Can I share something with you? I am constantly appalled at how little emphasis many organisations place on the people skills of their leaders and managers. Ever since Julia’s House topped the rankings of this year’s Sunday Times Best Companies ‘100 Best Places to Work in the Public & Charity Sectors’, a confidential survey of employees in hundreds of workplaces carried out by Best Companies, we’ve been asked by many employers to share what we know and do. Hence I’ll be speaking at this year’s CIPD annual conference in November. But for every organisation that is keen to learn and develop, there are many more that aren’t. In all too many workplaces, the sad truth is that people skills are optional, management is inconsistent, communication is poor, talent development is virtually non-existent, and staff surveys (if they are done at all) are announced with a fanfare but the results are quietly buried. And then these organisations wonder why their staff turnover is high. At Julia’s House, the Dorset Children’s Hospice, we’ve managed to more than halve our staff turnover, saving time and money on recruitment and inductions. Staff sick leave has fallen by a third, while productivity has markedly increased. We’ve done this by researching what makes for brilliant people managers and passing this on in training to all our managers. We’ve provided counselling helplines for our staff, conducted regular anonymous staff surveys, held focus groups for staff to tell us how to improve, and kept people in the loop on how we’ve used their ideas. We also have a series of signals that we send to our staff that show that we really are all in this together. Many CEOs believe that they are too busy and too high-powered to trouble themselves with such niceties. Actually, they’re just bad leaders. I used to think these leaders couldn’t be bothered. But it goes deeper than that. It’s because they just don’t get it. And the result? They’ll have employees who have a brilliant idea but who won’t share it, because they’ve had the confidence ground out of them by a manager who doesn't listen. They’ll be losing talented people because they’ve never been told how good they are. And middle managers will tell the boss what they think the boss wants to hear, so all that direct coal-face feedback, all those nuggets of observation, wisdom and experience, are usually lost. It’s a waste of potential. A waste of people’s potential. And a waste of the potential to make a difference to the bottom line. But if we all can get these things right, just how great could all our organizations be? That’s why I’d like to share with you how we do it. Martin Edwards is Chief Executive of Julia’s House, ranked no. 1 in this year’s Sunday Times Best Companies (Public & Charity Sectors category). Julia’s House is a former winner of the Best Employer award at the UK Third Sector Excellence Awards, and was one of only 40 organizations invited to contribute to a recent UK government report on leadership. Get a fresh HR perspective at this year’s CIPD Annual Conference & Exhibition. Learn more about important HR topics and network with friends and colleagues. Tickets start at £135 - visit the website today >>
I attended Martin's talk on the first day of the conference - it was absolutely brilliant and inspirational - I donated £50 to the Hospice as soon as I got home and would love to work for Martin if I ever had the chance - but as I live on the Isle of Man, that's not likely to happen!
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