Defusing Disasters

Eliminating three common workplace time bombs before they go off

 By Elaine Varelas

We’ve all seen a bomb squad on the news, in film or television. The highly trained team, dressed in full protective gear, rushes in and must defuse a bomb with only minutes on the clock by snipping the red wire. It’s a high-anxiety situation and a wrong move can cause a massive explosion.

But what about the ticking time bombs at work? There are issues at every organization that may be getting bigger and more dangerous by the day—if they are not defused. While it may be tempting to ignore these problems and hope they go away, they are just as likely to detonate. HR managers need to strap on the combat regalia and tackle these bombs head-on before they blow up and leave the organization vulnerable.

These following three situations may seem harmless on the surface but if not addressed, these bombs will surely go off.

Scenario: Losing an MVP

Almost every organization has at least one MVP. He or she, likely a senior executive, is the “go to” person for the most important projects and problems. These are the folks who can make things happen—and they have a massive workload to show for it. Like a rubber band, these people can stretch incredibly far, but eventually they will break.

Do a risk assessment—MVPs at their organization are doing such stellar jobs that HR and executive management don’t really want to think about what would happen if they left but you can’t bury your head in the sand. You need to find out who the MVPs are, the worst-case scenario if they left, what preventive measures can be taken to keep it from happening and how you help your organization rebound if it happens.

Check in—The best way to get answers to these questions is to ask the MVPs. Take their temperature to see how things are going and whether they are satisfied with their jobs, their performance and the organization.

Ask difficult questions—When checking in with your star players, don’t just gloss over your intent with a quick, “How’s everything going?” Dig deeper, state the obvious and ask the hard questions. Most over-achievers won’t admit they are overwhelmed without some prompting. For example, say, “I see that you’re working long hours, your commute is atrocious, and you’re traveling quite a bit. Are you getting burned out? Is the job taking a toll on your personal life? What can we do to ease some of your burden?”

Have realistic suggestions—While it is admirable to ask your MVPs what you can do to help, you need to offer some suggestions on creating a more manageable workload. Can you realistically reduce the travel schedule or delegate some responsibilities to another member of the team? Can the company begin to develop a colleague to assume some of the job?

Avoiding these won’t make it go away. If you notice that your MVPs are pulling double duty, they already know it, too. And they are talking about it—just not with you.

Scenario: Poor Succession Planning

Now that your MVPs are secured, what about other leaders in the organization? How prepared will your company be if people leave (or get hit by the proverbial bus)? Many businesses have an emergency preparedness plan in case of a natural disaster but don’t bother with an HR disaster strategy. People retire, take other jobs, move away and experience illness or personal tragedy. There are many reasons why employees might leave an organization on short notice.

Get a plan—The organization as a whole, as well as each department, should have a plan in place if the No. 1 person can no longer work. Who will be in charge? Where are the important files? What are the pressing issues facing the team? Where will you recruit?

Source contractors—Organizations that sucessfully succession plan keep a current list of alumni who could fill in as consultants on an interim basis. They also keep a fresh networking list from vendors and competitors in case they need to back-fill for positions.

As with most disaster plans, hopefully you will never have to use them. But having a succession plan in place will get the company over the short-term hump and focus on the long-term success of the business.

Scenario: Letting integrity issues slide

We’ve all read about major corporate screw-ups, like Enron, in the papers. These cases are black and white: the leadership deceived and cheated their investors, employees and customers. Most likely, your organization is not participating in such blatant indiscretions. But even small infractions can lead an organization down a slippery slope. In fact, it is the gray areas—little white lies, short-changing customers—that cast doubt on a company’s integrity.

Putting ethics on the table—HR managers don’t have to be the conscience of the organization, but they should create the forum for leaders to have these important discussions. It needs to start at the top and work its way down through the organization. Managers and leaders should treat the business, each other, all employees, vendors and clients with courtesy and respect.

There are many other examples of organizational catastrophe. By strapping on the appropriate gear and defusing these bombs before they explode, HR managers can keep these work time bombs from wreaking havoc in the organization.

Elaine Varelas is managing partner at Camden Consulting Group, a division of Keystone Partners and a provider of integrated talent management solutions for organizational and leadership development.