EE Requested Meetings

LindaS

If an EE requests to meet with you to discuss an issue (for example, health insurance), and is told to do it "on his own time", does this time then become compensable? I would think not if it is not during his shift and the meeting is being held at his request, not our demand, but I wanted input from others.

Thanks

jmcaa

Does the EE just have some questions regarding health insurance? Do you know basically what this EE wants -- to complain, to have insurance explained to him, etc.? If he just wants to talk to the HR person about an insurance item I would think he could just come into your office, ask his questions, get his answers and be done on company time.

If he does it on "his own time" does that mean your company is going to pay you to stay late one night in order to answer his questions?

It just seems no big deal to me.....give him about 15 minutes of your time during working hours and move on.

Paul in Cannon Beach

I would think that its reasonable to compensate ee's for the typical kinds of questions that come up in an employment experience.

To me, its part of our job in HR to help ee's have a positive employment experience and getting answers to questions is part of that. Its part of internal customer service.

Nickel and diming them (in my opinion) sends a negative message. We ask them to give us 100 percent. We should give them just as much back.

You may have the occassional slacker who would rather sit in your office and shoot the breeze than do any actual work and you will need to deal with that person individually.

LindaS

I agree with both posters and feel that it well within an employee's rights to be able to come to me with questions/issues/complaints however our Production Manager feels that this type of thing is wasting the company's money and doesn't want EEs coming to me during their shift. That is why I posed the question, as a means of defending my standpoint that EEs should be able to come to me at any time and if we make them wait until after their shift, it will cost the company MORE money due to payment of OT.

Thanks.

LarryC

I go along with thew concensus so far here. I will answer employee's questions and encourage them to come and see me or request that I go see them any time during the day and/ or after hours. When an employee has a question or an issue, it's best for the overall good that it be addressed as soon as possible. I would think that a supervisor would want the employee's full attention to the job at hand rather than worrying about something that HR can certainly address and resolve. My rule of thumb here, is that I get back top an employee within one hour. Even if it's to say, "I'm still working on it." I walk the floor quite a bit and I'm always available and ready to put priority to anything that might be bugging or bothering an employee. It works pretty well and is well received by all the floor supervisors and leads.

Dutch2

I agree that every ee should have the opportunity to talk with HR about their questions regarding benefits, payroll, etc. However if the manager will not allow the ee off of the production line, then can you go to them? If the production line is not suitable then meet with the ee during their break. You are probably already doing this... I make it a point to do a little MBWA every once in a while just so I think I might have some clue to the current state of affairs in the work place and to give the ee's a chance to ask any questions they might have. I realize this is more difficult in a production environment. A conversation with the manager might be needed to allow the ee to come see you.