Example conversation with Staff & HR
You
One of my engineers has been turning up late and the quality has slipped. It has been about two months. I have mentioned it twice in passing.
Staff & HR
Two months of in passing is the risk here, not the lateness.
If this ends badly, you will be asked what you told them, when, and what you agreed. In passing does not survive that question.
Do this week:
1. A real conversation, scheduled. Not on site, not at the van. Fifteen minutes, sitting down.
2. Be specific about behaviour. Late on 3, 9 and 14 September. Two callbacks on the Henderson job. Not you have a bad attitude.
3. Ask what is going on. Two months of change usually has a cause, and it is often something you can fix cheaply.
4. Agree what changes and by when, then email them a short summary that day. Not a warning. A record.
5. Follow it up on that date. Not following up is what makes any later step look unfair.
If it does not improve, you now have a documented conversation and a missed agreement, which is where a formal process should start rather than where it panics.
If this ends badly, you will be asked what you told them, when, and what you agreed. In passing does not survive that question.
Do this week:
1. A real conversation, scheduled. Not on site, not at the van. Fifteen minutes, sitting down.
2. Be specific about behaviour. Late on 3, 9 and 14 September. Two callbacks on the Henderson job. Not you have a bad attitude.
3. Ask what is going on. Two months of change usually has a cause, and it is often something you can fix cheaply.
4. Agree what changes and by when, then email them a short summary that day. Not a warning. A record.
5. Follow it up on that date. Not following up is what makes any later step look unfair.
If it does not improve, you now have a documented conversation and a missed agreement, which is where a formal process should start rather than where it panics.
Five steps, in order, that also happen to protect you if it goes wrong.
- Have the conversation early.Not at the point you have already decided.
- Be specific about behaviour, not character.What happened, when, and what should have happened instead.
- Agree what changes and by when.Then write down what you both agreed.
- Follow it up on that date.Not following up is what makes the next step unfair.
If it looks like it could end in a dispute, bring LEO in alongside GRACE early rather than at the end.
Paste this to GRACE
Someone on my team is [describe the problem specifically]. It has been going on [how long] and I have said [what you have said so far]. Walk me through handling this properly, step by step.
Try it on your business
Every lesson ends with a question to hand to a Greymill specialist, who answers with what it knows about your business.
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