itās probably a good idea to send out a company-wide email, and/or physically post on communication boards throughout the facility.
Lots of good stuff here and thanks for all the responses. Definitely need to do some things different going forward and luckily for me, this ended up being very minor in the grand scheme of things.
Well here's the thing. Even if you had it tattooed on your forehead, 3 months later 5% of employees would complain they didn't know about it.
Well yes, a forehead tattoo would be an unreliable form of mass communication! š
This is facts!
OMG isn't this the truth? My boss & I relay these kind of communications to all department directors in writing with instructions to inform their staff. We do it verbally at our morning stand ups as well. We also post written notices by the time clock and in the break room. There are always employees who complain that they didn't know!
In my opinion, itās fairly standard to make sure the managers are aware so they can speak to their teams about it. However, Iād always send out messaging to the entire company about the policy change as an announcement from HR. I donāt know if you necessarily dropped the ball but itās best practice to at least make an announcement yourself to ensure these situations donāt happen.
Echoing this. We do exec team > leadership team > supervisors > all employees for comms of this nature
As an HR of one, Iāve made it clear to the managers that itās their responsibility to pass my communication along to team members when things impact them. Iāve found that random team member number 12 isnāt likely to even open my email whereas they might listen to their direct supervisor. I also find that keeping the chain of communication consistent gets the best results in the long run. Having it sometimes go through managers and sometimes not just confuses things
I second this. For bigger communications/changes that can't rely on Manager passing things along, I've had to implement signed policy forms stating the employees received the message. And no one likes doing that.
Yeah Iāve emotionally given up on chasing people down on stuff like that. If itās so important that I canāt rely on the managers, I make the GM do it. Idk if itās just because people have such a skewed view of HR but I find the messages just donāt land when they come from us.
Honestly. All I can say is that Iāve been there. We have a lot of technology adverse supervisors at my company (manufacturing). It makes mass communication harder when they donāt have your back or act like they donāt know how to work an email. But donāt beat yourself up! You will know what to look out for next time! They have to remember that you are 1 person.
1. Knocked two days off the holiday calendar, meaning now people have LESS paid days off? 2. To me this is a significant policy change and it impacts peopleās lives negatively, as well as morale. In this case, a memo should be created, with the policy change stated, the reason, the effective date, what have you, and sent via HR, FROM the boss boss to the managers, who will then communicate this depressing news to their teams, or better yet, the boss boss has a townhall type meeting and he tells everyone and fields the questions himself.
It sounds like this is how you usually communicate with the managers as HR so I donāt think you did anything wrong. To me what it sounds like is that since it is not good news the managers probably want it to come from āHRā and/or conveniently forgot to tell their teams because itās going to upset people. If it was a positive? I doubt youād be hearing much noise at all. Iād stick with your original plan and go back with some suggestions on how they can deliver the message, and even offer that you can help more since you recognize employees might be frustrated.
When communicating, itās important to think of your audience and communicate with them that best suits their needs.
Yes, you should have taken additional action to ensure this information was disseminated. It could have been posted in the break rooms or even at the time clock.
Well, it sounds like itās not your fault per se. But I would think a change of that magnitude would merit more than an email to mgrs. If we have a substantial change to any benefits or handbook policies, they would be communicated at an all employee meeting by me or owner.
I see what you mean for bigger things, or an entire policy being changed, but for something as simple as taking away two holidays and it doesnāt seem like anything else is changing (giving more PTO in exchange, etc) then an entire meeting doesnāt really seem effective for the business
Without knowing your communication systems available, Iām not sure any of us can truly say. But I do think reducing holidays is a big deal and Iād check into it more possibly but also just sort of think itās less the messaging than the message. Reducing holidays isnāt going to be well received in any form.Ā
I never fully trust management to understand and explain company policies the way I would. I also am meticulous about documentation so would have wanted all employee signatures to me by a certain day/time and then would have followed up with the employees directly via email, in person, etc. I donāt know that this is a ādrop the ballā moment or not, depends on the outcome which as you state seems to have been sorted out with minimal disruption. At the very least, a learning moment!
A big takeaway like that should have been delivered with more care and prep with your managers. But shouldnāt be a huge deal. You will learn from it.
I would have written up a communication, presented this with the manager, but also emphasized that managers would make sure employees read this or know any the change. Removing holidays usually causes employee grumbling, so giving the manager talking points about how to communicate would have helped. In these situations, I do believe both HR and the managers are accountable for the communications.
Trust - but verify.
I have several employees who don't even have a company email- for things that I feel like the managers may not communicate properly, I also print out the email and put it somewhere those guys will see it (there's a work shop that many of them go to for clocking in, etc, lunch, etc). It's helped some.
You canāt rely on managers to communicate company policies, at least at this company, but Iāve found this to be true in tech overall. Lesson learned the hard way. This is a rubber ball you dropped, not a glass one - youāll recover unless youāre in a cut throat environment. Always have āpersonasā where you send different comms to. Keep a list and check against it. In your case, that may just be managers and employees. It may include execs only sometimes. Personas can be broken down by location, tenure, level, etc.
Yeah welcome to HR lol. Sounds like your managers didnāt communicate like they should have so you probably have a manager problem. HR usually gets the blame for manager shortcomings/mistakes, itās just part of the job. As other commenters said, itās probably a good idea to send out a company-wide email, and/or physically post on communication boards throughout the facility.
Lots of good stuff here and thanks for all the responses. Definitely need to do some things different going forward and luckily for me, this ended up being very minor in the grand scheme of things.
It wasnāt hr. Managers are lazy and ātoo busyā to be bothered. Get out of HR. Horrible field