Osiris Training

Customer Care is a simple and powerful idea. No one seriously disputes that if you treat your customers well they will be pleased, more likely to use your service again and more likely to tell a friend. So why is it so difficult to get staff to do it?.

Why did the plumber not turn up when I had stayed in all morning and why did he not ring to say he was not coming? Why did the man who agreed to put up a new fence not return my calls? Why do I have to keep chasing the estate agent to find out if they  have had any viewings and what the feedback was?. When we signed up with them they said they would provide weekly updates and feedback after every visit. And why when I get cross about it do they say things like” we lost your mobile number” or” the young women dealing with your property has left”?

You would think that with redundancies, rising unemployment and the general economic climate people would try harder. These people were not working for some large impersonal bureaucracy or some distant foreign call centre they were working for small local companies or are self employed they would presumably want me to recommend them to others. Contrast this experience with that of going to my local hair dresser. Everyone here is a regular, a repeat customer and no wonder, you make an appointment and if you turn up on time there is no waiting, they are very friendly, they know  who to refer to by their first name and who by their surname. These are young women but most of their customers are older women or pensioners, they don’t talk to each other they talk to their customer and they don’t talk about what they did at the weekend or last night they talk about what they know their customer is interested, usually children and grand children, sometimes pets occasionally husbands and yes holidays. I don’t think the young woman who runs the place or her three staff have staff meetings where they discuss customer care nor do I think staff are sent on a customer care two day training  courses. I do think they recruited a certain type of person, someone who was comfortable talking to older people about their grand children, someone who didn’t need to be told to help someone climb the stairs or help them get their coat on and off.

Is customer care innate is that why some people do it naturally and why some just don’t get it at all? Is it more to do with the type of person you are? If your friends describe you as someone they can depend on , reliable, someone who doesn’t need constant reminding of what they promised to do, someone who doesn’t cancel or let you down at the last minute  as opposed to someone who is sorry they forgot or haven’t got round to it yet. This type of person doesn’t need to learn about customer care the way they treat people whether at home or work means they do it without having to think about it.

We all have friends whose company we enjoy, who have good intentions but who can’t be relied on. Something else always comes up in their busy lives, their initial enthusiasm disappears as the practicalities intrude. This same behaviour at work means promises and commitments are made but put off and not followed through. Customer care becomes being polite, being sympathetic being agreeable and getting rid of the customer as quickly as possible so they can get on with their work.

If you want to be a successful manager and an effective leader you need to be able to do trivia.  You may have an impressive CV, you may have the right experience, relevant skills and an extensive knowledge but if you do not do trivia you will get the interview but not the job.

There is good trivia and bad trivia.  Bad trivia is where every meeting with the Chief Exec starts with comments about how their football team got on at the weekend.  People who clearly have no interest in football feel obliged to contribute in order to keep in with the boss. It serves only to irritate and alienate people.  However if during the course of going round the table  getting management updates one of your colleagues gives a particularly long list of issues and concerns and you say well at least your football team is doing well, this is good trivia.  It is intended to lighten the mood and take some tension out of the situation.

Good trivia isn’t saying did you have a good Christmas, good trivia is saying did the surprise present you planned for your partner go down well?  This shows you are taking an interest in the person, you have listened to what they said and remembered.  Asking a colleague what’s the latest news on their son or daughter’s gap year adventure would be another example of good trivia.  In fact good trivia isn’t trivia at all, it’s a non work conversation in which both parties share information about their non work lives.  Trivia etiquette requires that if someone asks you a question like this you respond fully and then ask them a similar question.

I have never seen “must be able to do trivia” or “needs to be able to make small talk to strangers” on a person specification for a top management job but the assessment process for most senior management posts involves an informal meeting where candidates are required to socialise with stakeholders.  This is about exchanging trivia with strangers who will later be asked how you came over.  You would be making a fundamental error if you thought this was an opportunity to show off your work related knowledge.  It is in fact about your social skills and whether you are perceived as friendly, approachable and interesting, in other words someone they could work with.  Even in the formal interview the panel is looking for clues about your personality.  So it is not just getting the answer right it is about how you are coming across, yes they want someone who is confident and knowledgeable but they don’t want stern and overbearing.  Hence a good piece of interview advice given to me by my manager – smile.

If this all sounds a bit trivial then think of it this way, senior management posts need people of substance who have passion and gravitas but they also need people who can relate to a whole range of different people who are comfortable talking to anyone and can immediately make people feel comfortable about talking to them.  So there is nothing trivial about being able to do trivia.

Blair McPherson is author of People Management in a harsh financial climate.www.blairmcpherson.co.uk

As in the Terminator the machines become intelligent, then self aware and then they try and take over.

It’s like Dawn of the Living Dead the staff become mindless zombies.

It’s like that film where the aliens gradually take over peoples bodies so that they look like the person, sound like the person but something about them is different. Trouble is no one else can see it.

In other words it’s the introduction of new technology, new ways of working and a culture change all part of achieving greater efficiencies, cutting costs and doing more with less. Only it doesn’t quite go to plan.

Whilst the laptop can go anywhere I am still chained to it by emails. Most of them unwanted, many just for info but still the machine has this strange hold over me. It tempts me and teases me just to have a quick look even if it is the weekend. It punishes me for going on holiday and neglecting it by multiplying in my absence filling my inbox and preventing me doing anything until I have lavished time and attention on it. This intelligent machine corrects my spelling, argues with me about punctuation and won’t let me proceed without completing every section just right. Every so often it makes me prove who I am to its satisfaction. How long before it decides that it would be more efficient, reliable, consistent and 24/7 if it carried on without me.

The staff are present in body if not in mind, happy to have a job but not happy in their job.

Managers look the same as they did before but they are not the same. Where once there were passionate debates about values and ethnics, about social justice and tackling poverty now the talk is of performance indicators, targets, league tables and “outcomes”. Where they were once idealistic they are now pragmatic. Where once there was innovation now there is procedure. Where once there was passion now there is efficiency.

Yet all is not lost. I hear rumours of a resistance movement, small as yet unorganised groups who are using the old language of values to mount a counter attack. There is talk that necessity will bring back innovation. That the new technology can be used to create two way communications. Even that some managers have found a way to stop the ubiquitous “for info” email!

www.blairmcpherson.co.uk

What is it like to work in the modern NHS? A recent national survey revealed staff felt undervalued and unsafe. When we think of NHS staff we tend to think of Doctors and nurse but other groups with in the NHS have also seen lots of change not all of it welcome.

Frank (not his real name) has been an ambulance driver for over 30 years and has the long service medals to show for it. He swapped a dull job in a supermarket for the excitement of the ambulance service. The job has never been well paid and he has routinely done extra shifts to make up his money. The service has changed dramatically and Frank who puts experience and common sense above academic qualifications has got left behind. People like Frank use to be the back bone of the service now they are a square peg in a round hole.

When I started all you needed was a clean driving licence, now it’s all young men and women with ambition and degrees. Being an ambulance driver is a bit like being in the trenches during the First World War, long periods of boredom sitting in a lay-by, broken by periods of adrenaline pumping unwanted action. The work ranges from ferrying “old dears” to and from hospital appointments, dealing with the unpredictable behaviour of drunks, joking one minute, aggressive the next, drug fuelled violence and traumatic road accidents. It’s an unhealthy anti-social job. You spend more time with your partner than your wife, hours on end just the two of you sitting in the vehicle. You can’t even go to the toilet without the other knowing. You end up being like an old married couple. Shift work makes it difficult to have a normal social life. I use to like to go to the pub for a drink at lunch time if I was on a late and it wasn’t my turn to drive but you can’t do that these days some member of the public would report you.

The shift system plays havoc with your bowels and sleep patterns. Most people don’t last long on the front line, the ambitious go into management and the older ones leave on the grounds of ill health, usually a combination of a bad back and stress. Sickness levels are high reflecting the fact that most of us feel undervalued and unsafe. Performance targets mean there is a lot of pressure to get to the scene within minutes but if you get caught on a speed camera you’re on your own and an endorsement can mean you lose your job.

You never know what to expect when you answer a three nines call but some people ring for an ambulance for a cut finger or to help them get back into bed. Some people seem to think an ambulance is a right as opposed to just getting a taxi and taking themselves to casualty.

Management is distant, always seeking to change working practices and get us to be more flexible. They don’t want ambulance drivers and ambulance crews anymore as it’s cheaper and quicker to have a paramedic on a motorbike but it’s not always about how quickly you get to the scene, it’s what you do when you get there. Being the first at the scene and on your own makes you even more vulnerable as there is a growing amount of violence towards staff. But if you say the wrong thing to some drunk that has just thrown up over your shoes and told you to F OFF when you suggested he/she may need to go to hospital to have stitches for a head wound you are the one facing disciplinary action.

Blair McPherson

Director of Community Services

Taking a holiday this summer may be a one way trip for some managers. I once worked for a Director who never took a holiday. He would have a few days off at Christmas but in the three years I work for him he didn’t take a summer holiday. One year at his wife’s insistence he joined her and their youngest son at a camp site in Wales. He was supposed to be on holiday for two weeks but he didn’t last the first week. He returned to the office saying holidays were “boring”. I don’t know what he told his wife.

Every day he was away he rang the office to check everything was alright. He said we should ring him if there were any problems. He would start the conversation with “have you been trying to get hold of me?” I hadn’t nor had anyone else. He seemed genuinely disappointed when everyone he spoke to said everything was fine. He would prolong the conversation with lots of specific questions about where the rest of the team was and what they were doing and had any of the board members or chief executive been around.

Some managers are afraid to go on holiday or be away from the office for any length of time, they think decisions will be made in their absence about their department and their future. My boss was one of these managers. He didn’t trust the board members and he didn’t trust the chief executive. He knew what they were capable of because he himself had started a whispering campaigned against a colleague in that colleague’s absence. This was how he went from deputy to director. He also knew that if he was out of the way his fellow directors in other departments would use the opportunity to influence budget discussions to the disadvantage of his department. It is after all easier to see the examples of over staffing, top heavy management structures and out dated working practices in other departments. He had himself not been slow in identifying where other departments could learn from his own. Whilst all agree that efficiencies must be made some departments are already more efficient than others. Whilst everyone recognises the need for budget cuts some departments have been protected in the past at the expense of others. And then there is …but if you cut the IT budget we won’t meet our back office efficiency targets.

This is an extreme example of some of the worst aspects of office politics at a senior level and my boss was an extreme example of this type of Machiavellian manager but in the current public sector financial climate many managers will be sweating on the beach over their future and the future of their departments. Whilst back in the office ideas are being floated about management restructurings, service reorganisations and radical solutions.

Blair McPherson was until recently a senior manager in a large local authority. He is author of People management in a harsh financial climate published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

You need three ingredients to be really unsuccessful. You need to be blind, you need to be blind to the fact that you’re blind and you need to have very selective hearing. That’s according to Sir David Varney and he should know he has just resigned after only six months as chair of the worst performing NHS Trust.

As a highly respected and experienced trouble shooter he has held senior posts at Shell and British Gas and was adviser to the previous prime minister on public service transformation. He learnt the hard way that senior management teams need to see the bigger picture, be aware that they only ever have a snap shot of what going on and accept that they don’t always know best.

Varney refers to his experience of working for Shell during the Brent Spar fiasco when Shells plans to dispose of the oil platform at sea provoked a very high profile environmental campaign and resulted in an embarrassing and expensive climb down. In an interview with the Guardian news paper he states that “we didn’t see at an early stage that what was a technically correct answer was not politically acceptable. Then we insisted on going ahead despite the fact that we had evidence that we shouldn’t. And then when voices started to say internally this may not be the right thing to do, people tended to define the issue in terms of loyalty to the organisation”.

As a former senior manager in a large local authority I recognise this scenario all too clearly. The determination to bring about radical change can result in leaders and their senior managers forcing ahead, ignoring information that doesn’t support their view and being dismissive of those who ask awkward questions or put forward alternatives. When the changes are unpopular it is all too easy to see all opposition as motivated by self interested and dismissed as “well they would say that wouldn’t they” or the even more derogatory “turkeys don’t vote for Christmas”.

A willingness to listen does not show a lack of resolve, the ability to take on board criticism without appearing defensive and the willingness to explain decisions shows true confidence without arrogance and the recognition that sometimes even the right decisions have to be reversed shows insight and courage. This is very difficult in the political environment in which the public sector operates where party political point scoring can get in the way of good management and the media don’t let the facts get in the way of a good human interest story.

The harsh financial climate in the public sector requires the highest quality of leadership, managers who can take unpopular decisions and can deliver change but if you are part of a senior management team you have a responsibility not to become so hardened in your resolve so certain in your beliefs that you can’t see alternative views.

Blair McPherson is a former senior manager in a large local authority and author of People management in a harsh financial climate published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

Kevin Keegan had it.   Stephan Erickson did not.   Jamie Oliver has it and so do the manager and the staff I visited last week. Enthusiasm. They were bubbling over with ideas, keen to tell me their thoughts and excited by their plans.  If only we could bottle this stuff or better still put it in a spray and then at large staff gatherings walk down the isles spraying it in the air like air hostesses do prior to landing.

Why are some people so enthusiastic at work, so excited about what they are doing when others doing the same job seem devoid of ideas, lacking in energy and cynical about the ability to make a difference?  Does it come from within or are people inspired by a leader?  Do positives attract and feed off each others energy creating a ‘can do environment’?  And if some people put energy into a room do others suck it out?

What implications does this have for our approach to recruitment?  I have always felt we put too much emphasis on experience and qualifications and not enough on enthusiasm and values.  When I was recruiting staff to work in large residential homes I was desperate to change the cultural.  I had good managers who were champions of independence, choice, dignity and respect but who struggled to defeat the staff room culture.  When they were on duty, walking around the building promoting and encouraging everything happened as it should but when they were on their days off, holiday or away from the building attending a meeting everything reverted back.  The majority of staff could be influenced by the manager or the staff room leaders.  Training resulted in people knowing what was expected but it did not stop them reverting to doing what was easiest when the manager was not about.

When the opportunity arose to recruit new members of staff it was seen as a real chance to shift the staff room culture.  What was needed were people with enthusiasm, energy, creativity, a desire to make a difference and set of values compatible with improving the lives of people living in the home.  Person specifications were drawn up for the vacant posts which were as inclusive as possible, no requirement for experience in care work, no requirement for working with the client group, no requirement for qualifications.  The essential requirements were; a positive attitude to the client group, willingness to work shifts and willingness to undertake training.  The result was a large number of applicants and very little criteria to short list so we interviewed large numbers over several days.  A bit like the X Factor.  We had to see a lot of no hopers to unearth a few gems.  The interview questions were all based around the ability to apply values like choice, dignity and privacy in relation to situations within the home .We were also looking for enthusiasm.

This may appear a bit hit and miss.  Someone states they would go to the laundry to find the dress a resident wanted to wear rather than persuade them to put something on that was in the wardrobe.  How do you know they are not just saying what they think you want to hear?  But isn’t that true of all interviews?  How do you determine if someone is enthusiastic and how do you score it in an interview?  It seems to work OK on the X Factor both the panel and the audience seem to be able to identify those with potential and you know a positive and enthusiastic person when you meet one.

This approach made some HR colleagues nervous and was certainly time consuming but the impact these new staff had on the staff room culture was dramatic.  Justification, I think, for giving more weighting in the interview process to enthusiasm and values over the traditional emphasis on experience and qualifications.

www.blairmcpherson.co.uk

The dress was made by a group of teenage girls from the travellers’ community.  Part of a project run by the school’s travellers unit and staff from the Library service, the dress is made up of pictures which illustrate the girls’ life as travellers.

The dress is on a mannequin. She is called Esmeralda; in her back pocket she has a CD and a CD player which tells the girls’ stories in their own words.  Esmeralda speaks with many voices.  The mannequin has no head so no face.  This upset three younger girls.  A traveller needs a face and these girls set themselves the task of using their computer and their arts and crafts skills to give Esmeralda a face.  Now Esmeralda has long flowing hair made up of words and phrases that have significance within the traveller community.

Esmeralda is well travelled.  She has been to the Appleby Fair and travelled the length and breadth of Lancashire.  She is much admired wherever she goes.  Mayors, local councillors and community leaders all want to meet her.

For those who made her she is the product of their creative skills and an expression of what it’s like to be a traveller and lead a traveller’s life.  For me as a senior manager, within the County Council, she is a model for how to go about engaging with hard to reach communities.

Gypsies and travellers are the most disadvantaged minority within our society.  They are officially recognised as an ethnic group.  A long history of prejudice makes them very wary of officials.  Bullied at school and a tradition of working with father means that formal education often ends at 11 with the transfer to secondary school.  Discrimination and lack of formal education means job opportunities are limited.  The schools travellers’ service aims to continue education and the Library service seeks to promote literacy.  Together they wish to present the friendly face of officialdom.

There are parallels with other minority communities.  The focus on family values, marrying within the community, traditional roles for women as mothers and wives, attitudes to sex outside of marriage, different fractions or groups within the community who don’t get on, myths, negative stereotypes and discrimination.

So what can we learn from Esmeralda about engaging with minority communities?  We can recognise that the way into communities is through those who are already accepted, that it takes time to build up trust and progress is slow so expectations should be realistic.  That we need to find creative ways of listening to people and helping them express themselves.  We need to find ways of helping them to educate us about their lives.  We need ensure colleagues understand and support what we are trying to do.  Encouraging youngsters into the library and museum could have fallen at the first attempt if the staff who work there had reacted to the noise and boisterous behaviour with a ‘not in here you don’t’ attitude.  Instead time was taken to raise staff awareness about this community, what to expect and why it was so important to be welcoming and understanding to people who are expecting to be rejected and ejected.

We can learn that it takes a lot of effort, creativity and time to engage with minority communities but not necessarily a lot of money.  Esmeralda was created out of a budget of just £200.

www.blairmcpherson.co.uk

“No-one leaves this room until ……………..”  I didn’t hear the rest of the sentence as I was pondering the menacing tone and veiled threat of these words.  The suits sat round a large, long table.  At the top of the table sat the boss of bosses and next to him the money man. We were all playing the numbers game but the take was down. The capital projects would have to be put on hold. Contracts were to be taken out. Some people didn’t realise when they were on to a good thing may be some one should tell them. We would negotiate by making them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Accept the new terms and conditions or join the unemployed. A reporter from the local rag was asking questions. Make sure people know what to say. Would the politicians play ball? They want to get re elected don’t they! Word had come back that some individuals were taking liberties; bosses were told “keep your people in order”.

Money or the lack of it and fear for your own future these senior management team meetings were becoming more like something from a mafia movie. But as the chief exec said “it’s not personal it’s just business”.

Is this the new business model for the public sector? Is strong management back in fashion?

How would this more confident and assertive style of management deal with  issues like high levels of absenteeism,  poor performance, staff questioning management  decisions  and budget cuts?

High levels of absenteeism?  Just let it be known that attendance is a factor in deciding who is to be made redundant.  Performance targets dipping?   Link pay to performance by keeping basic salaries low and bonuses subject to hitting demanding targets.  Staff no longer keen to volunteer for extra work?  Make it clear promotion is dependent on “attitude” and your recommendation.  Staff starting to question your decisions?  Use the annual appraisal process to make the individual justify their post and salary.  Obviously salaries are an individual and personal matter so people don’t need to know what someone else is earning.  Reinforce your position by communicating on a “needs to know basis only”.  Don’t give explanations.  You’re the boss the fact that you want it done should be enough.  Explaining only makes you look weak.  Any really unpopular decision and you should make it clear that this was down to senior management – “take it up with them, if you don’t want a future here”.

You have the strength of character to make the difficult decisions, cut pay, make people redundant, reduce services to vulnerable people and renege on deals with partners. After all it’s not personal it’s just business.

Blair McPherson now swims with the fishes having been “retired” following the publication of People management in a harsh financial climate by www.russellhouse.co.uk