The Manager's Toolbox

The tensions of meeting client demands, managing payroll, and the increasing scarcity of resources often squeeze organisations into holding off on creating a new role to meet demand, asking employees to stay back just a little longer, and increasing the tempo of operations just a little higher. Accordingly, productivity rises, clients are happy, and the business owners appreciate the increase in profitability. Surely this increase in productivity is a culmination of outstanding management, improved goal setting, and creating space for employees to flourish - well done everybody!

Ahh… no.

Employees have knuckled down to get the work done because they believe that their extra efforts will be rewarded in some way, and that operations will return to business as usual on the other side of the bump in demand. The unfortunate reality is, these tensions never seem to go away - the best intentions of managers (and to staff, promise) to enable work intensity to ebb and flow between hi-tempo and business as usual, in practice, gives way to creep in KPIs as new levels of capability appear to be unlocked in the organisation’s staff. That is, as employees demonstrate that they can produce more, the bar for what is expected at the business as usual level is raised higher and higher. Even if there is a return to productivity levels closer to the previous norm, managers are more likely to lean on staff to rise to the challenge of increased demands again and again until the business as usual of old becomes a moment to rejoice between extended periods of hi tempo operations - the new business as usual is, simply, busier than before.

If left to continue, the ongoing creep in business as usual can lead the organisation to experience significant pain as employees begin to rebel; be it overtly or covertly. The first sign to senior managers that something is amiss is typically a rise in employee absenteeism, shortly followed by increased tensions between staff, and as the slippery slope towards mutiny continues, employees start to exit the organisation in search of somewhere more “fair” in the eyes of employees. Management texts often discuss the need to monitor employee indicators (such as absenteeism, turnover, commitment, etc.) in order to predict when it is time to critically review the approach to managing employees and workplace culture. While this advice is accurate, it also focuses on indicators that appear after the trauma has occurred. That is, by the time these indicators signal a need to intervene, your organisation or team is already in trouble.

So, what can managers look for to manage these issues early?

Some of the most pragmatic advice for managers is to actively walk the floor - not just to provide staff with the opportunity to ask questions and have issues resolved, but for managers to understand the rhythm and hum of those they are there to support. It is in understanding the subtle changes in the workplace that allows the supporting of staff and the managing of tempo of operations to be transformed from reactive management into proactive management.

Proactive approaches to management benefit somewhat from intuition, but more critically, rely on critical evaluation by, and emotional intelligence of, managers. Managers should keep track of the week to week (even day to day for small teams) emotional well being of the individual staff members that report to them. This doesn’t require deep and meaningful conversations about every aspect of employees’ lives, but instead the benefits come from identifying key shifts in behaviour, candour, energy, and productivity. In this way, casual chit chat within the office can be a useful tool for monitoring employee well being. If there is a notable shift in behaviour or performance for an employee, asking whether anything has changed for the individual employee is a useful approach - something as simple as “What’s new in your world?” can reveal details that pinpoint whether the change is due to something inside or external of the organisation.

Managing proactively requires leading with compassion - conversations begins with wanting to understand more about the employee, rather than starting with a noted change in behaviour or performance. Monitoring requires keeping track of individual employee well being, not just their quantified outputs. Creating a diary or log book noting the status quo and changes of behaviours within the workplace is a simple, pragmatic approach that can assist in understanding a shift over time in the rythm and hum of the workplace. Every couple of weeks it is useful to turn the pages back to see if this week’s office feels similar to that of last month, last quarter, and last year:

If there are changes, how have they changed and are there any interactive effects between individuals in the workplace?
How has demand changed over that time? Has staffing and resourcing equitably met these changes?
Has anyone in the team experienced a significant event that has changed the dynamic in the workplace?

There will always be a fine balance between managing the performance and productivity of employees, and supporting their well being. What is important to remember is that the tensions of business typically require organisations to do more, but this shouldn’t be at the assumptions of the mantra “do more with less.” Producing more requires doing more, and people and technology can only do so much before the strain leads to a breakdown in the system. It is important to temper the urge to enrich and intensify existing roles with additional tasks; to understand that this might be pragmatic in the short term, but that to do this over and over again can (and will) burn out the staff you come to rely on to deliver value for your organisation.

This blog post is not a call to abandon quantitative monitoring metrics, but a reminder that employees are human, and that human behaviours and feelings are an important aspect of managing employee and workplace performance. Balancing the quantitative output metrics with the qualitative input metrics of employees creates a more holistic understanding of employees. If actively logged, the data creates a resource for monitoring the well being of staff so that changes can be made before the more classic indicators of absenteeism, turnover and commitment come into play.

It is my hope that this post has affirmed what you already understood, or added a new dimension to your current thinking for managing yourself and those around you. Thank you for your time.