Pester Esther

Q. My HRD dresses sluttily. (Short skirts, boobs out, that kind of thing.) I think it’s bad for her, and bad for HR. How can I talk her into dressing more professionally?

A. I believe that, regardless of your profession, simple smart-casual business attire is almost always the best option when it comes to work.

Do you have a policy on dress code? If you don’t, this might be a good time to introduce one. (I find using pictures as examples of what not to wear really helps to reinforce standards.)

If you do have a policy in place, and she‘s forgotten what it is, then ensure it is refreshed and re-launched into the business. Ask for her support with this, saying that in general dress standards have slipped – this way, you’re not singling her out directly.

If neither of these approaches works, then a more blunt one might be required. Arrange to have some professional photos taken (maybe for your company website) and tell everyone they need to be professionally dressed.

Take some photos of your HRD in her ‘slutty’ attire beforehand, and use them to start a conversation around dress code. In that conversation, you could ask her how she thinks the HR team should be presenting themselves to the business.

Q. There’ll probably be no pay rises this year. How can I manage expectations?

A. I suggest the best way is to be honest with people. You say there will ‘probably’ be no pay rises this year: is this a certainty? What are the reasons for this? Are you in a slow-down period? Have you lost key customer accounts? Or have costs risen beyond expectations and impacted significantly on your margins?

There are usually a number of reasons why pay rises might not happen, and you need to communicate to your teams the current business reality. And it’s far better that people know sooner, so don’t wait until you normally award pay rises and then tell them the bad news.

However, there may be a number of other things you might want to consider that could soften the impact. Would your organisation be able to afford a phased pay increase, such as 0.5% now and then 0.75% in six months?

Or you could look at introducing other additional benefits or discount schemes at low or no cost – such as additional holiday for one year only in lieu of pay rises. Maybe just three extra days?

So in short, tell people the reasons why, sooner rather than later. They’ll understand and hopefully, with your teams on board pulling in the right direction, you’ll be able to improve the financial situation and be in a far better place next year.

Q. MY FD and the CEO have just come out as being in a relationship. (Male and female, both divorced.) Anything I should be worried about?

A. Well, the good news here is that this is not an office affair (both are divorced) but a consensual relationship, and at least they’re being open about it.

Do you have a policy on relationships at work? Some organisations ban them completely. I think this is a bit harsh – people just carry on in secret anyway, which might be more damaging to them, their colleagues and possibly the organisation.

Of course, office relationships can be fraught with danger. If a romance happens between a manager and a junior member of staff, you often end up having to move one of them to avoid favouritism. You might even end up with a tribunal claim on your hands for harassment if the romance goes horribly wrong and they’re still working together.

But in your situation, they’re very senior managers. You may need to consider any conflict of interest, or situations where the FD could influence the reporting of sales or profit figures – for example, to make the CEO look good to shareholders.

Some sectors are quite heavily regulated for compliance reasons, so be especially careful if you work in financial services or certain areas of the public sector. The CEO and FD need to be very transparent in their work dealings and conduct, and super-vigilant of any potential conflicts of interest. They should definitely keep the dialogue open with HR.

I’m sure you have a code of conduct section in your handbook that you can use to monitor that they’re behaving in the way you expect. I suggest you have a discussion with them around raising awareness of conflict of interest, perception of bias, any possible regulations that may apply to your sector and remind them of your code of conduct.

You never know – one of them may use this as an opportunity to move to another organisation, which might actually not be a bad thing.

About the author

Esther O'Halloran

Esther runs an independent HR Consultancy offering business-savvy commercial skills, practical solutions and insights to senior leaders and HR teams. She has been Managing Director at Paul, and worked as an HR practitioner for organisations such as Jigsaw, EAT, Pret a Manger and SpaceNK. Esther is a Fellow Member of the CIPD and enjoys Extreme Baking in her spare time.