HELP Uncooperative Manager

njjel

I've requested the department managers to inform HR when they become aware that one of their employees has married, given birth or divorced. The employees are told that they are responsible to do this however being human they neglect most times to do so and this causes problems down the line for the employee when the realize their new spouse/step children don't have insurance coverage, etc. I have one manager who is refusing to cooperate as she doesn't feel "comfortable" reporting such things to HR. Anyone care to offer a response for me to give her?

Crout

Tell her to take all the time she needs to get "comfortable".....take 10 seconds if she needs it, but that you expect her to do her job and give you the information you need.

njjel

I wish I had the authority to do that!

Don D

Don't waste your time. It won't bring results anyway. Tell her, "I'd like for you to cooperate, but I'll try to understand if you won't be cooperative."

This comes under "Hand-Holding 101". Those businesses who do this sort of thing send the message that it's HR's responsibility to keep up with my personal situation and somebody in 'personnel' will keep up with my phone number and will be responsible for updating it on some list available to supervisors and 'the girl' in HR will be sure my dependents are current and correct in my insurance file. Or it's my supervisor's job to give HR this information, not mine, or "Payroll oughta know where I live since they send my W-2".

Put the responsibility where it lies. I used to pass out update forms once each year requesting any and all changes in a fill in the blanks format, with a clear disclaimer that it is the employee's responsibility to inform HR of any changes as they occur.

njjel

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-20-03 AT 10:32AM (CST)[/font][p]I understand where the responsibility SHOULD lie, however I was totally peeved tht this manager (who has a total of 6 employees) is objecting to keep HR informed. I wanted to come back with some type of great response to her! :-) Plus she has copied ALL of the other managers on her email so now none of them will want to cooperate or will think they don't have to. I was thinking of going to upper mangement with it to ask for their support.

LindaS

I know some of you may disagree but I don't feel a manager should be held responsible for keeping up-to-date on what is going on in an employee's personal life. These are ADULTS and your providing excuses as to why they aren't fulfilling their obligations only makes it easier for them to rely on others to do what they, themselves, have a responsibility to do. I have to agree with the manager's way of thinking regarding being uncomfortable with this type of information. I have seen several times where an employee becomes VERY angry when they feel their "private" life has been made public. If an employee fails to provide you with the necessary information regarding address change, dependent change, marriage, divorce, etc. then it's their fault. Treat them as the sdults they are and maybe they will become a little more responsible. If this means their W-2 is sent to the wrong address or their new spouse and/or dependents are not covered by insurance, then explain to them WHY this happened and make sure they know the reason(s) for the problem lies in their lap.

njjel

As you may have guessed I totally disagree. :-) There are more reasons than just insurance coverage for their families. There is the fact that a spouse is required to be the beneficiary on the 401(k) plan if one is married. This is the fact that if one divorces and HR isn't notified the company continues to pay for that spouse unnecessarily. There is nothing to feel uncomfortable about. If the manager becomes aware of the facts, then it means that employee has been discussing it at work, therego no breach of privacy. I believe the manger is wrong, not to mention uncooperative, and guess what......so does my boss and he will be advising all managers to contact HR when they are aware of the changes.

Don D

njjel: Glad you got the boss' support. But, your results will be exactly the same. Now, instead of saying it's not their job, they'll simply tell you "I had no idea she got married." You still won't get the information from the supervisor(s). So, you're back where you started....at the point of compelling the employees to tend to their own business if they want it kept straight. I agree that it is not a supervisor's responsibility, or HR's for that matter, to ride herd on the personal information flow from the employee to the company records. Our job is to open, maintain and facilitate a pipeline through which information can flow, not to pump oil.

njjel

Sorry Don, I still disagree with you and time will tell if our managers will comply. (I'm inclined to think they will since the Director has agreed.) A simple email that takes less than one minute could save the employee AND the company many headaches and dollars. In my view this isn't a matter of who's responsibility it is or who's it should be but what works for the best of all concerned. That being said I shall close the chapter on this one and thank you all for your input and hope you all have more cooperative managers than we do! Have a great weekend.

ray a

So, let's see, this manager doesn't want to cooperate with you. What if the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak? Three months from now one of this manager's employees comes to you with a problem that either effects or concerns this manager. Now you have a choice, cooperate with the manager filling her in on the problem, or keep her out of the loop and resolve it some other way, maybe not to her liking.

I know, that is being retaliatory. But, the point is cooperation is a 2-way street. She needs to realize that.