There’ve been comments about how the role of the HR professional is to protect the organization, not the individual. Whether the complaint is regarding budgets, restructuring, or harassment, HR staff members are typically charged with being the facilitator who shields the organization through tumultuous times. Aligning with the mission of serve and protect the organization, recruiters can be a front line which can prevent the bully from invading a workplace environment.
Different workplace arenas tend to attract different personality types. While educators and social organizations tend to attract those with “helping” personalities, corporate cultures tend to reward a more “assertive” personality.
With this in mind, recruiters can keep an eye out for the appropriate personalities for open positions, as well as learn some of the characteristics of a bully, ultimately avoiding recruiting them into an organization in the first place.
With corporate culture in mind, recruiters should be cognizant of the impact a bully can have on any organization. Bullying is a silent epidemic which is infecting many organizations; insightful recruiting can help stop bullying before it starts. Much of the information on workplace bullying confirms that the bully is the boss 72% of the time. Bullies are equal opportunity players, both men and women. While the shiny new executive needs to have the stamina and confidence to manage staff and execute strategy, the new executive also needs to be a leader that staff can follow.
People vote with their feet in organizations, not their mouths. Staff will not speak up against the newly recruited bully boss. Recruiters will find themselves in a heavy recruiting cycle when good people flee a toxic environment, crushed under the weight of the highly touted new bully boss. When an organization truly considers the cost of turnover, it should be motivated to stop the bullying problem before it starts, especially when most bullies are the boss.
Statistics show that 25% of the people bullied and 20% of those who witness bullying will leave the organization. Further, very conservative estimates show that for each person who leaves the organization, the organization loses at least 30% of that salary. A recent study on incivility documents that 53% of a workforce loses time worrying about a bullying incident or preparing how to avoid a bully. In this environment, 46% of staff lacked civility or thought about leaving; 10% of the staff actually left the organization, according to a book called, “The Cost of Bad Behavior: how incivility is damaging your business and what to do about it.”
So let’s do some math. Imagine your company has 35,000 people, and for the sake of this discussion their median income is $58,000. Add an ogre of a boss into the situation and 10% of the people actually leave. With the aforementioned statistical data, 350 people leave to escape the stress of a toxic environment. If 350 leave, and their median salary was $58,000, annual salary for this group is roughly $20.3 million. The 30% it cost to recruit, retrain, and replace these people is just over $6 million. These estimates of loss do not include the 53% of staff who lost productivity worrying about bullying events.
Recruiting and harboring a bully is expensive. These numbers are the result of hiring that high-priced bullying executive, who winds up chasing off your creative and productive staff.
And let’s be clear: it is the innovative and high-performing staff that flees. The mediocre staff simply becomes disengaged and collects a paycheck in a toxic environment. As bullying is the silent epidemic, draining organizations of already dwindling resources, the recruiting process can be the first stop on a list of processes and interventions which can protect a healthy work environment. Even first-rate companies need to continue to be on guard for loss due to bullying and incivility. Cisco, a group recognized as a particularly civil place, ranking in the Top 100 great places to work, has documented losses to bullies. By their own estimates, over $8 million has been lose to lacking productivity and turn over attributed to incivility. Therefore, recruiters should:
Work is tough enough as it is. Further, a new boss introduced into any environment will naturally invite questions or concerns from staff. If the new hire is properly vetted out, and also coached that the work culture is one of civility and will not tolerate bullying, the recruiter and the rest of HR staff are in a better position to reap the rewards of a productive organization, than to constantly recruit replacements for those fleeing a hostile environment. When an organization loses $30,000 to $100,000 for each target who is bullied, the organizational damages have an impact on everyone, as documented in an SHRM book called “Stop Bullying at Work.” If recruitment strategies can stop a bully from entering a new workplace, such strategies can save any organization millions of dollars.