Integrity Ideas are specific actions a leader can consider during the Re-Align step of Integriosity^®–actions that will begin to Re-Align the organization with Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities.  You can find more Integrity Ideas at Integrous | Integrity Ideas (integriosity.com)

INTEGRITY IDEA: Goldplate Your Offboard Auto-Replies

“Goldplate Your Offboard Auto-Replies” is about applying the Golden Rule when creating policies for the form of e-mail auto-reply used when a human being is “offboarded”–leaves an organization, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.

It recognizes that faithfulness in little things matters, and that something as simple as an auto-reply message, has the power to honor or dishonor people and relationships–to build bridges or to burn them. It also recognizes that something as simple as an offboarding auto-reply can communicate the values and culture of the organization to stakeholders inside and outside, either reflecting and reinforcing them or undermining them–revealing the “real culture” of the organization.

Integrity Ideas are practical actions toward implementing a bigger WHY for the organization.  Some are critical steps in the RENEW/RE-ALIGN/RE-IMAGINE/RESTORE process; others are ideas to consider through prayerful discernment as faithful leaders steward the organization toward its WHY.

“Goldplate Your Offboard Auto-Replies” falls into the “if it fits” category.  It is an easy and inexpensive way to honor stakeholders and relationships, but it might not be the right fit for every organization or every situation.

If you use e-mail, you have certainly experienced the frustration of attempting to reach someone after their departure from an organization.  In our experience, the following are common:

• The “Bounce Back” Auto-Reply. A sterile system message announcing the e-mail address no longer exists. If your communication was business-related, you may have no idea who to contact.  If your communication was personal, you may have no idea how to contact a friend.  You might even spend time checking if you typed the e-mail correctly.  You are likely to assume the organization has an incompetent HR or IT staff or doesn’t care about your relationship with the organization or the human being who left.  To be fair, the person may have left long ago and there might have been a gold plated auto-reply, but that is unlikely to be your first frustrated thought.

• The “No Man’s Land” Auto-Reply. A message that the person is no longer with the organization, providing no alternative contact at the organization and no way to contact the friend.  You are saved the trouble of wondering if you mistyped the address, but you may be left wondering if the message made it through to someone in the organization.  You are likely to assume someone thought about an auto-reply policy but didn’t think about the message it was sending to the organization’s employees, customers, vendors and community.

• The “Only Thinking About Ourselves” Auto-Reply. A message that the person is no longer with the organization, providing an alternative contact at the organization but no way to contact the person.  Whether the response is rooted in resentment, indifference, or fear of losing customers, you are likely to see it as the product of a business as usual organizational culture shaped by Scarcity and Self-Interest rather than abundance and care.

We all know the Golden Rule–it can be found in both the Old and New Testament:

• It is captured in Leviticus 19:18: You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

• It is most commonly quoted from Matthew 7:12: So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Tim Keller has called it one of the “first order beliefs” that God has written on the heart of each person.  We just know it is the right thing to do.  In the words of C.S. Lewis:

Human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. . . .  The Golden Rule of the New Testament (Do as you would be done by) is a summing up of what every one, at bottom, had always known to be right.

We talked more generally in post #215 (Integrity Idea 045: Terminate with Gold) about applying the Golden Rule in the termination of employees. Adopting termination practices that embody the Golden Rule sends a message to employees that relationships, community and human dignity matter and that they are valued as creations in the image of God–not merely tools of production to be managed, manipulated and discarded in the pursuit of Profit as Purpose.

Applying the Golden Rule to an offboard auto-reply practice should take into account not only how it treats the former employee but also how it treats recipients–stakeholders outside the organization, such as vendors, customers, and the community (including personal relationships of the employee). How an organization treats people when there is nothing left to gain from them often reveals its “real” culture.

Anything less could be interpreted, rightly or wrongly, as resentment (that the organization does not want to take simple steps to treat the departing person with dignity or bridge relationships) or indifference (that the organization doesn’t care about the person leaving and those trying to communicate with them) or fear (that the organization is afraid facilitating continued relationships might lead to the former employee “stealing” business).

None of those motivations or appearances align with the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing. Remaining employees also see and absorb the message communicated by how a colleague is treated on the way out.

CONTINUUM: Practices

The Integriosity model organizes “heart change” along six Covert-Overt Continuums.  There is nothing magic about these categories, but we believe they are helpful in thinking about practical execution of a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values and a Re-Imagined Culture.  The Continuums are Prayer, Proclamation, Policies, Practices, Products, People.

Each Continuum represents an area in which leaders can begin to think about, plan and institute Re-Alignment changes to the heart of the organization.

“Goldplate Your Offboard Auto-Replies” is on the Practices Continuum. It is a practice the organization can adopt to affirm its commitment to curating and reinforcing a caring and compassionate organizational culture that aligns with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities such as Imago Dei, the Golden Rule and the commandment to love your neighbor. It is a practice that humanizes people, dignifies relationships, and quietly reinforces that organizational values extend beyond transactional usefulness.

COVERT-OVERT RATING: Highly Covert

The Integriosity model breaks the Covert-Overt Continuums into six gradations–from Highly Covert to Highly Overt–that we believe are helpful in beginning to pray and think about what is most appropriate for an organization at a particular moment in time.

Most Integrity Ideas will have one place on the scale.  Some can vary depending on how they are implemented.

“Goldplate Your Offboard Auto-Replies” is Highly Covert (an action that would be taken by a secular company), but it can move to the overt end of the Continuum if the leaders of the organization choose to explain it in terms of faith and Biblical principles.

STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Clients, Suppliers/Vendors, Community

When we categorize faith-based actions, we also consider the stakeholders principally impacted by the action: Employees, Customers/Clients, Owners, Suppliers/Vendors, Community and Kingdom.

“Goldplate Your Offboard Auto-Replies” is aimed at treating people leaving the organization with dignity and preserving not only relationships they have with others but also organizational relationships with Customers/Clients, Suppliers/Vendors and members of the Community.

IMPLEMENTATION

Some Integrity Ideas are challenging and expensive to implement.  Others are easy but costly.  Still others are inexpensive but challenging.  A gold-plated offboard auto-reply is an easy and inexpensive opportunity to reflect and reinforce an organizational culture built on Imago Dei, the Golden Rule, and the commandment to love your neighbor–a culture that Humanizes People, Beautifies the World and Glorifies God by prioritizing relationships, community, human dignity and flourishing.

Even leaders of secular businesses recognize the importance of treating people well when they are departing.  Consider this wisdom from the former SVP of People at Google, Laszlo Bock:

How you treat people on the way out the door matters as much as how you treat them inside.

We believe a gold-plated auto-reply should inform the recipient:

• That the e-mail is not being forwarded.

• Who to contact for organizational matters.

• With the departing person’s consent, how to reach the former employee for personal matters.

Such a message cares for the human being by providing a way to maintain connections and cares for stakeholders by providing a clear path for communication.

Ideally, such an auto-reply continues for a reasonable period of time.  (Be careful to ensure that the duration complies with any limits under applicable data protection laws.)  Importantly, we are not talking about what should be done with the actual mailbox (whether it should continue to receive e-mails) or the e-mails in the mailbox. Those are more sensitive topics that impact the privacy of the departing employee as well as the organization’s access to potentially important communications.

We do believe it is important to get the employee’s written consent before including contact information, such as a personal e-mail or telephone number, in an auto-reply.  We recommend including in such consent the duration of the auto-reply and how the employee can revoke consent.

The common business as usual approach to offboarding is shaped by a Scarcity assumption, a Self-Interest assumption, and a “Can We” culture.  A faithful leader pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing must operate out of an understanding of God’s abundance, a recognition of the call of Righteousness to love and serve others unselfishly, and a “Should We” culture focused on doing the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons, regardless of the personal cost.

A simple auto-reply may feel trivial, but small acts of honor accumulate into a culture that either humanizes or dehumanizes.  In his book For Goodness Sake, Chris Houston observed:

The enterprise that becomes purposeful does not do so solely because of extraordinary leadership, though that helps. Instead, it is a host of small yet intentional decisions — made by extraordinary leaders, yes, but also by every rank-and-file member of the organization — that accumulate to produce a cascade of movement in a positive direction.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): You probably guessed that this post was inspired by receiving too many frustratingly unhelpful auto-replies.  Sometimes the smallest irritations in daily work become unexpected reminders that faithfulness in little things truly matters.

ESSENCE:  Integrity Ideas are specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way.

INTEGRITY IDEA: Goldplate Your Offboard Auto-Replies

“Goldplate Your Offboard Auto-Replies” is about applying the Golden Rule when creating policies for the form of e-mail auto-reply used when a human being is “offboarded”–leaves an organization, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. A simple auto-reply may feel trivial, but small acts accumulate into a culture. It recognizes that faithfulness in little things matters, and that something as simple as an auto-reply message has the power to honor or dishonor people and relationships–to build bridges or to burn them. It also recognizes that something as simple as an offboarding auto-reply can communicate the values and culture of the organization to stakeholders inside and outside, either reflecting and reinforcing them or undermining them.  Applying the Golden Rule to an offboard auto-reply should take into account not only how it treats the former employee but also how it treats stakeholders outside the organization, such as vendors, customers, and the community (including personal relationships of the employee).  We believe a gold-plated auto-reply should care for the human being by providing a way to maintain connections and care for stakeholders by providing a clear path for communication.  Anything less could be interpreted as resentment, or indifference, or fear.  None of those motivations or appearances align with the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.  A gold-plated offboard auto-reply is an easy and inexpensive opportunity to reflect and reinforce an organizational culture built on Imago Dei, the Golden Rule, and the commandment to love your neighbor–a culture that glorifies God by prioritizing relationships, community, human dignity and flourishing.

COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action):  Practices

COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt):  Highly Covert

STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Clients, Suppliers/Vendors, Community

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Photo credit: Original image by Photo by Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash (image cropped)