To Err Is The Employee...

With increasing pressure and stress at the workplace, mistakes happen, and are not easily forgotten. And if you're nearing appraisal, there's a hefty price to pay.

There are organisations in which taking risks or making mistakes are rewarded, but certain other organisations have no tolerance towards any sort of mistakes.

There are various types of errors as well - some can lead to adverse consequences, and some can be ignored. The consequence depends on whether the error causes brand erosion of the organisation, and if, internally, the image of the department is being risked.

There are pockets of individuals that are quite frequent with errors. In functions that are involved in number-crunching, errors can be devastating. They can spoil the reputation of the department within the organisation. The ownership of these errors lies not only with the doer, but also with the boss of the doer, who has to own up in front of the senior management. Further, it can be a costly affair if it is a re-occurring phenomenon.

In one of the organisations that I worked with, one of the departments had the reputation of committing errors all the time. There would always be a second validation of data by a different department before being presented to the management. Data errors are so explosive that they can lead to wrong decision-making. And if the decision taken is based on the data signed off with errors, the final victim is the employee.

For senior management, spotting errors can be difficult, as it usually resorts to quick decision-making based on the summary of data presented. Not only does this cause an impact locally, it can also be a big let-down if a counterpart foreign subsidiary is involved.

In the example above, when a particular region was affected due to some compensation data error, and an approval was taken, it was corrected by the regional head, since he was the signing authority on that particular incentive approval.

At times, to correct an erroneous individual becomes very difficult because of the casualness that persists. No amount of training and talking can help until the employee himself/herself decides on some measure to correct this aspect. Owning up to mistakes every time can also become a menace from the same individual, especially if the error is of the same type.

Attention to detail or Quality of work should be the buzz word, to eliminate errors at the organizational level.It is a good idea to measure "Quality of work" as a standard Key Result Area in performance appraisals. With this, individuals will be more alert with respect to errors, and the problem can be addressed at a grass root level.

Proofread any document which is sent from your desk or mailbox.

Shying away from own mistakes is foolishness; Owning up to them is a better idea.

If an error is noticed, giving the employee ways to rectify it may ease the situation or the damage done, if it is big. If you are one-time lucky, your errors would slip through.

Shilpi Sahay is an HR professional with over 7 years of experience in organizational development, program design, and managing a full spectrum of Talent Management functions. She has worked with Mylan - Matrix Pharmaceuticals, Satyam Computer Services Pvt. Ltd. and GVK Biosciences Pvt. Ltd., among other companies. She is currently a Senior Consultant with Thought Leaders Academy (Hyderabad), an HR consulting firm which specializes in Leadership Development and Executive Search. Shilpi is an MBA in Human Resources & DDI-certified Professional.