Osiris Training

How do you know what is really going on in your organisation? You get financial reports, you get absence stats, you know which targets are being hit and which are not, you know the areas of high staff turnover and you know the vacancy levels but these reports just reduce everything to numbers. Your senior managers tell you what’s going on but how much do they really know and how selective are they being? There are the responses to your blog but the same names keep coming up and how representative are their views? You can visit work places and talk to staff and occasionally you do learn something but these events are stage managed you only see and hear what they want you to see and hear.

The answer is to go undercover. Show up in disguise, pretend to be someone re training and on a work placement and find out what people really think and what’s really going on. This is the idea behind channel 4 new TV programme Undercover Boss. Growing a beard, wearing glasses and dressing down may seem a rather elaborate way to find out more about your own organisation but it makes good T.V. The cameras like to give a close up of the facial expressions when staff are called in to see the chief executive and realise it’s the trainee that struggled to do keep up and who kept saying is it always this busy.

I don’t think it is necessary for every chief executive to don a disguise and go under cover. I do think it would be a good idea if every senior management team viewed the videos of these programmes at their next senior management team meeting because there is a remarkable consistency in the issues raised and the observations made by the chief executives despite the vastly different business that took part.

Each programme has highlighted problems with communication not just staff saying they don’t know what going on but front line managers saying that issues they try to raise don’t get a response. There were a number of examples of false economies where basic maintenance had been ignored or broken equipment not repaired due to the need to cut costs. Often new staff did not have a proper induction and on the job training varied depending on the commitment and enthusiasm of the local manager. There were a number of examples of the over reliance on the use of casual staff causing problems with consistency and quality of service and a concern that experience and competent staff risked being lost because of perceived limited promotion opportunities and a lack of flexibility in salary structures and rewards.

All these issues were a surprise to the chief executives involved who thought that  that policies and procedures were in place to address these concerns and that managers already had the power to deal with them. Each programme finished with the chief executive explaining the changes they were going to make as a result of their placements and inviting those they had worked with to help led on make the changes.

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

The easy council is a low cost council like a low cost airline you pay for the basic service, everything else is extra.  You’re airline ticket is cheap but it you want a drink or something to eat that’s extra.  How would this idea work in libraries?  The basic service is borrowing a book, but if you want to borrow a DVD or a CD or use the computer that would be extra.  Maybe this could be taken the next step forward and you would pay a small joining fee.  Is this not better than having to reduce library opening hours or closing small libraries?

Is being cheap the most appropriate criteria for public services like libraries?  I used a low cost airline to go to Spain. I had to book on line and print off my booking.  So you need access to a computer.  To keep costs low airlines want to restrict baggage and so use less fuel.  Excess luggage results in an expensive extra charge so everyone carries hand luggage.  This in turn means it takes a lot longer to get through security.  Low cost airlines don’t allocate seats which means that it is a mad dash onto the plane to get seats next to each other.  However, this is good for airlines as getting people on and off quickly reduces their turn round time.  Low cost airlines are cheap but they are not very convenient for passengers, customer care comes second to efficiency.  Would this be acceptable in the public sector?

What about those who can only afford the basic service?  This might be OK for an airline but do we want a two tier NHS or social services?

One of my weaknesses as a senior manager was my tendency to repeat myself. One of my strengths as a senior manager was my tendency to repeat myself. In other words it was a strength and a weakness.

It was a weakness when I repeated over and over in the same team meeting why I thought this was important and why we needed to do it. It was a weakness because I assumed the silence around the table meant people weren’t convinced so I repeated my view using slightly different words. In fact if I had shut up and let them get a word in they would have talked around the issue, debated some of the points amongst themselves and come up with more reasons than I ever could for why it was the right thing to do. Maybe not quite in the way I would do it but then I wasn’t going to do it they were! I should have had more confidence in them. I should have had more confidence in myself and my ability to get the message across first time. Like many managers I needed to talk less and listen more.

It is also true than an effective communicator and that is what a manager needs to be should say the same few things over and over in lots of different ways. A consistent message, tailored to each individual audience. Different examples for different groups of staff, ones that mean something to them, stories they can relate to but always repeating the same key message.

This is not waffle where a manager keeps talking but you are not sure what the key message is. The trouble is lots of managers are rather vague about the key messages. Sometimes the key message comes in the first sentence but they feel they ought to speak for at least twenty minutes so they launch into a variety of different work topics, updates and general observations whilst their audience is wondering how does this relate to what was said at the start. The result is the audience think they have missed the point of the speech.

So the guidance is one key message per speech but half a dozen stories to illustrate the point. Subtly  repeating the message by showing how it applies in different situations and circumstances. And of course having the confidence to speak less and listen more. Have I said that already?

It was a strike about pay. It was at the ford car factory in Dagenham. It was about sewing car seat covers for Zephyrs and Cortinas. It was about getting the work recognised as skilled. It was a time of men’s work and women’s work. It was when men worked to support a family and women worked to earn a bit extra. It was the summer of 1968.

The strike by the women who sewed car seat covers at Dagenham is now recognised as paving the way for the Equal Pay Act two years later. It has been made into a feel good film about the women. As trade unionist the men support the strike but as husbands some were unhappy when meals weren’t on the table and shirts weren’t ironed because their wives spent all day on the picket line.

Forty two years later despite changes in attitudes and the law women are still paid less for the same or equal value jobs.

The latest evidence of this comes from the City. A report by the Equality and Human Rights Commissions states women working fulltime in the finance sector earn 55% less a year on average than male counter parts. Before we dismiss this as the further evidence of Sexism in the City, the land where time stood still, remember that Local Authorities who have always consider themselves model employers are struggling to rectify years of paying women less. The school dinner ladies were paid less than the refuse disposal men because women went out to work for pin money whereas men were the bread winners. This stereotype was used to justify not only differentials in pay but in bonus schemes, over time and holiday pay entitlement. Equal Pay reviews are set to address this. So the good news is staff in predominantly female areas of work like home helps, residential care workers and day centre workers will see their pay and conditions improve. The bad news is in the current financial climate the resulting increased costs could mean that cash strapped Local Authorities could transfer these services to the private sector who pay little above minimum wage.

Blair McPherson is author of An Elephant in the Room an equality and diversity manual and People management in a harsh financial climate both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

More than a third of workers in the public sector feel their managers don’t understand them.  That is the finding of a survey undertaken by OPP Business Psychology Consultancy.  What is even more disconcerting is that a confident 97% of public sector managers say they know their people well!

The study revealed that employees felt that managers did not understand their skills, preferences and motivation and therefore did not make the best use of them.  This seemed to be confirmed by managers who reported that they relied on gut instincts to make decisions such as appointing new staff, promoting staff, or identifying individuals to lead on projects.

Perhaps it is not surprising then that seven out of ten of this group of managers said they would change past decisions if they had the chance.

The study highlighted a culture of decisions based on subjective information and inconsistent criteria resulting in missed opportunities and costly bad decisions.

Of course the authors of this report have their own agenda they want to sell a range of expensive tools based around psychometric testing which identify the strengths, preferences and suitability of candidates thus improving the quality of decision making by making it less subjective. But is it true that managers know so little about their staff? Well here is a quick, easy to use, inexpensive way to find out.

Ask yourself of those people you directly manage do you know their partners name?  Do you know the names and ages of their children, whether they are at university or currently in an important exam year? Are they careering for an elderly parent? Do they go on activity holidays or do they prefer site seeing and culture, chill out on the beach or an adventure to an exotic location. Do they speak another language?

Can this survey be right in identifying that the majority of managers particularly senior managers are blissfully ignorant of what staff really think yet have convinced themselves they are in tune with the shop floor? Well speaking as a senior manager I can confirm that I do think I known what my staff are thinking. It is also true that I don’t put this to the test very often but when I or my colleagues on the senior management team do we are frequently surprised at how misunderstood our polices are, how so much info could have bye passed so many and how so few know who the Deputy Director is!

www.blairmcpherson.co.uk

A recent report by the national audit office found one in seven people using the NHS were dissatisfied with the service.  The majority did not make a formal complaint.  The report states that many people did not bother complaining because the process is ‘time consuming, complex and ultimately futile’.

Is it worth complaining about public sector services?  Will anything be done as a result?  Most people who do complain simply want an apology or an explanation they are not looking for compensation or for staff to be disciplined.

Complaints tend to fall into two categories those about indifferent, unhelpful, uncaring staff and those about the system which often seems to make no sense and be designed to frustrate.

Front line staff be they doctors, nurses, social workers or housing officers are often equally frustrated by the system.  They are sympathetic but convey the message it is beyond our control, it’s not our fault and complain if you want but I doubt it’ll make a difference.  Managers have a tendency to focus on staff.  If only people were better trained, if only we were better at recruiting the right people, if only it was easier to get rid of unsuitable staff, then things would be as they should be.

When I lost my bags at Gatwick Airport it was clear that this was not an isolated incident but a regular feature for those changing planes at Gatwick.  Basically there is often simply not enough time to get bags off one flight and on to a connecting flight.  A delayed flight incurs a large financial penalty for the air line consequently flights frequently take off without passengers’ baggage.  Clearly this is the fault of the system. Individual complaints are unlikely to change the system. You can always fly with a difference airline and use a different airport.

It doesn’t work like this in the public sector.  Of course you can go private for health, education and housing.  My brother did.  When both the toilets bowls were cracked ,broken and leaking their smelly contents on to the ward where he had been admitted with a server bowl problem he didn’t make a formal complaint in writing to the chief nursing officer he said ‘get me out of this hell’ and his wife with the help of the consultant did.

Sometimes complaining to the right person gets a quick fix.  Before my father-in-law could leave hospital he had to wait for his drugs to come from the Pharmacy.  He waited and waited but the ward couldn’t say when the drugs would come.  After a couple of hours sitting on a hard seat in a drafty corridor my wife who had gone to collect him put him in a taxi and waited alone for the drugs.  She waited most of the afternoon, checking at regular intervals with the ward staff if there was any indication when the drugs would arrive; there wasn’t.  She offered to go down to the Pharmacy herself; she was told there was no point.  Eventually even her patience was worn out.  Being a senior manager herself she understood there was no point blasting off at the ward staff so she rang the hospital switchboard and insisted on speaking to the chief nursing officer.  She explained the situation in a clam and reasonable voice resulting in a commitment to send the drugs by taxi to my father-in-law later that evening.

In both cases there were clearly problems with the system rather than the staff.

People would have more confidence in public sector complaints system if they thought complaints were treated seriously and resulted in changes to the system.  All too often the impression given is if you make a fuss you’ll be viewed as a nuisance and if you make a formal complaint you’ll get a standard response, an empty apology and a vague commitment to raise the issue with the staff concerned.

It doesn’t have to be like this, one section of the public service is required to produce an annual complaints report detailing number and types of complaints, comparison with previous years and how complaints were resolved, what lesions have been learnt and what changes to the system have been implemented as a result.  The chief executive responsible for councils who operate social services is required to present this annual complaints report to the board/cabinet.  Most local authorities have extended the scope of these reports to include compliments and suggestions so this does not have to be a negative exercise.

The annual report can be linked with customer satisfaction surveys so for example if there was a rise in complaints about home helps an in depth customer satisfaction survey could be carried out to establish if this reflected a general dissatisfaction and deterioration in the service or an increase confidence in the complaints system or a problem with a particular provider.

It is worth complaining if public services use complaints to change things.

www.blairmcpherson.co.uk

The award winning USA television programme Mad Men has returned to our screens. Mad Men in case you haven’t seen it is about the world of advertising in1960’s New York. The title comes from the head quarters of the biggest advertising agency located on Madison Avenue. White men rule the world, the office is a place of casual unthinking sexism where female employees have their bottoms patted, the boss instructs his secretary to wear shorter skirts and the only black staff are the cleaners.

This doesn’t happen in the modern work place although there are plenty of not so older staff who can remember when it did. So our daughters are no longer subject to casual sexism, unwelcome comments, restricted career opportunities and unequal pay. Well not quite. Despite changes in attitudes and the law women are still underrepresented in the top jobs especially women with children and men are still paid more for the same or equal value jobs

The latest evidence of this comes from the City which still seems to be living in the world of Mad Men. A report by the Equality and Human Rights Commissions states women working fulltime in the finance sector earn 55% less a year on average than male counter parts. Before we dismiss this as the further evidence of Sexism in the City, the land where time stood still, remember that Local Authorities who have always consider themselves model employers are struggling to rectify years of paying women less. The school dinner ladies were paid less than the refuse disposal men because women went out to work for pin money whereas men were the bread winners. This stereotype was used to justify not only differentials in pay but in bonus schemes, over time and holiday pay entitlement. Equal Pay reviews are set to address this. So the good news is staff in predominantly female areas of work like home helps, residential care workers and day centre workers will see their pay and conditions improve. The bad news is the resulting increased costs could mean that cash strapped Local Authorities could transfer these services to the private sector who pay little above minimum wage.

Blair McPherson is author of Elephant in the Room an equality and diversity training manual and People management in a harsh financial climate both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk