Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
I am stuck. Our advisory firm is very professional with clients. But on days we do not have clients visiting we have a casual dress policy. Our guidelines are clear and most people adhere by wearing decent clothing.
Our new operations assistant does not seem to have read the memo. She comes in wearing the shortest shorts and midriff tops during the summer months and now that fall is upon us she is bringing out the jeans with more holes than material and the very tight sweaters. It is so unlike anyone else in the office. My worst fear was realized last week when a large client came in unexpectedly to drop off some documents in person and she was standing at the front desk talking to our receptionist. The client actually said to me, “You need to pay these people more so they can buy full sets of clothing.”
I’m a male leader and most of the other senior people in my office are men. We aren’t comfortable having a conversation with her about her clothing. The one woman who often takes care of HR-related things said she won’t touch this because this employee is new and she doesn’t want to cause a rift.
Should I write her an anonymous note? Or send her the part of our written guidelines that addresses dress code? Or just ignore it and hope over time she will notice that we all dress very differently (she has been here five months).
T.F.
Dear T.F.,
The one thing lacking in so many of the advisory firms I work with is the human resources (HR) function, including written ground rules for employees so they know what’s acceptable. You don’t say how large your firm is, but even a firm with as few as seven or eight people can benefit from having outsourced HR for situations like this.
Are the “guidelines” you refer to really clear? Do they spell out what is acceptable and what’s not? Leaders often believe they have clearly communicated something and everyone should know. But then I talk to team members and they are vague on exactly what’s acceptable and what’s not. As a first step, ask someone outside of the firm to read these guidelines and tell you their interpretation of them to make sure they are as clear and as specific as you believe them to be.
Next, I’m afraid as the leader you are going to have to have a conversation with this person. I don’t think ignoring it and hoping it will get better has ever been a good strategy in any situation concerning human behavior. Ignoring something is silent acceptance and it never works. The person you referred to who does HR work for you should have a formal title or should be given duties that are HR-related and not be asked to do ad hoc things so they can say “no” when they don’t want to do something so you might want to consider changing this arrangement too if she is qualified to handle HR duties. Have her research outsourced HR options that she could work with on situations like this to get the best support and advice. If it wasn’t her full-time role, the outsourced firm could perform most of the HR-related activities and she could manage the relationship.
But, for now, you are going to have to have the conversation. It is not only embarrassing in front of clients, but if you have an employee obviously breaking the rules and getting away with it, morale can suffer because others team members wonder why nothing is being done. I was just at an advisor client this week who lost two good people for this very reason. They had a team member who was regularly coming in late, leaving things undone when he left early and generally spending time on the internet when at the office. The leader of the firm is a nice guy and didn’t want to get into conflict but ultimately two other people left and claimed the reason was their frustration with the lack of accountability for this other employee. There are ripple effects when things are just left undone.
Call her into your office and shut the door. Have this other woman, who does some of the HR, present as a third party (and another female). She does not have to do anything but listen but she should be there, especially with a new employee.
If your guidelines are clear (and again, before you do this, confirm this with an objective outsider) then you can review those with her. Let her know that the culture of your firm and your clients does not allow for shorts shorter than the bottom of one’s fingers when the arms hang down, or shirts that show skin or pants that are ripped and torn.
If you need to put all of this in writing beforehand, make sure you do this. And if she is doing a good job otherwise, let her know this and let her know you are giving her this feedback because you want her to succeed.
This type of thing shouldn’t be allowed to go on for months because it does get harder the longer you go without addressing it. Once you have confirmed your guidelines are clear, act on this quickly.
Dear Bev,
We have a very casual office and clients rarely come see us. We do most of our work either at home or via technology. Our client base is pretty young (40s) and they don’t want to come see us unless they are in the area for some reason. As a result we have a lax environment where people can work together to manage hours, dress casually and even bring their dogs to work. I love dogs – I have three of my own.
But we have one employee who has a barking dog. This dog barks when the mail arrives, when she hears noises she doesn’t like and whenever she decides it is play time with another dog. We can’t have barking dogs when we are doing a WebEx or on the phone with clients. I’ve spoken to this advisor a few times and she points out that the policy says we can bring dogs and it doesn’t address the dog’s behavior.
I am left looking like a jerk if I rewrite the policy to say we can’t have barking dogs. But this causes disruption. Her owner points out that she does it sporadically and then stops but still it is happening more and more during important discussions.
N.H.
Dear N.H.,
The human resources dilemmas found even in the smallest advisory firms are always fascinating to me! Similar to the previous writer, I always recommend that even small firms with too few people to warrant a full-time HR person contact an outsourced HR firm to help with policy writing and putting clear guidelines in place.
Your advisor is correct. The policy probably isn’t clear on the barking dog but it would be assumed in most professional settings that this is unacceptable. However, one thing we learn with employees is that you can’t assume anything. Everything you care about should be in writing and should be clear and specific.
You have two choices – rewrite that policy and be clear about the acceptable behavior of the dogs who are able to come to work (you might consider paying an outside HR firm to help you write this so you can put blame on the outsider when you do this) and then publish this to everyone. Your advisor will know this is directed at her, but it also will hopefully avoid anyone else bringing in more barking dogs in the future.
Or, if you don’t want to be so formal, ask your advisor to find ways to quiet her dog. There are humane bark collars that spray citronella when a dog barks that work well, or a non-toxic spray like Pet Corrector you can find at any pet store or online, or removing the dog from the premises when important meetings are happening or there will be distractions or disruptions. You don’t have to tell her don’t bring the dog, but you can instruct her that she has to manage the dog like any responsible owner.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 