Your employees must work for you, not against you

All businesses, even those that rely mostly on online or digital support, would still have to deal with employees. And sometimes, managing their daily issues and concerns could be time-consuming and exhausting.

We asked our resource person, Alvin Alburo, who specializes in business law and labor law, for some practical advice on how to handle employee matters effectively.

He recommended coming up with an Employee Code of Conduct, with the following features:

•Clearly defined rules and regulations

In order to make sure that the employees would comply with the company’s Code of Conduct, it is important the rules are clearly written. The kind of behavior and character that the company expects from its employees must be provided clearly.

Of course, the rules must not be unreasonable, say bathroom breaks are allowed only once in the morning and once in the afternoon. It must be grounded on the laws of the land and must not violate basic human rights. After all, your employees are supposed to be working for you, not against you.

The rules must have no room for ambiguity, otherwise, some employees will use whatever excuse they can come up with just so they can get away from disciplinary actions. The Code must specify the violations, the gravity or severity of this violation, and the consequences of its commission.

•Discuss the Employee Code of Conduct with the employees

Fostering good communication with employees is very important because it ensures productivity and allows the company to operate effectively. The company must not just distribute it without telling the employees its relevance in the workplace.

Employees must understand well that any violation would merit a disciplinary action. They need to know that the company is serious and expects employees to abide by it.

•Uniform implementation

In order to ensure compliance with the Code of Conduct, there must be a uniform implementation. The same rules would apply regardless of the length of stay in the company, academic achievement, or worse, closeness or friendship with the superior.

In fact, there are no grounds that should excuse noncompliance. If the superiors are too friendly with their subordinates, there are chances they might start taking undue advantage of the friendship. This might be taken as an excuse not to comply with the rules and not to respect the superior. The effect? It would affect the morale of the rest of the employees and would encourage them not to follow the Code of Coduct. Why would they follow it if a certain someone gets away with it just because he/she is close with the supervisor?

Alburo will be facilitating a course titled “Practical Labor Relations: Useful Advice and Tips on Employee Discipline” on July 25, 2019, to be held in Inquirer Academy.

The Inquirer Academy is located at 4168 Don Chino Roces Ave. corner Ponte St., Makati City. For more information about the workshop or if you would like to add your inputs to the article, you may e-mail [email protected], call (632) 834-1557 or 771-2715 and look for Jerald Miguel or Karl Paz. You may also visit www.inquireracademy.com or our Facebook page.