You are the manager of the human resources (HR) department. The vice president of finance is talking about an operations issue and then makes a small remark to you about his staff being late or absent all of the time. His administrative assistant, Bryan, is often late getting to work. This is not the first time the vice president has made this comment. Just like last time, he is not asking for your help or for you to do anything; he is just complaining that he cannot get "good help" anymore.

You know through other finance employees that the vice president tolerating this behavior has caused resentment and dysfunction in the department, and other employees now feel entitled to come in late, leave early, or call out since there are no consequences. You learn that the vice president has tolerated it for the past year and has not addressed it at all, and now it is starting to reflect poorly on him.

This is causing a productivity drain and the chief executive officer (CEO) is asking you why finance seems to be lagging. The overall company workload has increased, and he needs everyone on board, or he will have to make some changes at the executive level. Since Bryan is not your direct report, you have to address the issue with the vice president of finance. You are concerned about having this difficult conversation since the vice president of finance is technically higher on the corporate hierarchy than you; based on your past interactions, you fear that he will not respond positively to your interference in his department.

What steps do you take to address the problem? Be as specific and detailed as possible. What policies do you reference? Provide an action plan for any communication and discipline. Make sure you describe how and to whom you need to communicate your information and respond to the prompts below.

• What are some best practices in employee communications that you can use in this scenario?
• What tools can use to communicate your information to the employees and the organization as a whole?