Employment - business issues

recruitment and induction strategies

Managing expectations: this is an area much misunderstood and is generally taken to mean that expectations should be managed downwards or capped. Even more effective is to help people understand how they can use the skills and talents they have in order to do a good job and how to seek help in areas to complement those skills. This builds teams, people feel better about themselves and are motivated to focus on achieving results and not on defending themselves against criticism.

appraisals

The appraisal process is a contributory factor in the significant number of employment disputes. This is often a result of the difficulties some managers have in hearing the early signs of a grievance during an interview. It is easy to understand why this might be so; it has to do with human nature, the fact that we like to deliver good news and we are often in a hurry to complete the process and approach it with a procedural mindset which allows little room for exploration of underlying issues.

gender differences

Gender differences: The interpretation of the laws relating to sexual discrimination often leads employers to treat individuals exactly the same. However, excellent employers will develop ways of exceeding the minimum standards required by law and acknowledge that there are differences in the ways that men and women view their own performance. The challenge for organisations is to demonstrate even-handedness and still preserve the richness that comes from diversity.

life cycles

Life cycles: Men and women alike go through many phases of professional and personal development during their working lives. Understanding these cycles and building performance management systems that take acount of them is extremely important and beneficial. There are key phases around 29 years, 36 years and early/mid forties when goals, values and purpose are reassessed. These phases directly affect the way people view their work and their priorities.

helping people move on

Moving on: When the relationship between employer and employee is no longer productive for either, employers and managers either ignore the problem, manage around it or deal with it in informal ways. All these approaches have featured as contributory factors to the disputes I have mediated. The challenge is to have those 'difficult conversations' early enough so that the process of moving on can be both considered and fair.

managing expectations

Expectations for both the employer and the employee are encouraged from the first advertisement and the story builds through interview, negotiation and induction and is validated through diverse communications from the publication of policies and procedures to the balance between work and social items on the company intranet or notice board. All of these help shape the expectations of the workforce and are the humus on which people grow their hopes or disappointments. Finding out how congruent your company is helps to manage conflict and nip disputes in the bud.

issues around bullying and harrassment

Bullying and harrasment are real and they are deeply distressing for all involved. The grievance process can often feel like a form of bullying, it is after all adversarial. Complainants often frame their unhappiness in terms they feel will get noticed and sometimes that might make them feel they need to emphasise the events in terms which are truly damaging to the relationships. Unravelling that complexity and getting to the real issues is a skilled job, best done by someone who is not personally involved or even seen to be biased in any way. Informal dispute resolution offers the best chance to achieve understanding and resolution. The skills required to do this need to be practiced and mature. This is not a job for beginners.