As McDonald’s becomes the latest organisation to face allegations about its toxic workplace culture, David Liddle examines whether zero-tolerance policies really have a place in a people profession.
The news of sexual assault, harassment and bullying at McDonald’s doesn’t surprise me but it still makes me so angry. I have worked as a mediator, a coach and more recently in the area of culture transformation and I have heard stories about these behaviours every day for over 20 years – 20 years too long.
However, these days it feels like a tsunami – a constant stream of toxic behaviours, broken cultures and serious allegations permeating every single area of working life: the Met, BBC, NHS, CBI, and even trade unions like the RCN, to name just a few.
For me, it begs the question: is HR asleep on the job? What is the point of an HR function and processes when this is still happening to so many employees across the land?
Remember that those affected are not simply nameless victims. They are real people – daughters, sons – who are entitled to come to work without fear.
Zero-tolerance policies
We have a responsibility to protect them, yet the traditional HR systems for doing so are broken and are, in my view, significantly culpable for this.
Such behaviour is not acceptable nor excusable and should be a stark wake-up call for HR, no matter what size the organisation.
The McDonald’s case is a classic example of the extensive inaction and expensive overreaction which characterises organisations’ traditional response to conflicts, complaints and concerns at work.
A scandal is suddenly all over the media, plunging the company into a culture shock, where the result is a series of rushed PR statements, emergency board meetings and KC-led, independent reviews.
In fact, the stories and the data tell us that these are fundamental issues which could have been addressed many months, indeed years ago – if only anyone would listen.
Zero-tolerance hyperbole
The reason these problems keep occurring is because of broken systems and an overreliance on reactive and transactional HR processes and hyperbolic “zero-tolerance” policies.
The last thing McDonald’s needs right now is a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment and bullying. If zero-tolerance policies worked, these problems wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Zero tolerance isn’t an action – it is a statement of intent which makes the person making the statement feel better, as though they are doing something.
If we dish out more retribution, blame, punishment and nice-sounding soundbites – however well-meaning – the problems in our organisations will persist and we will see more stories just like this one in our news feeds.
To succeed, HR – or people and culture as I prefer to call it – needs to develop a set of integrated people policies which are robust, driven by a desire to be proactive, with a far clearer focus on listening and positively engaging with the workforce.
In McDonald’s case, this means working in partnership with the owners of the franchises, managers, unions and employees. It means conducting deep listening exercises with its employees much earlier and then identifying and deploying constructive remedies to address issues which emerge.
In some serious cases, these remedies may be investigation and dismissal; in other cases, it may mean trying to find another resolution through some process of dialogue, coaching, facilitation or mediation.
Integrated people policies are more likely to be successful than employees resorting to the traditional, reactive, transactional, retributive complaints-based systems, which drive a culture of fear and mean that toxic cultures are only unmasked at crisis point.
People partners
In addition, the rewiring of the transactional and reactive HR systems, the adoption of a resolution framework and the shift from HR to people and culture, I would recommend to any HR team to drop the term “business partner” as a matter of extreme urgency.
“HR business partner” is one of the most loaded and divisive terms in the profession’s lexicon. It tells people where HR’s interests really lie: protecting the business and its management.
People are the business and your role as a people professional is to protect them from unacceptable treatment. So overnight, make the decision to become a “people partner”.
Tomorrow morning, go and listen to your people. Being a people partner gives you licence to go out and really hear what your people are telling you, to create a psychologically safe organisational culture which is free from fear.
HR could play a pivotal role in generating the kind of action that prevents abuse from occurring in the first place, rather than being a bystander and hiding behind a suite of broken policies.
Ditch the over-reliance on blame, shame, and zero-tolerance policies. Get the data, listen to people, create an integrated people policy framework that helps to resolve issues at source, equip managers with the necessary skills and send out clear messages about unacceptable and acceptable behaviours – whether you work in a multinational franchise, a national body or an SME.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
I would say to any HR professional who is concerned about this stuff to ask yourself the following question. What are you going to do right now to address the cause of toxic behaviours and create a positive, psychologically safe environment for your people to flourish? This is the essence of a transformational culture. The time for action is now, not tomorrow when the story is all over the news.
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more human resources jobs
