Dear Clients,
By now, most of us have processed the results of the election. A little more than half of our population is hopeful about policy and culture changes ahead. The other half is afraid for our democracy and anxious that we’re entering a dark period of U.S. history.
How do we proceed?
People are divided and disagree on foundational issues. For example, personal liberties, how people should view race, gender, national origin. Furthermore, what is reasonable for a social safety net in terms of social services and healthcare. Along with what people should expect from their government in terms of education, skills training, retirement and social security. Lastly, what people and companies should pay in taxes and at what amounts?
When people are this divided, focus on the basics we can control. As recommended in our recent People Leader Conference, center your workforce on your organization’s values. Be clear that teamwork, which incorporates respect and inclusion, is critical to achieving results and workplace civility.
Expect to see a wide range of behaviors. However, take time to understand those stem from anxieties which may be different than your own. Take extra time to consider each situation and demonstrate respect, kindness, and compassion for co-workers.
Anticipate What May Come
Social Media Incidents
Hopefully, you have already clearly articulated your social media policy – alerting your employees that disrespectful or hateful speech online can impact their employment. Expect to see more employees reporting inappropriate posts they see from co-workers. Also expect in-bound complaints. It is becoming more common for hateful comments to be brought to the perpetrator’s employer – sometimes directly to the HR team. Consider how you will investigate and remediate such an incident.
Protests
It’s likely in the near term that many people will want to show their opposition to government policies and broader social issues just like they did with the 2017 Women’s March, the 2020 protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and most recently, the college protests regarding the war in Gaza. Civic engagement and peaceful protests designed to shine a light on important issues are critical to a healthy, well functioning democracy. Those actions should be peaceful, respectful and should not target, attack or negatively impact people who have a different perspective. Conversely, people should not be disparaged or disrespected in any way for exercising their civic right to peacefully protest actions and policies they believe are detrimental to them personally and/or detrimental to society at large.
Diversity, Equity, SAFETY, and Inclusion
Expect marginalized populations to look to you, their employer, to make their workplace safe enough for them to do their job. Increased hateful rhetoric like “Your Body, My Choice” will cause women to reconsider working late in the office or by themselves in a warehouse or store when there are only men present. LGBTQIA+ employees will be looking for you to make sure they are safe and afforded basic dignity (restrooms) in their primary workplace, as well as when they travel on business to other states. People of color and people of certain religions will be looking for protection from hate speech and more blatant discrimination at work while worrying about their loved ones being exposed to hate in neighborhoods and schools. You may want to allocate more budget for health and safety in the workplace as some people feel increasingly vulnerable.
Enforce your Policies
Now is a critical time to enforce your policies. While emotion causes people to react and sparks bad behavior, lack of discipline and remediation will cause those behaviors to be considered acceptable and become normalized. Disrespectful, exclusionary behaviors drastically damage communication, collaboration, productivity, and innovation. All of which are essential to organizational performance and workplace civility.
- Use our updated Workplace Civility Message to be clear about your expectations for respectful inclusive behavior – and the disciplinary action.
- Ask Emtrain for help! Use our analytics to understand where you may have hidden risk. Request a free consultation with Emtrain’s employment lawyer, organization psychologist, or talent and culture strategist. They are available to talk through your risk scores, discuss specific incidents for discipline and remediation, and strategize preventative actions you can take now…
- Train all employees on the laws and behaviors expected in your workplace by using Emtrain’s Preventing Workplace Harassment course. Version 13 is set to be released in January. Brand new, written by Emtrain’s experts, it is designed for these extraordinary times.
