HR Can Be the Company Champion

Human Resources can be the company’s champion by decreasing company costs. One sure-fire way to reduce company costs is to have a solid, well communicated, and enforced anti-workplace bullying policy.

Here is a basic outline for creating a policy:

1. Enlist support of upper managers and administration.
2. Use HR’s bountiful access to personnel records to compile data on the
a. Number of voluntary and involuntary departures
b. Reasons for voluntary and involuntary departures
c. Cost of recruiting and selecting replacements
d. Cost of training replacements, including loss in productivity of
co-workers who assist new-hires or whose work reaches a bottleneck due to slower productivity when new-hires come on board.
e. Does a particular unit/department have significantly more absences than others?
3. Create an anti-bullying policy for the company that meets with administration approval.
4. Communicate the policy to all levels of the organization making sure it is clearly stated and accessible to all employees. Post it in the break room, so everyone knows what bullying is and how to report it.
5. ENFORCE the policy.

If your organization already has a policy, review it to determine whether it adheres to the Healthy Workplace Bill.

In time workplace bullying will be illegal. Now is the time to create your policy and be ready for the law.