Has this ever happened to you? You promote someone you believe to be the most deserving person in your organization. Most supervisors might agree with you but soon you find out the entire staff is upset. One person even files a discrimination complaint against you.
Managers must change an environment where employees feel the need to file complaints even when they believe they've been fair. But how?
The selection process is hard work. It is time-consuming and tedious. Many managers believe interviewing is a simple process-just a part of managing at which they are automatically proficient. This belief creates an environment of distrust, favoritism and unfairness-all of which are conducive to discrimination complaints.
Why Employees Complain
The equal employment opportunity complaint process exposes management's ability to manage. Often complainants prevail in the EEO process. Although significant improvements have been made, discrimination can still be found in federal offices. However, complainants prevail even when discrimination is highly unlikely, because many managers are unable to articulate the basis for their employment selection.
As a regional personnel director and a former regional EEO officer for the General Services Administration, I have informally evaluated the complaint process for the last 10 years. I have discovered a few employees file complaints because they have nothing to lose and believe cash settlements are easily obtained, and less than a quarter of the employees who file really believe they are victims of discrimination. Most of the complainants file because they believe a personnel action is unfair-not discriminatory-just not fair. So, just think how easy it would be to head off most EEO complaints.
If employees perceived managers as fair, we could get back to the business of running our organizations and out of the business of meeting with investigators.
Changing Perceptions
The way managers conduct themselves contributes to the perception of unfairness. For example, a group of irate federal employees complained that a selecting official said he was going to ask only three questions during the job interview and not take notes.
Was the selecting official discriminating against them? Probably not. But it does give the appearance of preselection and unfairness. Managers must ask themselves: "If I applied for a promotion and the selecting official said he or she was not going to take notes and only ask three questions, would I suspect the decision had already been made?"
Perception can create unnecessary problems. In one such case, a female federal employee filed a sex discrimination complaint against a female selecting official before the selection was even made. When the employee showed up for the interview, the selecting official told her she had not reviewed any of the applications because of her schedule and that she would do it now. Regardless of how busy or sincere the supervisor was, the appearance she gave by not being prepared in the interview resulted in distrust and, consequently, a complaint.
Promotion decisions play a major role in how employees perceive the fairness of managers, and preparation is the key. It goes a long way to build the trust necessary to change perceptions.
The interview is just part of the selection process. Managers need to invest significant time in the job analysis, the interview format and questions, and the process for rating interview results.
Once, a manager who had a look of urgency asked for my advice on how to conduct interviews for "a very important position." My first question was, "How much time do we have?" His response was, "Quite a bit. I don't have my first interview until this afternoon." I failed to convince him to postpone the interviews. Later, he was surprised when all the candidates filed EEO complaints against him. "After all," he said, "they all know I selected the best person for the job."
The supervisor could not articulate the duties of the position, what skills or knowledge were required or how he was going to evaluate the candidates. He did say he would know the best candidate when he saw him. Because the manager tried to save time and didn't prepare for the interviews, he spent the rest of his career defending his actions.
Invest in Credibility
Much like those 1,000-piece, 3-D puzzles, the difficulty in filling a vacancy is twofold: The striking similarity of the pieces competing for a position in the puzzle and the difficulty in defining the requirement of the slot being filled. In an attempt to fill the empty puzzle space, people analyze the size, shape and corresponding colors of the surrounding pieces. In an organization, they look at the knowledge, skills and abilities required to fill the position. But remember, putting a 1,000-piece puzzle together requires a lot of time.
Managers must be able to articulate the knowledge, skills and experience required for the job; explain why they are asking the interview questions; describe how they will evaluate the responses from the interviewees; and ensure that their documentation supports the outcome.
A supervisor's selection record should include a copy of the job analysis, the vacancy announcement, the interview questions, each candidate's responses to the questions, criteria for evaluating those responses, and the evaluations themselves. An EEO investigator should be able to conclude the same thing the manager did after reviewing the documents. If not, the selection is not ready to be made.
Managers strengthen their credibility and create a perception of fairness when they invest time in the hiring and promotion process.
Charles Fernandez is human resources director for the Greater Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions of the General Services Administration and an adjunct faculty member at Mountain View College in Dallas.
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