Human-Centered Decision-Making in Employment Policy

I’m often asked how to stay human-centered when applying employment policies.

There’s a common misconception that policies limit a leader’s ability to lead with care. That structure and humanity are at odds. They’re not.

Policies create structure.

Leaders create, or break, the humanity behind them.

Most employment policies exist for good reasons. They are meant to create clarity, fairness, accountability, and support. But applying a policy without understanding context can quietly undermine all of that.

Let me illustrate.

I saw this clearly while working with organizations where employees must be onsite (hospitality, manufacturing, and similar environments). Attendance and punctuality matter. When someone is late or absent, the work does not disappear. It shifts to others. Policies exist to manage that reality fairly.

A manager once came to me visibly distressed. They were preparing to terminate one of their best employees.

The issue was attendance. Over three weeks, the employee had been late every single day. Under the existing attendance policy and progressive discipline structure, the manager had already issued a verbal warning, written warnings, and was now moving toward termination.

This employee had nearly ten years of service. Their performance was strong. Their attendance history had been solid until this point.

I asked the manager a simple question:

What did the employee say when you asked about the change?

The manager paused.

They hadn’t asked.

“The policy is black and white,” they said. “The reason doesn’t matter.”

The policy may not require a reason.

But leadership often does.

I encouraged the manager to talk with the employee.

When they returned a few hours later, they were even more upset. Now they knew why.

The employee had lost their childcare provider unexpectedly. They had found temporary coverage, but for one month there was a thirty-minute gap they could not solve without flexibility. They had two weeks left before the situation resolved.

What mattered next was not whether the policy existed. It was how we chose to apply it.

At the same time, the organization was testing a staggered “floater” role to improve shift transitions. We temporarily moved the employee into that role for the remaining two weeks. The policy remained intact. Fairness remained intact. And a high-performing employee stayed.

Policies create structure.

Leaders, with the right support, create humanity.

Being human-centered does not mean ignoring rules. It means applying them with awareness and responsibility for real people and real operational needs.