Exempt - Winter 2008 - (Page 17)

Lockwood Herman said. “Do we do things as employers to not be truthful,” she added. Employees might lie to protect themselves, to look good, to gain ﬁnancially or socially, or to avoid punishment. “There’s not (just) one reason why lies are told in the workplace,” said Lockwood Herman, who presented a session about the subject during the Risk Management and Finance Summit for Nonproﬁts earlier this year. She suggests that after conﬁrming the lie, supervisors should confront the employee by presenting the facts that have been uncovered and advise them of the consequences, while also documenting the entire process. When training nonprofits, Lockwood Herman said she often runs into the reply of, “We thought people would know this. Do we actually have to say, ‘Don’t steal?’” The sad truth is that providing explicit instructions is helpful to an organization on a number of levels, Lockwood Herman said. It sets the tone, ensures that employees are all on the same page about the rules of the workplace, and it provides employers something they can point to when a staffer violates policies. Laying out the consequences before an incident occurs is helpful at the other end when supervisors face the difﬁcult decision of having to confront someone, she said. With a policy already instituted, it’s not subject to debate or interpretation, she added, and saves time on that end, though there might be the upfront investment of time. Lockwood Herman emphasized that it’s the employer who must set the tone in the relationship, not unlike the parent-child conversation when a parent tells a child not to lie only to be caught by the child lying to someone else. “It can set the tone in the workplace. Employees who see employers lying about how the organization is doing sets the wrong tone,” she said. Nonproﬁt managers can minimize the risk of lies in the workplace by never lying to employees, Lockwood Herman said, and addressing lies when they’re uncovered. A key lesson for any employer is to let people know expectations in terms of performance and when they don’t meet expectations, to follow-up and hold staff accountable. Getting all these policies and other things in place is not as difﬁcult as people might imagine, said Lockwood Herman. What’s most important is a clearly written policy and procedure handbook, and that doesn’t have to be voluminous. Herman tells clients that the center’s employee handbook is all of 10 pages long. Organizations the center works with have 150-page handbooks because of the scope and nature of their operations, such as working with government agencies in some cases. “It may be perfectly acceptable and appropriate for large organizations, but for small organizations, page length and complexity is much less, so 10 pages might work very well,” she said. What nonproﬁts should not do, Lockwood Herman warns, is just use another organization’s handbook. “It’s important for an understanding and appreciation of the organization to have its own,” she said. “What you don’t want is organizations to ﬁnd someone else’s and put their own name at the top of the page.” Where nonproﬁts have often gone astray, for instance, is with an investment policy. An organization might simply ﬁnd a sample policy online, or from another organization and use it as its own. “What’s appropriate for one nonproﬁt, another might be totally not based on the amount of money to invest, or what leaders would deﬁne as an appropriate investment,” Lockwood Herman said. It’s always a good idea to look at another nonprofit’s policies as a starting point, according to Lockwood Herman, but then spend time to customize it and write it in plain language so you don’t need someone to translate policies. “Make clear what the do’s and don’ts are, what’s strictly prohibited,” she said, “and do things on a consistent basis.” E It’s very interesting about why people tell lies and the motivations behind it. 17 Winter 2008 | Exempt |

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Exempt - Winter 2008

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