Civility Revised: Why Workplace Respect Deserves a Double Take

Let’s talk about civility in the workplace. I know what you’re thinking… “Two months in a row, Kristi?” “Don’t you know that’s bad newsletter protocol?” Or maybe you weren’t thinking that but now you are.

Yes, two months in a row, I am going to write about the same topic. Why you ask? Because it is super relevant, important, and I have new info to share. So there – Justified!

When SHRM started talking about Civility in the Workplace at the beginning of this year, I thought “Brilliant!”. Let’s shout this from the rooftops during an election year. Let’s give employers, organizations and employees the tools to handle a potentially tough election year in a professional, respectful manner.

And we have talked about it all year. But now we have a toolkit on how to actually promote civility in the workplace during this turbulent year.

Here are SHRM’s 6 Steps to promote civility in the workplace:

1. Establish a civility baseline: In other words, define it. Have a conversation with your team about what civil behavior looks like and what uncivil behavior looks like.
2. Continuously Facilitate Civil Conversations: Create a safe space for employees to discuss differences of opinion that relate to their personal lives. Set ground rules for how to do this. Have a facilitator.
3. Establish a Safe and Empathetic Environment: Dust off your policies (Respectful Workplace, Code of Conduct, Bullying, etc.); Ensure psychological safety exists in your culture; encourage an open door policy
4. Lead by Example: Model respectful and professional behavior. While I’m not sure it’s a great idea for senior leaders to share their political opinions at work, we can model this behavior through support and empathy of others.
5. Continuously Educate and Develop Your Employes: Training on cultural competence, unconscious bias and communication and feedback can be really helpful in supporting the above; and good tools in general to have at work.
6. Recognize and Reward Civility: Think awards, public recognition, etc. for employees that consistently show up in a respectful manner.

While these may not all be great tools or recommendations for your organization, there are some that can help. Take the good and leave the rest.

Reach out to us if we can support you on these or any other people needs. And let’s be kind to one another. It’s not that hard.