<1211 words> Ambition Many years ago, when I was working with my first ever coaching client, I saw in real life the power of sensible vs. audacious goal setting. The client was the plant manager in a manufacturing concern, part of a global conglomerate. He was thrilled at his recent promotion… Read More »CUTTING BACK ON BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS
<1412 words> My summers in Nova Scotia are defined by the number of kayaking adventures I can pack into a week. Sometimes I go out alone – for quite long trips – ‘quite long’ in my books usually means several hours, not several days or weeks. Most often I am… Read More »PADDLING YOUR OWN CANOE
We can monkey around with rearranging words without changing meaning or intent, or we can be serious and reframe our conflict resolution procedures to truly restore trust, respect and engagement. <783 words and a sound clip of 30.26 minutes> Sometimes I have clients who request coaching with me to revisit experiences they’ve… Read More »The adversarial nature of dispute resolution procedures
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“Work is nothing but fun – but you get your work done fast – a lot of different people to meet and learn new things – amazing incentives and bonus structure.”
“Great, fun filled environment to work, good balance of work-life and always excited to speak to people on a day to day basis.”
“Coworkers awesome; management not always trustworthy.”
“Great support & work environment; erratic schedule.”
“Good company to work for – they will look after you during your employment.”
These are comments made by Rogers’ employees in the past 6 or so months at www.indeed.com – a job search/placement site. Usually it is disgruntled employees and ex-employees with an axe to grind who leave comments on these kinds of sites. How does this mesh with Rogers’s own performance measures for their call centres?
<4230 words> This is NOT A BLOG. It is a conference paper that I decided to make available via my blog. The PPT (available on LinkedIn) is on a safari theme, so these giraffes suggest we take the long view of where our need for fairness comes from.
FAIRNESS:
A CULTURAL CONSTRUCT OR A UNIVERSAL HUMAN NEED?
The challenge to HR:
Improving workplace fairness by stepping back and taking it all in.
Background paper to a presentation given at the Atlantic Universities and Colleges Human Resources Association (AUCHRA) Conference in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, on 22 October, 2015
Presenter/author: Delphine du Toit. Mediator/Coach/Facilitator.
Fairness is the default position
1. INTRODUCTION
Fairness is a baseline requirement for humans, yet it feels like the harder we try the more difficult it is to achieve. The difficulty with being universally fair is that it is a balancing act. No-one discusses ‘fairness’, generally speaking, unless someone has alleged that something has been unfair. The withdrawal of fairness is a bit like the withdrawal of oxygen: you don’t know you have it until it is taken away.
Unfairness – perceived or real – is a great source of conflict in the workplace. Sometimes it bursts forth in a flurry of accusations; more often it festers in someone’s heart and head, gradually poisoning their feelings about the workplace; being at work; co-workers; management, which then manifests itself in reduction of effort; sloppy work; argumentative responses to requests; squabbling; gossiping; and, in more extreme cases, in absenteeism or overt sabotage.
Read More »Fairness is simple. Bring culture into it and bedevil everything.
I am going to talk about two things that have happened this week. On the face of it they may not appear to be related, but if one moves away from the detail – the ‘what happened’ or the ‘what is’, to the abstract where you might explore themes and lessons learnt, they are very closely related.
Firstly, it is about kitty litter as a tool….
I had just come from a coaching session with a client. This is the second thing I want to talk about. We had been discussing employee engagement surveys….
“Research has shown” – yes, it HAS! That unresolved conflict is bad for your bottom line. There are direct (visible) costs and there are indirect (hidden costs. Negative consequences follow failure to act; positive consequences await the business owner/manager who steps in and manages conflict.
GOOD WORKPLACE DYNAMICS IS THE SWING VOTE THAT TAKES YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL.
It has become a fundamental principle (a principle from which other truths can be derived) that engaged employees do take care of your customers, bring in hard cash, and uphold the highest quality standards you can afford. There is a great deal of overlap in what are deemed to be the best questions to get the best answers, but it has not made much of a difference: the number of ‘engaged employees’ seems to stick at 30% according to various studies spanning at least a decade.
We are overthinking the issues of leadership and employee engagement.