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Finding ways to effectively manage employee expectations can be the bane of management’s existence. You hire people thinking they’ll know what to do and how to act, and they take the job thinking they know what to do and how to act, and then all of a sudden, there’s a problem.
Emotions start running high on both sides of the desk, it’s frustrating and a huge management headache. So, how do you bridge the gap between what you think and what they think? How do you effectively manage employee expectations and align them with your business goals and company culture?
It sounds like a really tall order, but with the right system, it’s easier than you think, and today’s guests have some proven techniques to help you do exactly that.
What You’ll Discover About How to Manage Employee Expectations:
* Why being casual about internal decision making processes can get entrepreneurs into trouble when trying to manage employee expectations.
* How creating structure to manage employee expectations doesn’t need to be bureaucratic.
* Why human resource software packages claiming to manage employee expectations need practical tweaks to be more effective for your business.
* How the inability to realistically manage employee expectations can create liability exposure for entrepreneurs.
* And MUCH more.
Guests: Mimi Soule, Esq. and Rob Wood, Esq.
Mimi E. Soule left the traditional employment litigation practice and established Soule Employment Law Firm to focus on providing business owners and managers with practical advice to help avoid costly litigation.
She now focuses her practice on providing employment law and human resources compliance advice, preparing employment-related contracts, defending employers against administrative claims, and – most importantly – developing customized internal management systems and procedures, with built-in legal compliance, that help small businesses effectively manage staff and avoid disruptive performance management headaches and legal claims.
Rob N. Wood is responsible for the strategic management and development of Soule Employment Law Firm. He oversees all financial and operational areas and ensures that the firm delivers the highest level of service to its clients and partners.
Previously, Rob was founder of Wood Legal PLLC and Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of National Power, LLC. He has deep experience working with small and high-growth businesses and is committed to helping them navigate legal and operational issues confidently.
Given his extensive operational experience, Rob also partners with Mimi and our clients to develop customized internal management and operations systems and processes that help small businesses effectively manage staff and improve performance.
Related Resources:
If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Risk Management and Law episodes.
Contact Mimi and Rob and connect with them through the firm’s LinkedIn page.
Also check out the great information on the Soule Employment Law Firm website.
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REDUCE MANAGEMENT HEADACHES WITH PROVEN TECHCNIQUES TO BETTER MANAGE EMPLOYEE EXPECTATIONS
Finding ways to effectively manage employee expectations can be the bane of management’s existence. You hire people thinking they’ll know what to do and how to act, and they take the job thinking they know what to do and how to act, and then all of a sudden, there’s a problem.
Emotions start running high on both sides of the desk, it’s frustrating and a huge management headache. So, how do you bridge the gap between what you think and what they think? How do you effectively manage employee expectations and align them with your business goals and company culture?
It sounds like a really tall order, but with the right system, it’s easier than you think, and today’s guests have some proven techniques to help you do exactly that. So, stay tuned.
This is Business Confidential Now with Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, helping you see business issues hiding in plain view that matter to your bottom line.
Welcome to Business Confidential Now, the podcast for smart executives, managers, and entrepreneurs looking to improve business performance and their bottom line.
I’m your host, Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, and I have two amazing guests for you today. The first is employment lawyer, Mimi Soule. Mimi left a traditional big law employment litigation practice and founded the Soule Employment Law Firm, with an eye toward helping business owners and managers with practical advice to help them avoid litigation.
Mimi is joined today by Rob Wood, another attorney in her firm who’s responsible for strategic management and development. Rob has deep experience in working with small- and high-growth businesses, and together with Mimi, helps clients tweak their processes in practical ways to help them manage staff more effectively, improve business performance, and avoid those costly headaches.
Now, I know it sounds weird to some listeners for lawyers to be interested in the front end of your business instead of fixing problems after the fact, but that is exactly what makes their techniques so powerful and valuable. Because being proactive is what gives you, the business owner, the manager, more control over your business and your people issues, dealing with them while they’re small, less expensive, and maybe even sidestepping them altogether.
So, let’s find out how to do this. Welcome to Business Confidential now, Mimi and Rob.
Thrilled to be here, Hannah. Thanks for having us.
Yeah, thank you so much. Very excited to be here.
Well, I’m really interested in your approach to these employment issues. Entrepreneurs, especially in those early days of their business, the early stages, take a more casual approach to people management, and frankly, I’ve seen big companies do it too. It’s kind of scary, because they put out fires on an ad hoc basis as it comes along, but it gives everybody heartburn.
So Mimi, what are your thoughts about that? How can they be better about managing employee expectations?
Well, I think it’s very common that entrepreneurs start out on a very casual basis. Typically a group of folks that all have a great idea, all sitting in a room together. You don’t need a lot of internal process or procedure to get things done and to move the
business forward.
But as you grow and you build your team, it’s much harder to do that and manage that, make sure people are doing what you need them to do and understand what you need them to do without doing a little proactive homework, coming up with some internal process on how you want your team to do their job, and how you want your supervisor’s managers to manage your team.
Well, that makes sense, but it also sounds a little scary. I’m putting myself in the entrepreneur’s shoes right now and I’m like, “Oh my god, this sounds like bureaucracy.” If we want to kind of keep it minimalist but still effective – I mean, I don’t want to cut corners just for the sake of it. What are some basic things that a small and mid-sized business should have in place?
Well, I know small businesses hate it when we use these terms, but typically, we advise a certain key set of internal policy and a job description. When we say key internal policies, we are not talking about a 400-page handbook.
What we’re talking about are those key things that you need everybody to understand that works in your business, and the specific procedures that you want them to follow so that you’re not getting gummed up, and getting work done. Everybody understands, they’re on the same page, and we’re all following along the same internal process.
Well, that’s all well and good. I understand that there are software packages that’s kind of like human resources in a box, and all you have to do is plug that in. So, I’m sure they have policies. Can’t we just have people read them and check off the box? “Yes, I agree to comply,” everything is hunky-dory?
Yeah, I would say those – a lot of the software packages are very useful for setting for having a system that everybody uses. So, it is it’s consistent for the employee experience that everybody uses that system. However, the details of policies that might be embedded in those systems are typically one-size-fits-all, or way too complicated or convoluted for the particular business at issue.
So, that’s if you have a group of entrepreneurs that values flexibility and being able to have a tailored approach, then you wouldn’t want to use any of the preloaded things
that are in those systems, you would want to have them customized for you like any other type of software that they would be using for their business.
People think of it as somehow different or strange compared to things they’re more comfortable with like contracts, but really, when you think about employee handbooks, job offers, and different things like that, they’re very similar to contracts. It’s like your master services contract for your employees. It sets all the terms, it’s tailored to your business, and it provides a framework in which everybody understands how it’s going to work.
And if you look at it like that, it makes more sense for why it says what it says. And if you get educated on how that works, just like you would on your contract, it’s much easier to manage your workforce as you decide to scale from that initial group.
Well, I understand what you’re saying, but I would imagine that there are some people who are like, “You know, I don’t like this policy stuff, Rob, because I need flexibility.” What would you say to those managers?
I would say the flexibility is what you build into the system that you have. So, you have a policy, say, of non-discrimination, different kinds of things like that, which A, you know, the people you’re trying to attract to the business, want to see. They want to see that you’re committed to these kinds of things.
And by understanding what that means, for instance, and how you address it, you’re able to very flexibly and rationally deal with any sort of complaint. And the key thing with anything in employment law, just like in contracts, just like working with business partners, is early identification and resolution. So, if you have these things built into your system, you’re able to identify when things are going wrong earlier, you’re able to find out what happened and resolve them quicker.
In business relationships, the third parties, just like with business relationships with employees, the longer something goes on, the more it will fester and turn into a much bigger problem. So, all of these frameworks, so they’re – or documents provide a framework that’s able to allow you to get things back on track a lot quicker.
How is somebody supposed to know when things are really going off the rails? You know? That’s the difference between a minor annoyance and “Uh-oh, we really got to call in some other professionals to help us with this, because it’s just – it’s gone too far.” Are there some flags?
Well, one thing I would just think is you have this core group that comes up with an idea, but at some point you decide that to fully develop your idea, you’re going to have to scale past that initial group. So, you need to make a determination of who you want and why you’re doing that. And at that point, when you create the handbook at that point, you get the education from the person who creates it for you, to understand how it all works and how it sits together.
Once you understand how it fits together, it’s a lot easier for you to be able to identify those big things that might be getting off the rails, which Mimi has lots of experience on that, can kind of speak to the ones that employers would need to be extra mindful of.
Well, Mimi, maybe you could help clarify. It sounds like there could be opportunities where an employer gets ahead of themselves on a certain policy. Because you probably get the calls that say, “Mimi, I have an employee problem, and I want to fire them. Can I do that?” Which triggers a whole bunch of things in your mind as an attorney, but what could tie something like that up properly? You know? What’s an example of how an employer gets ahead of themselves without the proper system in place?
I think the most common scenario is a lot of these businesses will use one of these hand policies or handbooks, and they have everybody sign off on them, and then the handbook goes on a shelf or in a folder, and no one ever thinks about it or uses it again. [Laughter] And so if the policies aren’t actually – if no one understands how to implement the policies, then they’re useless.
So, where employers – especially when we get calls, where employers get ahead of themselves is most of these policies, they’ll have everybody sign, and then no one, in terms of the management team, knows how to implement.
So, a good example of that is a simple disciplinary policy. Almost every handbook that you see has something called a progressive discipline policy. And the policy basically says, “First, we want our managers to do a verbal, then a written, then a performance improvement plan, a suspension, and then a termination.” But none of the managers
really know when to do those things.
So, there’s no clear internal process on when the business should issue a retraining versus a verbal warning, or when the business should or the manager should issue a verbal versus a written. And then there’s no internal process on how we document each of those steps in the process. So, by the time it gets to us, there’s no internal process on how you implement. So, there is no documentation or good documentation.
So, I’m in the unfortunate seat of telling most of these businesses that call in, “Well, if you go ahead and terminate, or if you move forward in the direction that you want to, there is significant liability exposure.” [Audio Gap] they’re in a position where now, they don’t have the right people on the team. And so, the end result is the business goals aren’t being met, the team is off.
And so, it has a bigger impact, I think, on businesses being able to move their goals forward and actually run their business the way they need it to run.
All right. Well, that’s definitely not something any business owner interested in scaling wants. And even if they don’t want to scale, they just want to keep things
running smoothly. It’s not a good thing. So, let me back up for a second. We know that there are some of these software packages, right? Policies in a can, if you will.
If I’m an entrepreneur that doesn’t really have policies, I kind of know what they are in my head but I’m not good at explaining them, and I think, “Oh, good, software. I could do that.” What would they be looking for in a reasonable package that isn’t going to be a Rolls-Royce, but can cover the basic functions? What should they be checking out? Rob?
I think a system that allows you to have all of your employment documents loaded in for review and acknowledgement would be a key piece. That way, it’s there for everybody, and when you change something, you can push it out to your entire workforce, and you can track who has signed off on it or not.
And you have that documentation, at least of that, and a repository to be able to upload documentation as you produce it in the course of the employment relationship. And then, the other thing is payroll – I mean, sometimes these are all included together, sometimes they’re separate, but it’s nice to have a payroll system that keeps all of that on track for you. And I think, Mimi, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think those systems are typically stronger on the payroll side. Right? Like, they have that compliance on the payroll side built in, and that’s kind of where they came from. That’s kind of how they were developed, and then they sort of – as they did that well, they added on as many things as they could to cover as much as they could for the employment relationship. So, I think while that piece of it is great and something that probably works for almost all businesses, you know, and it’s fantastic, it’s just making sure that you’re not necessarily using all of that built-in functionality that’s not tailored to your business.
I wanted to add one additional great thing to look for in those systems is whether the policies that it creates are tailored to the specific state where your employees are located. So, those laws are going to change state by state.
And so, a lot of these generic handbooks that are provided by these programs and software systems, all of the policies will have language in it, and at the end of the policy, it will state something to the effect of “Unless otherwise required by law.” And so the question is, you as the business need to know what is authorized by law in order to implement that policy correctly.
So, one thing to look for is whether those policies are custom – or can be customized for the state law and state requirements where the employees are actually working.
That’s a great point, because even payroll can differ from state to state. For example, when the last paycheck has to be issued. I think that’s a really important factor, this customization piece. Now, when it comes to tweaking, what kind of tweaks are important? What kind of techniques really make these more customized that don’t turn them into Rolls-Royces, but can be more user friendly for the entrepreneurs?
You know, these are business policies. Very little is actually required by law, and yet, they’re all written the same as if they were, as if they’re statutory language. So, I think the first thing is to write it in plain English in a way that they’re really truly a tool for everybody in the business, including the owners.
So, if the owner doesn’t really understand employment law, and it’s probably a poor use of their time to become an expert in employment law as opposed to software development or plumbing or whatever they’re good at, what you do is you build that all into the handbook. So, all they need to do is under – be able to understand what’s written there and follow it.
So, a good customized handbook is written for both the managers and the employees. The employees understand what it says, the managers can follow what they’re supposed to do. And if it’s up to date on the latest changes, which we usually just recommend you do that annually, to build in any changes, and it’s written in plain English, then everybody goes to there, the employees can go there to understand the expectations, and the managers can go there to know how to follow particular
issues as they arise.
In your experience, Mimi, what seemed to be the most common types of issues that arise, that these standard types of handbook-in-a-software package don’t address very well?
I think one that’s come up quite a bit, especially in the last few years, is how to manage a remote workforce. Within our client base, we’ve got probably around a thousand small businesses, and pre-pandemic, hiring out of state wasn’t as common as it is now.
And so, I think where a lot of these handbooks miss the mark is they don’t give the employer the information to know when additional laws might apply, or when changes to policy really need to take place because the employee they’re hiring is in a different location. So, I think that’s one of the key things that’s often missing in these handbooks.
Yeah, and to jump in on that, you know, remote work is becoming, or is maybe already the norm and something you would need to – almost all businesses need to do. It’s a competitive advantage, or just if you want to attract the right talent, you have to have it.
So, you’re trying to build this system of remote work, which is very much a business system of figuring out what technology do you need and how are you going to manage people and all that stuff, but it also comes with these legal implications. So, you want to do that all at the same time. So you know, you design a system that works as effectively as it can for your business.
That’s a great point, because remote work isn’t going away. To one degree or another, it is here to stay. Some people want to be 100%, somebody want a hybrid. And so, those are definitely things that policies need to take into account.
I’m just concerned that some people listening might think, “Oh my god, this sounds so bureaucratic. I used to work for a big company, this is what I wanted to get away from.” Why is it so important to have some type of handbook? Why does it matter?
Well, I’d say it’s not important to just have a handbook, it’s important to have a one that’s really tailored to your business. And if you have that, then I think it provides the foundation in which you can grow your business. And so, rather than looking at a bureaucracy, I would look at it as your best chance to avoid bureaucracy. It allows you to build a flexible foundation for hiring and collaborating and working with people that doesn’t have to get out of hand.
I think where things just roll and roll and then bureaucracy comes flying in on after the fact is because it has snowballed into such a mess sometimes. And there’s like a reaction a lot of times to put in more and more bureaucracy. Whereas what you want to do is kind of early on, create this flexible framework for hiring and working with people that then you can build on top of as you grow, and avoid any kind of clunkiness that comes with bureaucracy, which I think bureaucracy is typically having – don’t apply that are red tape, and having people who are administering them not really understand how they work.
And that’s where I think a lot of times HR gets a bad rap, because they’re sort of stuck with that situation.
In terms of having managers or business owners become familiar with the policies that would really benefit their organization, what’s the best way for them to develop that know-how, that knowledge?
I think that’s a great question, because part of being a manager, you have to have a working knowledge of these laws and policies, not necessarily the laws specific to themselves, but the policies that have been developed to ensure compliance with those laws.
And so, I would definitely make that part of your expectations of anyone you put in a management position, that they will educate themselves and get comfortable with that, which is, there’s no shortage of training resources out there, cheap ones, free ones. They can train managers on how these things work. And then, you train them also on the specific policies that you have, and what they mean, and how you want them to work.
So, I think that is the – is very key, and without doing that – well, I’d say the manager is your representative. So, anything the manager does is as if the business itself did it. And so, you want your managers to understand what they are supposed to do, what they’re allowed to do, how they manage different issues, like poor performance.
What does poor performance mean? How do you address that? How do you address it early? And I wouldn’t look at – again, not looking at that as bureaucracy, but looking at it as a core management competency that you want to train them up on, and then you also want to see them develop it. You want for your business to be successful, it’s going to be on the basis of your managers and your employees getting better and better at these things.
Mimi, your thoughts?
I think that one of the key reasons that a lot of entrepreneurs and small businesses don’t succeed is because they don’t know how to manage a team. And so, I think having some sort of basic education and coaching on at least a few key procedures is what you want in place.
You don’t necessarily need, like I said before, a 200-page handbook and a multi-day training session on how to implement it, but there are key policies that are imperative to growing your business. How do you onboard? How do you determine who to hire? And then two, how do you manage their performance and document that management?
And three, how do you offboard people effectively to avoid legal claims? So, if you can have policies in place on those three systems or people management procedures, and then you train your management team on those key things, then I think you’re setting yourself up and your business up to really be successful, to achieve your own business goals and to grow the business.
Well, that just kind of wraps it up, right? I mean, you’re talking about the hiring process, the onboarding process, documenting performance, or a nonperformance, right? If you want to bring people back and put the guardrails in place, and then the offboarding. So, that’s kind of like the employment life cycle, if you will, in a nutshell. And any other policies would really be frosting on the cake? Yes? No?
Absolutely. I think you hit the nail on the head that you want to focus on that employee life cycle, that employment life cycle, and you want to get really comfortable with that. And you can add the other policies on top of that. Typically, we obviously talk to a lot of clients, and we drew when we were drilling down, on the issue at hand.
It almost always comes down to one of those key things. And that’s how we got into doing more of the consulting work, is specifically to help people put these things in place so that these very, very common issues don’t keep happening.
So, basically, you help people with some of these software systems that they have in order to help tailor them and make it more meaningful for their business? Is that right?
Exactly. We – I mean, where they’re – well, usually, as everything you say, the combination of software, actual management practices, certain documents like handbooks and things.
But it’s pulling that all together into a system, like we say, as simple as possible, and a flexible system that does cover those big life cycle events, and provides starting point that can then be something that you’d see a business refine over time and get better and better at, and then put them in a really good position to expand their benefits or expand flexible working arrangements or all different kinds of things so that it’s much easier to make that employee experience better and better if you’re starting from that strong foundation.
Mimi, what do you think is the most important thing managers need to know about managing employee expectations?
I think it’s honestly just making it as simple as possible on what they want the employee to do. I mean, honestly, we get a lot of calls, and people or managers want to jump to some form of discipline, whether it’s a performance improvement plan or a written warning, or they want to usually just terminate. And the first question we ask is, “Did the employee understand what you needed them to do?” And often, we hear crickets.
And so, the key piece to me is for managers, do you have a training or a program that you require all employees to go through so they fully understand not just what you want them to do, but how you want them to do it? If you’ve trained them on something and they keep not doing it the way you want them to do it, did you try teaching them a different way?
So, I think the key piece to people management is making sure that they fully understand what you want them to do and how you want them to do it.
So, it boils down to communication, and the handbook or the policies are just another way to get the message across.
Exactly. And I think, you know, you’re seeing a lot of businesses these days in the environments that they’re in, trying to hone their processes, hone how they do business, improve their processes so that they get better and better at it. So, this would go along with that. As you’re doing that work, you’re making sure that it’s consistent with your system, your people management system.
So, this is really providing the teeth, if you will, and the processes in which to hold people accountable to those processes that you’ve worked hard to hone and refine.
Accountability, that’s a great point. What I’m hearing between the lines with respect to accountability, that it’s not just accountability for the purpose of punishment, but also accountability to say, “Here’s how we do it right. These are sort of our guardrails, our guidelines.”
Exactly. Yes. Accountability that we are following our processes that we think is going to put us in the best chance to be successful in the business. Accountability to our teammates. You know, to design a good process, you sort of figure out what everybody is going to be doing and how they’re going to do it. And when they’re going to follow a standard process, when they’re going to collaborate, you want them to collaborate in a collegial manner and all these types of things.
So, all of these policies are just meant to support that working relationship amongst colleagues, between workers and managers, between managers and workers in the business as a whole.
Anything else you care to add, Mimi?
I was going to just clarify that, you know, I think your statement earlier about, you know, it’s all about communicating effectively with your employees, I think that’s it. Figure out how you want as a business, figure out how you want to communicate with your employees first, how you want to manage your team, and then figure out the tools you need to implement that.
For some of you, it will be an employee – a full employee handbook as a tool to communicate your process or your policy. For others of you, it won’t be a full handbook, it will be a set of three or four key policies. So, first, figure out how you want to communicate, and then you figure out the tools that you need in order to make that successful. And a handbook is just one of those, job description is one of those.
An online HR system is one of them, or a web-based HR system is one of those. So, exactly, all those things facilitate that good communication that is the communication you want to see in your business.
Excellent. Well, this has been terrific. Mimi, Rob, thank you so much for joining me today.
I appreciate your time and all the really important work that you do to help businesses improve accountability in their employer-employee relationship with these tips about how to manage employee expectations. It not only provides the guardrails to protect and increase performance, but fosters more legal compliance, avoids those nasty expensive lawsuits, and allows, really, the business to move forward faster when they’re compelled to make that call and say, “Mimi, I got an employee problem here.” [Laughter]
So, if you’re listening and you’d like to know more information about Mimi Soule, Rob Wood, and the Soule Employment Law Firm, that information, as well as a transcript of this interview can be found in the show notes at businessconfidentialradio.com.
Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure to tell your friends about the show and leave a positive review. We’ll be back in two weeks with another episode of Business Confidential Now. So, until then, have a great day and an even better tomorrow.
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