We often receive emails from frustrated practitioners looking for ways to reduce the number of personnel conflicts, inmate disputes, management problems and legal issues at their facility. So we interviewed several corrections practitioners throughout the United States as well as corporate managers to see what works for them. Here is list of the TOP 10 SUGGESTIONS:

#1 Involve Your Staff In Big Changes / Bring Them In Early to Share in Your Vision

Going from a smoking to a non-smoking facility? Changing to Direct Supervision? Adding extra work hours? Eliminating Overtime? Big changes can cause conflict and friction in an organization. It is a good idea before you implement a big policy change that you gain as much internal support as possible. "You need to make sure everyone buys into your idea", Major Jeffrey Newton, Jail Administrator for the Cumberland County Jail. The best way to do this is to create a team or several teams who will have a hand in the development and implementation of the new policy. When you get employees involved in the implementation of new policy they are more likely to share in your vision. In addition, you may find that they have lot to contribute. Surprise announcements that there is a new policy in effect often leads to bigger problems.

#2 Know the Difference between a Policy and Procedures Manual vs. Employee Handbook

Most agencies have an employee handbook which explains the polices and procedures of their organization. This helps to limit employee conflicts and expedite the resolution process when conflicts do arise. It also gives employees an opportunity to "understand" and "live up to" your expectations. No matter what size your agency, if an employee doesn't clearly understand the guidelines, he/she will not be able to follow them.

While most agencies realize the benefit of having written rules, very few understand the difference between a Policy Manual and an Employee Handbook and often end up creating more, not less confusion among employees.

A Policy Manual is a comprehensive report of every policy and procedure and the applicable law. It is often written in legaleaze and includes a bibliography/appendix with additional references. Policy Manuals can easily fill 50-350 pages and as you can imagine are read by only 2% of most employees.

On the other hand, an Employee Handbook is just that . . . a book that you can fit in the palm of your hand . . . . . a quick reference. Like a policy manual, it contains all of the policies and procedures of your organization, but it is much more user friendly and a lot briefer. The best employee manuals are 14 pages or less. Indeed, studies show that employees who are presented with short and concise employee handbooks are more likely to read, understand and therefore follow their organization's rules. This is not to say that rules won't be broken or that people won't try to abuse them, but it will decrease the number of violations caused by genuine confusion. It also surprisingly helps to boost morale because people generally feel better about their work when there is less confusion.

True, you do need to protect your agency against liability with a comprehensive Policy Manual, but you don't necessarily have to hand it out to every employee. If an employee wants to read the entire policy in more detail he/she can be directed to the Official Policy in the Employee Handbook.

#3 Produce and Use A Customized Staff Training Video

Many facilities today are faced high employee turnover rates, frequent miscommunications on the job and repetitive training efforts. One of the best ways to increase employee productivity, reduce costly mistakes and boost your training efforts is to produce a training video that has been customized to your agencies specific procedures. You can tell employees what the rules are and you can give them an employee manual, but in the end they are going to do what they see other employees doing. For this reason, video is a highly effective way to train employees. Unfortunately most videos are not customized to your procedures, so they are ineffective. For this reason, more and more facilities have hired a professional video production team to produce a customized training video that shows their specific policies and procedures. With a video, the employee has a chance to see other performing the day-to-day operations you expect to them to follow. For most people mimicking is much easier to do than following written policy. In addition, since staff is often including in the production of the video, they are much more excited about implementing and following the rules.

The largest producer of customized corrections training videos is SIM (Screened Images Multimedia) in Quincy, Massachusetts. SIM produces 5-6 corrections training videos each month.

#4 Keep Good Personnel Records

Those of you who have ever had an employee conflict know all too well how important it is to keep careful employee personnel records. Vacations, holidays, sick leaves, personal days and other leaves of absence should all be documented in an employees personnel file. Many facilities require employees to complete "schedule change forms" and "leave of absence forms" whenever they would like to change their shift and/or take a vacation or sick day. These forms are then signed by the employee and the supervisor and filed in their personnel records. Disciplinary Recognition awards, commendations,

#5 Inmate Handbook

Believe it or not, some facilities still do not have an inmate rulebook. If you fall into this category, make it a priority to put one together this year. If you need help, ask other facilities for copies of their handbook. Most facilities are quite proud of the handbooks they have put together and would be happy to share the information. It is a critical tool for reducing liability and increasing safer more secure environments.

#6 Customized Inmate Orientation Video

Most facilities can't say enough about their Inmate Orientation Videos. It: (1) cuts down on manpower during inmate orientations; (2) decreases staff and inmate conflicts over rules; and (3) limits facility liability. How? Instead of relying solely on an inmate rulebook and/or having an officer explain the rules of the facility each and every time a new inmate is processed, inmates are asked to watch a 10 minute video explaining the rules and operation of the facility. The video is produced in English as well as Spanish, French, Sign Language and any other language necessary. After watching the video, in his/her native language, the inmate is asked to sign a form stating that they have watched and understand all of the rules explained in the video. Many facilities, such as Burlington County Jail in New Jersey, have entered the video tape into evidence as prima facie evidence that the rules were indeed explained to the inmate. Officers like the tape because it takes some of the pressure of them to make sure they cover all of the rules in orientation. Administrators like the tape because they can use it as a public relations tools out in the community.

And . . . .just like the Staff training video, the employees have an opportunity to participate in the production of the video. Working with a professional camera crew is a great way to boost their energy level while making sure everyone understands the rules of the facility.

#7 Routing Forms

Every facility has a "chain of command" but few facilities use routing forms to make sure the proper chain of command is followed. A routing form is a checklist of tasks that should occur for a given situation. For example, you may have a routing form for Grievance Procedures. Such form should include a list of every step that should be taken to resolve the grievance (according to your facility's policy). After each step is completed, it is initialed and dated by the person completing the task and passed on to the next person to perform their job on the list. Its amazing how wonderful these forms are! They boost morale, they keep people on top of projects, they prevent paperwork from getting lost in the shuffle, they reinforce the proper procedures, they make employees more accountable, and they ensure the right steps are taken in the right order. For a copy of a routing form, email us.

#8 Color Code Your Forms

Take a look around your office. You probably see a lot of white paper. It is estimated that most people spend 20-40 minutes of each day looking for papers they have misplaced. Now what if all of your disciplinary reports where printed on blue paper. Then you could immediately eliminate all the white paper and just focus in on the blue sheets. What if all of your employee vacation request slips were yellow and your shift change requests were green. They would be easier to spot and faster to locate. One facility administrator in Ohio reported that simply by changing the color of all of their forms, productivity among employees increased by 35%.

#9 Get Your Employees Involved in More Community Service Programs

This is a fun way to energize your employees and make them feel part of a larger team. You can coordinate special fundraiser nights for local charities and fun outdoors projects like Basketball Tournaments with the Special Olympics. Employees are proud to work for agencies that show they have a heart.

#10 Introduce Incentive Programs

Some facilities give awards out for perfect attendance. Others give away t-shirts, hats and jackets to employees that go "above and beyond." Still others have scholarship programs for children of employees and outings where employees can bring family members to bring a sense of unity to the organization. Some even pick a "correctional officer of the year" who receives prime parking privileges, gift certificates and a certificate. One place awarded its employees a "Hula Dollar" every time they went above and beyond their job. The first employee to reach $3000 hula dollars received an all expense paid trip with their family to Hawaii. During this program (which lasted more than a year) the facility noticed productivity increased by 28% and the number of employee absences significantly decreased saving them thousands of dollars. There are lots of ways to energize your employees. Although most of these programs are more commonly found in larger corporations they are very applicable to governmental agencies.