Sometimes I wonder what CEOs think happens to people who leave their company in disgust.
Where do they think those employees go? They go straight into the arms of your competitors.
They work for your competitor and they call their friends at your company and say "Hey, the grass is a lot greener over here!"
I know because I loved to hire employees who had friends back at their old workplaces. We gave them bonuses to bring their friends to work with us, but they told us that they would have recruited their friends even without the bonus. A great working environment is your best recruiting pitch, and of course a great work atmosphere makes your company more profitable, too.
There's no reason to have awful, talent-repelling HR policies in place, and I say that as a former Fortune 500 HR chief. Any policy that smacks of Big Brother-ism or that sends the message "We treat our employees like children, or inmates" cannot help your company in any way, but it certainly help your competitors.
At U.S. Robotics we had a tough time competing against Cisco when we were paying people $125K for jobs that Cisco paid $200K for. We lost some excellent employees, but our products didn't have the sky-high margins that Cisco's products had. We had to be creative to keep people on board, and so we got creative.
USR had always been a great place to work, but we spent more and more of our time and energy talking about the environment, opportunities for advancement and the general tone and tenor of our shop. That is what you have to do if you want to keep great people on board.
Above all, you can't hem in your employees with old-fashioned rules and policies that insult the talented adults who work alongside you. Here are 10 talent-repelling HR policies that have no function in a modern workplace.
If you have any of these awful policies still hanging around, start talking about it at your organization.
Sound the alarm! These policies will drive your best employees straight to your competitors. Get rid of them now!
No References Policy
If you don't let your managers give references for former employees because you don't trust your managers not to slime people, why are they managers in the first place? Your former colleagues deserve references from their managers, period. It is unethical and unprofessional to withhold them.
No Casual Time Off Policy
Salaried employees don't stop working when they walk out the door. Don't treat them like chain gang members by refusing to let them leave work an hour early or arrive an hour late when they have personal business. We entered the Knowledge Economy at least twenty-five years ago. Step into it!
We're Stealing Your Miles Policy
Employees whose tushes sit in airline seats deserve the frequent flyer miles their trips accrue. Those hard-earned miles belong to your employees, not to you. If you can't afford to fly people to places you need them to be, shut the doors and sell the assets - you are done.
Prove Your Grandma Died Policy
If you require your employees to provide written proof of a family member's death in order to receive a few days' paid time off, you have no business holding a leadership position. If you don't trust your employees, do you trust yourself to hire people you trust? One would have to conclude that you don't. Learn to trust yourself and other people, or get out of management.
Catholic School Dress Code Policy
The more specific a dress code is, the more uptight and weenified your culture is. The best dress code policy is the one that says "Dress professionally for work, and if you're on the fence about a particular outfit, err on the side of caution and wear something else."
Bell Curve Performance Review Policy
If you believe that your managers must have hired and kept only twenty percent awesome people and twenty percent above-average performers, meaning that sixty percent of the people on your payroll shouldn't even be there, you will make it true. If you don't trust your managers to evaluate people honestly there are folks who will happily buy your company from you and run it like a business.
Restrictive Internal Transfer Policy
An employee can quit at any time and go work for your fiercest competitor. They don't need your approval to do that. Why would you let an employee's current manager decide when and whether the employee can transfer into a new position internally? Requiring a manager's approval on internal employee moves is a great way to drive your best people out the door.
You Quit, You Suck Policy
If you are so freaked out about an employee leaving you to go to a competitor that you'd walk your formerly-trusted employee out the door the minute s/he gives notice, you are a fearful weenie with a serious problem. I have said a friendly good-bye with hugs and sometimes tears to many people who went to my company's competitors, and not one of them took anything confidential with them or screwed us in any way.
Why would they, since we were all friends? When you mistrust your employees and show it, expect to be mistrusted back.
Clock Out For Lunch Policy
Salaried people should not clock in and out of the building for lunch. What sick mind came up with that idea?
Stack Ranking Policy
If there is stack ranking (sometimes called forced ranking) going on anywhere in your organization, get rid of the practice this week! It is a heinous anti-leadership process that has no business benefit whatsoever and does tremendous harm to the fabric of your organization. People are not pieces of lumber to be stacked up and compared to one another. Teamwork is something you have to earn, and you won't do that by pitting team members against one another.