I recently went on a short holiday to western Queensland and as a part of my travels I went and visited a lake. I remember it was a glorious winter’s day and as I was wandering along the shoreline, I, by chance, had a conversation with a middle age local woman; let’s say her name was Jane. We exchanged the normal pleasantries, and as a part of our exchange we discussed a lot about her work. Like many conversations between strangers, anonymity provided the basis for an honest conversation. Almost like reverse road rage in some ways. This brief connection provided more insight into an average Australian’s view of work than any employee survey could provide. Let me explain by sharing the conversation and unpacking some of those insights.
Jane, I discovered, worked for a supermarket chain and had done so for 27 years as a full time employee. She was one of the few remaining “full timers” as almost all new employees were predominately employed on casual or part time hours. She reflected that in the beginning everyone was employed on a permanent basis, managers stayed in their positions and she described it like working together as a family. Everyone used to help each other out. If one person’s department was running late or customers were lined up at the check out, every one would pitch in to help each other.
Jane lamented that everything had changed, people were required to clock into work by using their fingerprint and had a five-minute window to clock in or out without being reprimanded. For the last five years they had a new manager every year and the workplace was becoming increasingly impersonal. Over the years Jane said with sadness that the company had lost it’s soul. People now just come to work, do their job and go home. She said the company talked about people being important but everyone knew differently, it just made people become more cynical.
Interestingly Jane said her interaction with customers was the best part of her job and she enjoyed making her customers happy. It was the reason, that she at times defied the clock and finished serving the customers. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do she said.
I could not help wonder why Jane stayed until she mentioned that she was one year from retirement age. Jane was married and they could not afford to retire so they both had to continue to work as long as they could. Jane believed that they had not made her redundant because it would cost the company too much money. On the other hand she dreaded redundancy because it was just not enough to secure her future so she kept her head down, did her job and went home.
I asked Jane did the company ever survey the employees to understand how the employees were feeling and asked for ways to improve. Not surprisingly Jane said yes, but no one would really say how he or she felt. They did not trust the confidentiality of the survey and most people certainly could not afford to lose their job. Jane did say the key feedback was from the head office auditors. They did surprise visits and staff was regularly reviewed to see if they were following correct procedures. Jane said she never worried because she had been a long-term employee and knew what was required.
The conversation continued and I asked Jane about her family. Her daughter had finished her studies; I am not sure in what field. Her daughter had applied for so many jobs and had become so disheartened because she never heard back or just received a standardised “Dear John” letter. It was just so impersonal. Her daughter had recently moved to the coast, and was again unable to obtain work in her field so she was working as a casual in the hospitality industry to make ends meet. Jane missed her daughter and thought life had become unnecessarily hard, as she could not gain enough money or employment to get ahead in life. Jane worried for her daughters’ future and helped her out financially where she could. Interestingly in Australia if we combine unemployment rates with underemployment rates we are running at about 18{01332a80e2e652688e18927fa9a6162580960d47bc08263a3993439d666dcd52} of people in this category.
At the end of the conversation Jane asked me what I did and I replied I had spent most of my life in HR. Not surprisingly at that moment of disclosure about my profession, Jane’s free flowing conversation ended. Jane nodded her head slowly and looked at me as if “ oh you are one of them”. We said our goodbyes and wandered off in our different directions looking for our respective partners.
On reflection, the conversation did not surprise me though it disturbed me; so much of what Jane said I knew was becoming a common view amongst many ordinary Australian employees and the plight of many workers young and old is becoming increasingly ambiguous.
I read with interest the economist, Das Satyagit’s, recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald that captured my unease about the consequence of Jane’s story in the following one paragraph:
“For most people, the effect of these problems is unemployment, reduced job security, the deskilling of many professions and stagnant incomes. Home ownership is increasingly out of reach for many. Retirement may become a luxury for all but a few, reflecting increasing difficulty in building sufficient savings. In effect, living standards will decline. Future generations will bear the bulk of the cost as they are left to tackle the unresolved problems of their forebears”.
Honest communication, like I had with Jane, is almost a thing of the past in many organisations. It has been replaced by surveys processes, and political correctness, which generate information and scores, yet add little value and at high cost. Encouragingly the PwC Boss stated in a recent BRW article, “Staff satisfaction surveys are only good for the HR Director”.
From my experience, and the data supports this, effective middle management is the most effective way to build trust, and effective two-way feedback and communication. It is this communication at a local level that has the most significant impact on employees’ commitment to the organisation and subsequent discretionary effort. If I were investing precious HR resources, presuming people had the technical skills to do their job, it would be developing middle management skills, with a particular emphasis on people skills.
Can you imagine how different Jane’s work environment would have been if she had an effective and stable middle manager? Can you imagine how much discretionary effort could be captured if people in Jane’s organisation felt valued, rather than being identified as a fingerprint at work? Can you imagine the power of capturing discretionary effort both for the bottom line and the quality of work life? Most people like Jane want to do a good job, contribute and given an opportunity will punch above their weight.
Encouragingly some companies are getting back to basics particularly since Deloitt’s published research on the ineffectiveness of performance reviews. The National Australia Bank announced it would be the first of the big banks to abandon the performance review process, opting for regular smaller sessions, based on having conversations, sharing information and challenging the status quo with employees. Accenture and Seek are doing the same. To do this effectively though people skills, particularly at the middle management level are essential.
My mentor and boss many years ago, Ken Gray, called this good old ”quality time” where managers sat down with employees on a scheduled regular basis to review progress and communicated with employees gaining two-way feedback. There is an increasing view that we have spent too much time complicating and impersonalising processes that just don’t need to be that complicated.
I believe so many more organisations need to hear their ”Jane’s voice”. It will not come through complicated often fear driven HR processes like performance review ratings and employee surveys that drive some employees to cast their eyes down at the mention of HR, but through honest conversations and feedback.
As this is a true story, I am following with interest Jane’s company. Currently it is loosing market share, profits and staff and executives. I will be interested to observe what the company will do differently going forward? Hopefully they will listen to the many Janes in their company as a part of their decision making and not just send out another survey.
