Why promote civility in the workforce?

With mental health concerns, stressors in daily news, and strife seemingly everywhere, how can we promote civility in the workforce?  What does civility look like and why should managers even worry about it?

As an HR professional, I’ve seen lots of organizations (often led by HR departments) that seek to regulate employee communications.  In taking this regulatory role, we fail to address the underlying reasons we’ve had issues—we can’t seem to treat each other as individuals.  Everything is fine as long as it’s done the way we want in the manner we want it.

But that’s not being civil, that’s being dictatorial. 

Promoting civility in the workforce should be standard.  We need to treat each other with empathy, practice active listening, focus on outcomes as opposed to processes, and expect good intentions versus mal intent. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case.

In working with your staff, do you have individuals who don’t interact with others?  Employees who never speak up in meetings or offer their suggestions?  Does it happen so often that you don’t even notice them anymore?

Think through your staff.  Have you made efforts to understand their motivations and skillsets? Could you list various strengths in each?  If someone is struggling, have you clarified expectations and offered resources to help? Are you seeing them as individual contributors?

Not everyone is going to be successful in every organization.  There are certainly circumstances where it’s best to part ways.  But even that should be done with civility.   We will not necessarily like all our fellow employees, but we need to appreciate them as fellow humans and treat them with respect.

Spend part of each week practicing active listening with your staff.  Model civility to your staff and provide expectations of civility in their interactions with each other.  Be polite, show empathy, and be clear in your expectations. 

If we encourage civility at work, maybe we can experience more civility in society.

#civility #positivity #management #hrconsultant

Let's promote civility among ourselves and our employees and treat each other with respect.