July 30, 2024 • 10 mins
In this episode, we explore the complexities of employee relations with HR consultant Ricky Baez.
Topics include:
1. Understanding Employee Relations: The importance of respecting diverse personalities and maintaining a positive work environment.
2. Common Challenges: How differences in opinion and communication impact productivity.
3. Balancing Empathy and Strategy: Essential skills for HR professionals.
4. Navigating Sensitive Topics: Practical advice on handling politics and religion at work.
5. Proactive Leadership: Encouraging civility and respect, especially during election years.
Join us for valuable insights and tips on how to improve employee relations in your organization. Don't forget to subscribe!
Additional Resources:
1. How to Handle Employee Complaints
2. How to Manage Workplace Conflict
3. Ways to Improve Your Employee Relations
4. Communication Styles in the Workplace and How to Manage Them
🧠WANT TO LEARN MORE? Be sure to subscribe and check out 4 Corner Resources at https://www.4cornerresources.com/
👋 FOLLOW PETE NEWSOME ONLINE:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petenewsome/
Blog Articles: https://www.4cornerresources.com/blog/
👋 FOLLOW RICKY BAEZ ONLINE:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/efrainrickybaez/
Blog Articles: https://www.baezco.com/baezco-blog
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pete Newsome (00:00):
Welcome back everyone.
(00:00):
In today's video we're talkingabout how to navigate complex
employee relations with HRconsultant Ricky Baez.
Ricky, how are you?
Ricky Baez (00:08):
I'm doing good.
Pete Ready for this.
Pete Newsome (00:10):
Awesome.
Well, let's just start at thetop.
Ricky, can you give me a briefoverview of what employee
relations actually means, if you?
Ricky Baez (00:16):
ask 50 people in a room what does HR and employee
relations mean?
You're going to get 50different answers right, but at
the end of the day, here's whatemployee relations is.
In any organization, in orderfor a business to be successful,
they need employees, and everyemployee has a heart, they have
a spirit, they have a differentpersonality that may or may not
mesh with other personalitiesout there, so you're going to
(00:38):
need a professional to be inthere and making sure not that
you change people's perceptionsof each other, but at the very
least give an understanding ofwhat it means to be respectful
at work, knowing what you canand can do at work and knowing
what kind of resources and toolsyou have to make your life
better at work.
At the end of the day, that'swhat employer relations is.
Pete Newsome (00:58):
Thanks, Ricky.
Well, talk to me about somecommon challenges employers face
when navigating employerrelations and how to best
address them.
Ricky Baez (01:06):
Organizations need human beings to succeed and if
you have one human being workingwith another, we are going to
have some issues where there'sdifferences of opinion,
differences of understanding,differences in communicating and
different points of view onestablished norms, rules and
regulations, right.
So some of the challenges thatwe would face is some of these
(01:26):
differences that these employeesmay have could get in the way
of productivity.
Right, and, at the end of theday, for especially for-profit
organizations, that becomes intoan issue.
So you want to make sure you'vegot the right people in place
from an HR perspective, theright rules and the right people
managing those rules, to makesure everybody at work are able
to exhibit who they are as anindividual but, at the same time
(01:49):
, be on the same team when itcomes to making sure that the
organization attacks X goals,whatever goals they may have for
the quarter.
Pete Newsome (01:55):
Now, that's an interesting way to phrase it.
You mentioned people being ableto exhibit their own
personality, but where do youdraw the line?
Or maybe, how do you balancethe need for empathetic
understanding with strategicdecision making based on the
needs of the company?
Ricky Baez (02:11):
And that's the tough part, right.
This is the part that I believemachines cannot do.
You need human beings to takeinto account other people's
feelings, other people's pointsof views and the rules and
regulations of the organization.
And it's a delicate dance, Peteright, Because everybody's
different Employee relationsfrom person A can be very
(02:31):
different than person B, personC, person D.
And what HR professionals andleaders need to be an expert at
doing is to make sure, whateverissues are happening in the
organization, you fix them oryou help solve them in a way
that is a perfect balance of theemployee gets what he or she
wants and the organization stillgets to make money with the
(02:52):
relationship that theorganization has with the
employee.
That's the difficult part, thatdelicate dance, and you have to
have a really particular set ofskills not to sound like that
guy from the movie Taken, butyou do have to have a particular
set of skills to be able to dothat successfully.
Pete Newsome (03:07):
Well, a lot of what we see in the country today
.
Ricky is pretty divisive, weknow that, and it's an election
year which adds up the intensityeven more.
We know that.
Do you have any advice forcompanies on how to navigate,
let's just say politics, sinceit's such a prevalent issue
right now?
Ricky Baez (03:22):
It's important to set the tone.
Part of a leader's job is toset the tone for the
organization right, and here'swhat I mean by that.
If the leader can go in frontof an organization, like in a
town hall, it's just everydaywork, that other people can see
what he or she does.
It is important to leteverybody know that, yes, you
have the freedom of speech toexpress who your favorite
(03:44):
candidate is, but you have to beable to do it in a way that's
respectful.
You have to do it in a way thatyou can get along with other
people and, at the end of theday, we have to do it in a way
that it does not disruptbusiness operations.
That's the part that'simportant.
It doesn't get in the way ofthe organization making money
and conducting business.
Pete Newsome (04:04):
It is just business, but clearly these days
, people want to be heard too.
Now you're part of some largeHR organizations and
associations.
How prevalent is this right now?
How talked about is it?
Or is the workplace pretty muchimmune from this and it's kind
of limited to social media?
Ricky Baez (04:19):
Oh, my God, I wish that was the case.
I really wish the big wordthat's being thrown around right
now and Sherm just had a hugeconference last month right, the
big, big word is civility.
Civility, and a couple ofmonths ago I was a host of the
Jacksonville Shrimp Conferenceand I had the opportunity to
(04:40):
interview the former kicker forthe Jaguars, josh Gobi, and he
says something that stuck withme.
It really did.
He says I don't understand whypeople feel compelled to be ugly
to each other these days, and Ithought that was profound
because, to me, that hit me,because I'm like you know what.
We're going through anotherpolitical cycle.
People are at each other'sthroats and we don't stop to
(05:02):
think about why do we think it'sokay to do that?
Why do we think it's okay toput somebody down?
Why do we think it's okay to doall these things?
And if we could just take astep back?
Right, and here's what I tellall of my leaders If you're
having an issue with the office,your goal is to lower the
temperature.
Your goal is not to escalate.
Your goal is to take a stepback, have everybody take a
(05:24):
breather and then have aconversation amicably.
Folks remember, human beingsare always going to be human
beings.
They're not always going to beperfect, so some people are
going to snap.
They're not always going to beperfect, so some people are
going to snap.
Right, and you just have to beready for that and be ready to
nurture, whatever happens, in away that the employee knows
never to do that again and atthe same time, business
(05:45):
continues.
So lots of patience is what I'madvising people, and
de-escalate a situation.
Regardless on how you feelabout it.
You should not escalate asituation any further.
Pete Newsome (06:01):
Well, let's get a little specific if possible,
because that's great generaladvice, but without naming names
.
Can you provide an example of aparticularly complex employee
relations issue you've navigatedand strategies you could
recommend to others?
Ricky Baez (06:07):
So back when I used to work for a Fortune 500
company, christmas time wasalways the time that I'm like ah
, here we go, because it was acall center of 1,400 employees.
So obviously you got people whofollow Christmas, you get
people who don't, you get peoplewho celebrate different things.
So as soon as the holidayspirit starts to happen around
the call center, a Christmastree comes up.
(06:27):
So here comes the people whodon't believe complaining why do
we have to see that?
What does that have to be seen?
What's going on?
And then you have the peoplewho have a different faith,
right.
So, like Jehovah's Witness, howcome they can do that and we
can't do this?
So it's a matter of listeningto what they have to say,
because as soon as people seesomething come up that other
(06:48):
people are allowed to do, thatthey are against.
They think it's a matter ofjust sitting down, listening to
the employee, listening to theirconcern, because nine times out
of 10, once you listen to whatthey have to say, that's all
they needed.
They just wanted to be heard.
So in the example of Christmas,when somebody complains, how
come they get to get a Christmasup and I can't, I'm like
(07:10):
nobody's saying you can't have aChristmas tree?
Oh, okay, then put a Christmastree up, right, I had one guy
and Pete.
This is a hundred percent true,a hundred percent true Ever
seen Seinfeld.
Of course, somebody wanted tobring a pole and they wanted to
celebrate Festivus, right?
And they did this whole thing.
For now I'm not going to lie,he was making fun of the whole
(07:32):
thing.
He really was right.
But other people startedcomplaining because he's saying
this is the real Christmas andother people like, no, this is
it.
So I'm like, look, here's whatwe need to do.
This guy has every right tocelebrate whatever religious
affiliation.
Whether you agree with it ornot, he can celebrate it.
Folks, you can have thisdiscussion, we can have this
conversation.
What we cannot do is let it getin the way of productivity.
(07:54):
What we cannot do is let it getin the way of productivity as
soon as it gets in the way ofemployees producing or, even
worse, some other employee who'snot involved in this
conversation not has to hearthis crap people going back and
forth for that person for thatreason.
That's when HR steps in and putsa stop to it.
Here's what I don't want HRpeople to do to just stop people
from celebrating anything atall, which is a mistake, right,
(08:16):
it's a reaction the other way,because then what are you going
to have then?
Orwell was right back in thebook 1984 we're just going to be
people, machines in a cubicle,working monday to friday, nine
to five.
If you want your employees tocontinue working, if you want
your employees to continueshowing up to work on monday
morning, you've got to give theman environment where they're
(08:36):
comfortable to be themselves.
So make sure you allowemployees to celebrate Christmas
, kwanzaa, whatever the case maybe, so long as the parameters
are in set, where it's donerespectfully.
Pete Newsome (08:48):
So, ricky, we've hit the two big ones politics,
religion right, covering thebasis here.
Now there's a third that my momalways said growing up, do not
bring up in mixed company, andyou know what that is Dog breeds
.
Don't talk about dog breeds,because everyone will defend
their favorite as strongly asanything else.
So there we have it Politics,religion, dog breeds, hr
(09:11):
challenges for sure.
Is there anything else you'dlike to share on employee
relations before we wrap up?
That'll help everyone listen in.
Ricky Baez (09:17):
We talked about the political year and look it's.
We have to expect for it to getugly.
So please, if you're a leaderout there right now and if
you're having a conversation orit's just if you lead other
employees, start having thecivility conversation now.
Be proactive about it.
Don't wait until somethinghappens and then have a meeting.
Start having theseconversations now.
(09:39):
You don't necessarily have toaddress the political factor,
but you just have to address howpeople need to be respectful at
work, because there's a reallyfine line Pete between being
animated about something andbeing insulting about something.
So we have to know what thatdifference is.
So my advice is be patient withemployees, let them know what a
respectful work environment is.
(09:59):
Do it proactively and, last butnot least, yorkies are the best
breed of dogs.
Pete Newsome (10:04):
Well, clearly it's springer Spaniel, Ricky, and I
think we can all agree on that.
We can't agree on a lot, but Ithink everyone would agree
Springer Spaniel is the bestbreed.
You're with me on that right?
Ricky Baez (10:14):
Nope, Absolutely not no.
Yorkies are the best.
Pete Newsome (10:17):
All right.
Well, we're going to end thevideo, say goodbye for now.
Thanks for listening.
We're going to go fight offcamera, but if you have
questions, we'd love to hearthem and we can answer here.
So leave us a comment onemployee relations and we'll see
you soon.
Have a good one, folks.
Welcome back everyone.
(00:00):
In today's video we're talkingabout how to navigate complex
employee relations with HRconsultant Ricky Baez.
Ricky, how are you?
Ricky Baez (00:08):
I'm doing good.
Pete Ready for this.
Pete Newsome (00:10):
Awesome.
Well, let's just start at thetop.
Ricky, can you give me a briefoverview of what employee
relations actually means, if you?
Ricky Baez (00:16):
ask 50 people in a room what does HR and employee
relations mean?
You're going to get 50different answers right, but at
the end of the day, here's whatemployee relations is.
In any organization, in orderfor a business to be successful,
they need employees, and everyemployee has a heart, they have
a spirit, they have a differentpersonality that may or may not
mesh with other personalitiesout there, so you're going to
(00:38):
need a professional to be inthere and making sure not that
you change people's perceptionsof each other, but at the very
least give an understanding ofwhat it means to be respectful
at work, knowing what you canand can do at work and knowing
what kind of resources and toolsyou have to make your life
better at work.
At the end of the day, that'swhat employer relations is.
Pete Newsome (00:58):
Thanks, Ricky.
Well, talk to me about somecommon challenges employers face
when navigating employerrelations and how to best
address them.
Ricky Baez (01:06):
Organizations need human beings to succeed and if
you have one human being workingwith another, we are going to
have some issues where there'sdifferences of opinion,
differences of understanding,differences in communicating and
different points of view onestablished norms, rules and
regulations, right.
So some of the challenges thatwe would face is some of these
(01:26):
differences that these employeesmay have could get in the way
of productivity.
Right, and, at the end of theday, for especially for-profit
organizations, that becomes intoan issue.
So you want to make sure you'vegot the right people in place
from an HR perspective, theright rules and the right people
managing those rules, to makesure everybody at work are able
to exhibit who they are as anindividual but, at the same time
(01:49):
, be on the same team when itcomes to making sure that the
organization attacks X goals,whatever goals they may have for
the quarter.
Pete Newsome (01:55):
Now, that's an interesting way to phrase it.
You mentioned people being ableto exhibit their own
personality, but where do youdraw the line?
Or maybe, how do you balancethe need for empathetic
understanding with strategicdecision making based on the
needs of the company?
Ricky Baez (02:11):
And that's the tough part, right.
This is the part that I believemachines cannot do.
You need human beings to takeinto account other people's
feelings, other people's pointsof views and the rules and
regulations of the organization.
And it's a delicate dance, Peteright, Because everybody's
different Employee relationsfrom person A can be very
(02:31):
different than person B, personC, person D.
And what HR professionals andleaders need to be an expert at
doing is to make sure, whateverissues are happening in the
organization, you fix them oryou help solve them in a way
that is a perfect balance of theemployee gets what he or she
wants and the organization stillgets to make money with the
(02:52):
relationship that theorganization has with the
employee.
That's the difficult part, thatdelicate dance, and you have to
have a really particular set ofskills not to sound like that
guy from the movie Taken, butyou do have to have a particular
set of skills to be able to dothat successfully.
Pete Newsome (03:07):
Well, a lot of what we see in the country today
.
Ricky is pretty divisive, weknow that, and it's an election
year which adds up the intensityeven more.
We know that.
Do you have any advice forcompanies on how to navigate,
let's just say politics, sinceit's such a prevalent issue
right now?
Ricky Baez (03:22):
It's important to set the tone.
Part of a leader's job is toset the tone for the
organization right, and here'swhat I mean by that.
If the leader can go in frontof an organization, like in a
town hall, it's just everydaywork, that other people can see
what he or she does.
It is important to leteverybody know that, yes, you
have the freedom of speech toexpress who your favorite
(03:44):
candidate is, but you have to beable to do it in a way that's
respectful.
You have to do it in a way thatyou can get along with other
people and, at the end of theday, we have to do it in a way
that it does not disruptbusiness operations.
That's the part that'simportant.
It doesn't get in the way ofthe organization making money
and conducting business.
Pete Newsome (04:04):
It is just business, but clearly these days
, people want to be heard too.
Now you're part of some largeHR organizations and
associations.
How prevalent is this right now?
How talked about is it?
Or is the workplace pretty muchimmune from this and it's kind
of limited to social media?
Ricky Baez (04:19):
Oh, my God, I wish that was the case.
I really wish the big wordthat's being thrown around right
now and Sherm just had a hugeconference last month right, the
big, big word is civility.
Civility, and a couple ofmonths ago I was a host of the
Jacksonville Shrimp Conferenceand I had the opportunity to
(04:40):
interview the former kicker forthe Jaguars, josh Gobi, and he
says something that stuck withme.
It really did.
He says I don't understand whypeople feel compelled to be ugly
to each other these days, and Ithought that was profound
because, to me, that hit me,because I'm like you know what.
We're going through anotherpolitical cycle.
People are at each other'sthroats and we don't stop to
(05:02):
think about why do we think it'sokay to do that?
Why do we think it's okay toput somebody down?
Why do we think it's okay to doall these things?
And if we could just take astep back?
Right, and here's what I tellall of my leaders If you're
having an issue with the office,your goal is to lower the
temperature.
Your goal is not to escalate.
Your goal is to take a stepback, have everybody take a
(05:24):
breather and then have aconversation amicably.
Folks remember, human beingsare always going to be human
beings.
They're not always going to beperfect, so some people are
going to snap.
They're not always going to beperfect, so some people are
going to snap.
Right, and you just have to beready for that and be ready to
nurture, whatever happens, in away that the employee knows
never to do that again and atthe same time, business
(05:45):
continues.
So lots of patience is what I'madvising people, and
de-escalate a situation.
Regardless on how you feelabout it.
You should not escalate asituation any further.
Pete Newsome (06:01):
Well, let's get a little specific if possible,
because that's great generaladvice, but without naming names
.
Can you provide an example of aparticularly complex employee
relations issue you've navigatedand strategies you could
recommend to others?
Ricky Baez (06:07):
So back when I used to work for a Fortune 500
company, christmas time wasalways the time that I'm like ah
, here we go, because it was acall center of 1,400 employees.
So obviously you got people whofollow Christmas, you get
people who don't, you get peoplewho celebrate different things.
So as soon as the holidayspirit starts to happen around
the call center, a Christmastree comes up.
(06:27):
So here comes the people whodon't believe complaining why do
we have to see that?
What does that have to be seen?
What's going on?
And then you have the peoplewho have a different faith,
right.
So, like Jehovah's Witness, howcome they can do that and we
can't do this?
So it's a matter of listeningto what they have to say,
because as soon as people seesomething come up that other
(06:48):
people are allowed to do, thatthey are against.
They think it's a matter ofjust sitting down, listening to
the employee, listening to theirconcern, because nine times out
of 10, once you listen to whatthey have to say, that's all
they needed.
They just wanted to be heard.
So in the example of Christmas,when somebody complains, how
come they get to get a Christmasup and I can't, I'm like
(07:10):
nobody's saying you can't have aChristmas tree?
Oh, okay, then put a Christmastree up, right, I had one guy
and Pete.
This is a hundred percent true,a hundred percent true Ever
seen Seinfeld.
Of course, somebody wanted tobring a pole and they wanted to
celebrate Festivus, right?
And they did this whole thing.
For now I'm not going to lie,he was making fun of the whole
(07:32):
thing.
He really was right.
But other people startedcomplaining because he's saying
this is the real Christmas andother people like, no, this is
it.
So I'm like, look, here's whatwe need to do.
This guy has every right tocelebrate whatever religious
affiliation.
Whether you agree with it ornot, he can celebrate it.
Folks, you can have thisdiscussion, we can have this
conversation.
What we cannot do is let it getin the way of productivity.
(07:54):
What we cannot do is let it getin the way of productivity as
soon as it gets in the way ofemployees producing or, even
worse, some other employee who'snot involved in this
conversation not has to hearthis crap people going back and
forth for that person for thatreason.
That's when HR steps in and putsa stop to it.
Here's what I don't want HRpeople to do to just stop people
from celebrating anything atall, which is a mistake, right,
(08:16):
it's a reaction the other way,because then what are you going
to have then?
Orwell was right back in thebook 1984 we're just going to be
people, machines in a cubicle,working monday to friday, nine
to five.
If you want your employees tocontinue working, if you want
your employees to continueshowing up to work on monday
morning, you've got to give theman environment where they're
(08:36):
comfortable to be themselves.
So make sure you allowemployees to celebrate Christmas
, kwanzaa, whatever the case maybe, so long as the parameters
are in set, where it's donerespectfully.
Pete Newsome (08:48):
So, ricky, we've hit the two big ones politics,
religion right, covering thebasis here.
Now there's a third that my momalways said growing up, do not
bring up in mixed company, andyou know what that is Dog breeds
.
Don't talk about dog breeds,because everyone will defend
their favorite as strongly asanything else.
So there we have it Politics,religion, dog breeds, hr
(09:11):
challenges for sure.
Is there anything else you'dlike to share on employee
relations before we wrap up?
That'll help everyone listen in.
Ricky Baez (09:17):
We talked about the political year and look it's.
We have to expect for it to getugly.
So please, if you're a leaderout there right now and if
you're having a conversation orit's just if you lead other
employees, start having thecivility conversation now.
Be proactive about it.
Don't wait until somethinghappens and then have a meeting.
Start having theseconversations now.
(09:39):
You don't necessarily have toaddress the political factor,
but you just have to address howpeople need to be respectful at
work, because there's a reallyfine line Pete between being
animated about something andbeing insulting about something.
So we have to know what thatdifference is.
So my advice is be patient withemployees, let them know what a
respectful work environment is.
(09:59):
Do it proactively and, last butnot least, yorkies are the best
breed of dogs.
Pete Newsome (10:04):
Well, clearly it's springer Spaniel, Ricky, and I
think we can all agree on that.
We can't agree on a lot, but Ithink everyone would agree
Springer Spaniel is the bestbreed.
You're with me on that right?
Ricky Baez (10:14):
Nope, Absolutely not no.
Yorkies are the best.
Pete Newsome (10:17):
All right.
Well, we're going to end thevideo, say goodbye for now.
Thanks for listening.
We're going to go fight offcamera, but if you have
questions, we'd love to hearthem and we can answer here.
So leave us a comment onemployee relations and we'll see
you soon.
Have a good one, folks.
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