In many aspects of our lives, but particularly in work we hear a lot about people “knowing their rights.” Overall, this is a good thing as it reflects an increased awareness of how we should be treated and how we should treat others. 

But it is easy to forget the other side of the coin.  This is understanding our responsibilities.  In order to be fair in our dealings with other people, we do need to understand our rights, but also fulfil our responsibilities. 

Do we really know what they are when we step through the office door? 

As an employee, our rights are...
 To be paid
 That our employer exercises reasonable care of us
 To have access to a grievance procedure
 To have mutual trust and confidence

To balance these, our responsibilities are...
 Duty of obedience; to accept a manager has the right to ask us to do something providing it is reasonable, safe and lawful 
 Duty to adapt; to accept changes are needed in workplaces
 Duty to exercise care; of ourselves, our colleagues and our employer’s property
 Duty of fidelity or good faith; that our actions are in the best interests of our employer at all times 

We are all operating in an uncertain climate at the moment, where there is often a lot of mistrust between employees and their employers, so being reminded of these rights and responsibilities from time to time can be a very useful way of ensuring we are building strong working relationships, which are based on trust.

One of our clients saw the benefits of this approach and last month we ran a highly interactive session for thirty team members on this very subject. The participants welcomed the opportunity to discuss openly the balance between having rights and understanding their responsibilities. One team member commented that it was useful to remember that there is a dual responsibility when you work for someone and the challenge is for both parties to live up to them. 

As Bill Maher, the American comedian said “We have a bill of rights. It is about time we had a bill of responsibilities”...

As we embark on a new year full of gloomy predictions and worrying economic statistics, many managers will be wondering how on earth they will be able to keep teams motivated and engaged in 2012.

The latest CIPD survey on employee attitudes to pay reinforces that this will be a key challenge for managers. When employees were asked if they felt valued, the net satisfaction score was +4 (compared to +33 in 2008). Over the same period net satisfaction scores have fallen for: 'I am proud to work for this organisation' (+50 to +32); 'I feel motivated to perform well' (+46 to +24); and 'my organisation communicates well with me' (+25 to -6). http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2012/01/employees-discontented-over-pay-shows-cipd-research.htm

What these results clearly show is that it is not all about the money. Most of us recognise the reality of this tough economic climate – but that doesn’t mean that we can’t feel motivated at work.

Research shows time and time again that it is the “intrinsic” factors that really make the difference to how happy and motivated someone is at work – in other words how valued they feel, whether they are recognised for the effort they put in, whether their contribution is noticed, whether they are trusted and whether they have opportunity to take on more responsibility or more challenging tasks. Money can be a good short term motivator, but is no substitute for these other factors.

The good news then is that line managers can make a real difference to how happy and motivated someone is. They may not be able to give them a pay rise, but they have direct control over how much they recognise effort and praise results. They have direct control over how valued they make their team member feel and it is down to them to decide what to delegate and whether to develop someone’s skills by trusting them to take on something new.

The beginning of a new year is a great time to review your management skills, so start by asking yourself these questions…
• How clear are your people about the goals for the company/ team this year?
• Are you and all your managers motivated and committed to the organisation?
• How clear are your team members about what is expected of them?
• How much do you and your managers understand about what your employees want from work?
• Do you ensure decisions are clearly communicated with the reasons behind them?
• Do you and your managers show appreciation and offer regular feedback?
• Do you give time to your people – get to know them as individuals?
• Do you ensure your employees feel listened to?

These are the things that will make the biggest difference to how motivated your people are –  and ensure that you are equipped to weather another tough year with a happy and loyal team.

Despite a plethora of evidence in wide ranging reports from academics, businesses and consultants over the last few years, the coalition government has set up another taskforce to help increase the understanding of employee engagement and its potential benefits. The taskforce will generate debate, share good practice and ultimately offer employers support via a new website due to launch next year. http://bis.gov.uk/news/topstories/2011/Mar/employee-engagement-task-force

But how much more evidence do we need?

Roffey Park’s 2010 research report ‘The human voice of employee engagement’ clearly establishes the crucial role of line managers in the engagement process and states that “…whatever factors are at play elsewhere in the organisation, employees day-to-day experience of work is most heavily influenced by their line manager…”

After a two year study The People and the bottom line’ report published in 2008 by the Work Foundation also  established a strong correlation between high levels of employee engagement and  high performance and identified that the current low levels in the UK could be costing our organisations dear.

The report suggests that more effective people management strategies could increase profitability by up to £1,500 per employee.

Despite these findings, relatively few organisations put emphasis on developing managers as part of their engagement strategy –rather focusing on more traditional suggestion schemes, recognition awards and corporate buy-in approaches.

The CIPD’s study, ‘Management competencies for enhancing employee engagement’ published in March this year comes to a similar conclusion and highlights the importance of  developing the right behaviours. These include

• managers giving the right levels of guidance
• constructive feedback
• appropriate levels of autonomy to staff
• setting realistic but challenging targets
• making time for employees
• treating them fairly
• making them feel valued
• managing individual performance

The current taskforce hopes to present its conclusions in 2012, although whether it will really shed any more light on existing evidence remains to be seen.

What will make a difference is organisations having a renewed emphasis on coaching and developing managers. This is what will bring a significant return on investment and an increase in profits, not waiting for the great and the good to tell us yet again what we really already know – that developing your line managers’ people management skills will improve your bottom line! 

At Focal Point we are about to embark on the Investors in People journey so this area is very close to our hearts!

The Department for Business (BIS) in a recent independent review, stated that a wider take up of engagement approaches would have an enormously positive impact on UK competitiveness and performance.

The agreed definition of Employee Engagement is;
‘A workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are committed to their organisations goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, and are able at the same time to enhance their own sense of well-being.’

The report suggests, however that engagement levels in the UK are currently low, so it is clearly an area that many organisations need to be tackling.

http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/employment-matters/strategies/employee-engagement

But it is a tough call. The Guardian recently highlighted how the traditional career ladder is a thing of the past; success is no longer measured by steps up the ladder, as organisations are so much flatter in structure. This means fewer opportunities for promotion and a career nowadays will mean multiple changes of direction, more of what the article calls a ‘career carousel’ whose direction is often a step sideways rather than up. http://careers.guardian.co.uk/careers-blog/time-to-step-away-from-the-career-ladder

This lack of traditional career progression can contribute to a lack of engagement and managers now need to work harder than ever at identifying what is important to their people.

Welcome to the world of ‘Career Management’, where it is vital to align organisational and individual needs.

But how to tackle this? As a starting point consider the following points…
• How clear is the vision of the company?
• Are all your managers engaged themselves and committed to the organisation?
• How clear are individuals about what is expected of them?
• How much do managers understand about what their employees want from work?
• Do your managers show appreciation and offer feedback?
• Do they treat staff as individuals - with fairness and respect?
• Do they enable employees to have a voice?

Companies which challenge themselves in these key areas and examine how they can be improved, will be the ones that create a genuinely motivated and engaged workforce and reap the benefits of increased loyalty and performance.