Joanna, a marketing specialist at your company, is sitting in the Human Resources office with a look of concern on her face. “It’s my boss,” she says. “I can’t take her micromanagement anymore. She has this compulsion to review and revise everything I do! She’s slowing down my work and hers, and we’re missing deadlines because of it. She’s a terrible leader. For goodness’ sake, I go to the restroom, and she calls me to find out why I was away from my desk. This needs to change or I’ll have no choice but to quit.”

As Human Resources professionals, we’ve all heard employee relations stories like this: employee/boss relationships on the brink of disaster, each one a bubbling cauldron about to boil over. Actually, more than half of the employee relations stories we hear come from employees who are dissatisfied with their working relationship with their boss. Displeased employees will often come to HR as a last resort, hoping we can work out the situation for the better. Unfortunately for everyone, by the time most unhappy employees are sharing their story with the HR office, they’ve already taken as much of their boss’ offending behavior as they can stand. They’re heated, and they’re ready to ship out quickly if things don’t change. This turns an already delicate situation into one that requires an immediate and effective Human Resources solution—if the situation isn’t too far gone already.

Here at YES! Your Human Resources Solution, our 20 years of HR experience have taught us that it’s better for employee relations (and retention) to proactively set up successful employee/boss relationships than to try to reactively fix unsuccessful ones. So how can you catch a potentially disastrous match before it’s too late?

• Be honest during the interview. During his final interview with Company X, another employee, Jack, was asked if he was OK working with a hands-off manager. Jack said he was, citing his enjoyment of independent work and his ability to manage his own priorities. So Jack reported for work, and quickly found out what a “hands-off manager” really meant. In three months, Jack saw his manager twice—once during an introduction on Jack’s first day of work, and again as Jack handed in his resignation letter. Jack’s manager gave him no direction, offered no feedback—did not so much as greet Jack during the workday. If Jack had known a “hands-off manager” meant a manager who did not interact with his team at all, Jack would not have accepted the job offer.

The moral? Prospective employees should be given a clear idea of the work environment and the company culture before they agree to sign on. The company is going to benefit from the best fit possible, so it does no good to conceal a supervisor’s management style or a strict culture. Honesty really is the best policy. (And to ensure that best fit, make sure you’re asking the right interview questions.)

• Solicit employee feedback. As HR, it’s important to know how our managers are doing with their leadership style and their relationships with their employees. It’s also important for managers to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Employee feedback is a great way to meet both those needs. Management can ask their employees directly for constructive criticism, but not everyone may be comfortable with that setup. To put everyone at ease, consider an annual supervisor review program, where employees can offer anonymous feedback and ratings for their supervisors. This allows HR and management to be aware of any perceived deficiencies or budding issues before they become a problem. This also allows employees to anonymously vent any concerns before they boil over. In Joanna’s situation, if HR had been aware early that this boss was seen as a micromanager, they could have created a training plan to generally address the behavior, instead of having the issue deteriorate into “Joanna versus her boss.”

• Offer management training. Carefully planned management training can help head off any number of employee/boss issues. Potential topics? Delegation, leadership style, employee remediation, harassment awareness… All managers can benefit from refresher seminars held throughout the year, and new managers especially can benefit from a general training class, such as Supervisor 101 Training from the YES! team.

Could your business use a helping hand in management training or employee relations?  Whether it’s Supervisor 101 Training or a new employee relations strategy, YES! Your Human Resources Solution offers efficient solutions customized for your business and its employees.  Backed by over 20 years of Human Resources experience, we pride ourselves on our ability to connect your business initiatives with employee needs to achieve strategic objectives.  We’ll give you that extra push to keep your business running at its best!  For more information on our comprehensive HR-consulting services, give us a call or visit our website for a free consultation.