People management issue. Advice needed- how would you deal with this?

Question

2 weeks ago I was recruited by a financial services company to manage a service centre in the UK. The centre has been open for 3 yrs and has been losing a lot of money. My job is to find out why and to fix it quickly.

I have found is that the centre was being run by the staff not the managers. The staff were used to coming in every day and selecting which parts of their jobs they want to do and only doing those.

In addition the staff (who are largely young, inexperienced and recruited into entry-level clerical and admin roles) have been led to believe by the prev. manager that they are professional consultants. They are not qualified to be consultants and there is not a role for a team of consultants so training them up is not an option.

The business needs them to do the roles they were employed to do. I am getting a lot of staff resistance to the changes as they r 'better than having to do repetitive menial tasks every day'.

Any advice on how to handle this situation?

Just to clarify I have already implemented many of the changes needed but the company I work for do not support any approach which 'reduces morale' of staff members. Hence the dilemma.

For me it is clear cut, their job role is clear and well-defined and they need to make a choice about whether to do it or not. If they choose not to they need to move on, voluntarily or otherwise.

The issue is the company does not support this approach- hence my problem

Answer 1

NICE! A good deal of the answer is dependent upon other items you may not have addressed in the description. Example; are they unionized? Is there a written employment agreement in effect? Are they aware of their responsibilities/ do they have job descriptions? What is your expected turn aroound time? What are the expectations of your employer and what are their time frames? Will they support your decisions? OK, enough of the questions, I apologize.

Taken at face value, you'll have to decide about your level of commitment to these people. You are in for a 6 to 9 month draining battle if you want to make a turn around with the same people. You will be left with 2 major options and 1 untenable one. 1) Invest time with the present staff and create a turn around.
2) Weed 'em out and start anew.
3) Leave it the way it is. (Gee, I wonder which one is untenable).

If you invest time in the present staff you will be confronted by skepticism, still face resistance, and will likely have to let some people go. You will also gain the respect of the people who change and make a decision to stay. It is important to note, that you are currently an interloper and have little credibility in their eyes, making this decision fairly difficult. However, since the other 2 require the least thought, I will continue to expand on this solution.

In your description you identify managers that are not managing. To these people you need to get their head in the game. Explain to them that they are currently an expense and you are evaluating perfromance to determine which managers are performing their jobs and which ones are choosing to be separated from the company. If a manager begins to speak about his people being the problem, remind him that they are reponsible for the performance of their people. When a soccer team under performs, the coach gets sacked, when a work team under performs.... It is key that the managers are invested in their people and are pushing them towards success.

For the non managerial workers, grab a job description and the manager for the team, and sit with the groups ( I am assuming that there is more than one job description at this facility). Tell them that you were hired because the centre has been losing money. It is your job to improve performance or recommend a closing of the centre. Ask them to teach you their jobs and ask several questions. Make sure the groups manager is participating and give him a heads up regarding your plan. Spend at least 2 hours one day actually performing their job as described to you with one of them close by to assist you should you have any difficulty. After all, they are the experts. Upon completion of that time meet again and discuss the duties as outilined in the job description. If someone is "above that menial task" have them explain why and explain it in front of the group. Ask them to pick the person from the group that should perform the menial task. Connect the menial tasks to the big picture and divide them up among the group. Work with the individuals to accomplish the tasks and offer praise for excellence, not common effort but excellence. To the people that state they are consultants, meet with them privately, discuss the qualifications as if they were interviewing for the job and they are a living resume. Point out where they fall short, the need for additional training and licensure and why the industry requires this training/license/registration. Show them a career path and the requisite work experience and education so that they have something to aspire to. A menial task is a state of mind. It is up to you to change that opinion and that will only happen if they can put the puzzle together. How is my filing these forms relevant to the profitability of the company? Make sure you can show them how their specific contributions matter.

Phase 2 is getting the centre profitable again. That involves greater analysis. The profitability of the centre may not be due to the performance of these workers and they may be just a smoke screen. You will need to evaluate processes for redundancy to eliminate wasteful practices. You will also need to look at your revenue drivers. Are they selling appropriately or they offering 6% discounts and your actual margin is 5.8%.

There os about 4 more months of information to share with you but I am running out of time. I hope this helps and I hope you are good at statistics. If not, take a couple of courses, (preferably taught by graduate level professors because that is where you will really learn to apply statistics). Good Luck

Answer 2

Well, there are a lot of possibilities.

In order to keep employees happy, it is fine to call them consultants and to call the real consultants, "senior consultants."

An important step would be to evaluate the employees based on the tasks they are currently performing. Some may be performing well and others may not.

You can determine the tasks that need to be done in the office and the time that needs to be devoted to each task. See which tasks are currently being performed successfully and by which people and match them up with the tasks you have identified as necessary. Meet with those people and let them know that their jobs are intact.

Meet with the other people and tell them that some restructuring needs to be done in order to keep the office profitable and open. Tell them that the tasks they previously did are no longer necessary and tell them about the new tasks that are available. See if any of them express an interest in any of the new tasks. Tell them that you realize that some people are going to be upset with these necessary changes. If some people prefer to leave, tell them you will provide a decent reference for them as long as they will do a good job for the remainder of their time with the company. Assign those people the lower tasks. As they leave, replace them with lower level workers at a lower salary. In this way you will retain the best people, let go the worst and lower the expenses. You will be in control of the situation. If you force everyone to do lower level work, the most competent may be the most disatisfied and may leave first.

Further restructuring can occur along with normal attrition.

Answer 3

If you've been brought (parachuted) in to do a specific job , firstly , why haven't you any ideas of your own?. You are the 'new broom'. You also mentioned staff resistance , make sure you have them put into their diaries a date for a general staff meeting. It's no use telling them separately. By the time the date (you have set) comes around , you should have in place , the changes you want. This is not a time for democratic discussion. Tell them , in no uncertain terms , how the business will be run. They can 'go with it' or resign. You'll mostly find that there will be lots of moaning for weeks ahead and you will be unpopular. It's human nature to resist change , not unusual in companies. You will have to show you are upbeat about the future and ask for reliable and flexible personnel. It sound that the staff have formed themselves into a clique - break it up right away. It would also be a great idea to bring in new faces and train them up from scratch.

Answer 4

Use or Create a job description based on each of these person's job they are supposed to be doing. Put this in writting & submit the appropriate job description to the person it applies to. Then also draft a letter stating that this is the job description of the job they are occupying... if they choose not to fulfull that job description they will have to be terminated and replaced with someone who understands that the company must have persons fullfilling thier job roles. Explain in that letter that any information given by previous persons as to the nature of the job tasks is to be considered erroneous & is not an option any longer. They need to sign a copy for company records that they have been notified and that they have been warned. If they refuse to sign, write refused to sign in the area where they didn't sign and date it.

I don't even fault the young, inexperienced group. I fault the group above them that placed them in the jobs & allowed them to believe these were thier jobs. And I would SEVERELY punish even to the extent of firing all persons involved for costing the company so much money!!!!!

Answer 5

Sounds like the scenario is that there is no managerial managing and the staff doesn't need management to function. I would suggest starting a managerial structure since you said there was none. Start being a manager. Start managing the staff. Simple. Start with a structured management model on paper and introduce the changes to the staff in a meeting encompassing all of the staff with the intentions of enabling vertical management structure changes and the restructuring of the horizontal structure of the staff. Eliminating the influence of the staff which is running the company prior to getting there deserves to have a look/see as to the strengths of the staff structure with and without vertical managerial influence. Knowing which parts of the staff structure indeed needs less management being seperated from the remainder of the staff that needs more attention. Maintain your managerial model to be accurate as your design. It has to be clear as to who is management and defining the duties of the staff under management and not horizontally being a part of the staff yourself. Tell them you will start leaving the crust on their cucumber sandwiches during high tea if they don't straighten up. Do not allow for vertical managerial structures to appear in the staff level where things should be horizontally structured. If vertical structuring is needed on the staff level make sure that duties are shifted in this vertically limited structure to allow for all to have part in the staff that gives all an oppurtunity to experience all functions of the staff so they will not have power struggles or resentments and have the ability to perform each others duties when needed limited of course to ability but allowing for the understanding of all functions to a degree. All companies have a managerial structure chart as to the way the company has decided to structure and run itself and you as a manager are in obligation to use the already defined structure and enforce the managerial structure design as prescribed by the company.

Answer 6

Tough, but this is what I would do...

Clearly communicate goals and objectives for the business and the team

Identify who will be an asset and who will be a liability. You have to match the skills to the requirements.

Conduct one on one interviews to see who will buy in to your ideas.

Communicate what you are doing to senior management. You may have to make hard decisions about restructuring (firing) people

There will be no quick fix. Time will be the judge as you need to see the financials over a period of at least 1 yr.

Look at costs - see where you can cut wastage and be more efficient.

It sounds like there needs to be a big shake up and you won't be popular so don't try to be.

Good luck

Answer 7

Woof. That is a tough situation to be in. I guess, if you have a superior, talk to them about the situation. Let them know that these people have shown an "unwillingness" to do the job they were hired to do. If you are employing them to do a certain job, and they are not doing it, then they are a liability to the company. If they refuse to "change", get rid of them and hire new folks. It won't be hard to replace them, if they are inexperienced and entry-level. Maybe ditching a couple of the worst ones will encourage the others to "step up" and start doing what they are told.

Answer 8

Many of the other answers are very good. I would come up with written job descriptions for each of the positions. Then have a general meeting. Explain to them that the company needs a quick turnaround and one way that is going to happen is for each of them to fulfill ALL of the duties of their job plus any that you ask them to do in addition that they are capable of doing. Tell them you know that each of them is very qualified to perform these duties (even entry-level clerical people) and that you hope that all of them can get through this and out to the other side with you and their co-workers because you value each and every one of them. They will then either do the work for you, or quit, or make it necessary for you to fire them.

Answer 9

Personally, I would explain the situation to them, and let them know that they DO NOT run the business. If they do not want to change, then I'd ask them to turn in a resignation. Either go with the flow, or find another job. If they think they are that qualified, they will find out in the real world that they are not. Might sound mean, but who runs the place anyhows?

Answer 10

I think you need to get a few people from different sectors - staff and management to do a time in motion study. That will show them what they spending most time on.. it will also give good analysis on where the time is wasted.

You could then get someone to make up task lists for everyone.