| Focus on Daily Practices and Supervisors, not Policy and CEOs |
| Culture |
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By: Getty Stewart Head of the Home Range Last week, I had the opportunity to see Dr. Linda Duxbury, one of Canada’s leading experts on organizational health, present her latest research on work-life conflict. While I thoroughly enjoyed her candor, I especially appreciated the evidence-based information (gathered from 33,000 Canadian employees) she presented about what really matters to organizational success. In particular, two key ideas about increasing employee productivity, satisfaction, and commitment and decreasing employee stress, absenteeism and turnover stuck with me: 1. Daily practices trump policy 2. Immediate supervisors trump CEOs Daily Practices Trump Policy Simply having great policies and procedures to address work-life balance issues on the books (e.g. flex-time, job sharing, child care, elder care, EAP programs, extended benefits, etc.) is not good enough. It’s how those policies and procedures are actually used and implemented on a daily, consistent basis that really matters to employees. In fact, one of the worst things organizations can do is to have policies but then not tell employees about them or, even worse, not allow employees to use them. And sadly, there are too many cases where this is the reality. No wonder we’ve become a bit cynical. The key issue here is whether or not employees perceive that they can work out a suitable work-life balance arrangement with their employer. Whether you have a policy in place or not doesn’t matter. Are you open and willing to address the issue with your employees? That’s what matters. Immediate Supervisors Trump CEOs It’s not often that we think of a supervisor as having more power and control than a CEO, but that’s exactly the case when it comes to employee productivity and satisfaction. Dr. Duxbury is one of many researchers and authors like Clint Swindall (“Engaged Leadership”) and Marcus Buckingham (“First Break All the Rules”) that have found that it is the direct supervisor that has more impact than anyone else on employees. This is not surprising when you consider the immediate supervisor is the one who has the greatest amount of contact with employees and the greatest amount of control over an employees’ daily experience at work. Good, supportive managers that take an interest in their employees make a significant difference to the health and success of an organization. Supportive managers listen to their employees and ensure they have the necessary skills, tools, resources, time and encouragement to do their job. They’re equally concerned about the success of their organization and the success of their employees and are flexible to ensure the needs of both are met. The key issue here for organizations is to develop good managers that have the necessary skills, tools, time and incentive to manage their employees well. Easier said than done, I know. So what are we doing at IBEX regarding these two important facts? As far as policies and procedures are concerned – we suck! We have very few formalized policies and procedures at IBEX. However, we make sure all of our employees know they can talk to us anytime about anything and that we’ll try to accommodate their work-life balance goals as much as possible. We know that as we continue to grow, we’ll need to get better at documenting policies and procedures, but for now, we’re taking it one employee at a time. As far as having good managers is concerned – we’re learning. We know the importance of strong leaders, but actually taking the time and money to do anything about it has been a huge stumbling block. Money is tight and time is even tighter. But as we continue to grow, we’re discovering that not giving our leaders the skills, tools, time and incentive to effectively manage their people has an even higher price and time commitment. As a result, six months ago, we finally committed to a leadership program that is taking our leaders through an extended training program that combines theory with on-the-job practice. Once a month our leaders gather off-site for a half-day training session on topics covering personal growth, developing others and developing the organization. The greatest benefit, so far, has been bringing the leadership team together and giving them a common language and understanding of what is expected of them as leaders at IBEX. This is just the first step in our ongoing journey to ensure we have a strong engaging leadership team. Dr. Duxbury’s presentation may not have revealed any new, earth shattering information, but it did provide a good reminder about the importance of front-line leadership and actually implementing best practices. She also provided the necessary evidence to show that doing so is not just a nice or trendy thing to do, but it’s the smart business thing to do. Our long-term organizational success depends on it. If you’d like to share your stories about how you have shifted your focus to daily practices and supervisors, please send Getty an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . |
