We have been working with an organisation which has gone through massive change over the past three years. The change has come about through a new strategic direction set by the Board partly due to the loss of funding for a particular program.
We were called in after the CEO received the eighth resignation in as many months. Staff turnover has not only impacted morale but also budget and the work culture.
Our job was to meet with the staff individually and together to put together an internal communications plan and to work alongside the HR manager to review job roles and titles, and job descriptions.
What emerged was a lack of clarity around career paths, job roles, and a siloed mentality between departments. Interestingly it was the newer staff who were leaving, many of whom cited a miss-match between job descriptions and the real work, and the view that if they stayed too long their career would stagnate. Staff who had been employed for longer were disenchanted with their pay and lack of respect shown by the newcomers.
We worked with the CEO and all staff, not just the senior team, on ways to be able to handle dissent and stress. A focus was on the importance of people being able to disagree and not be maligned. Out of diversity comes creativity, as the saying goes. We suggested a series of office lunches to discuss burning issues, giving each person the chance to talk about their job and the importance of team work. These lunches are continuing and have done much to alleviate the stress.
We also initiated a system where the junior staff came together on a weekly basis to discuss operational, not strategic, issues and to report upward in their particular team. This also has highlighted potential leaders and has given people who are normally overlooked the chance to shine.
The project is very different to what we normally are engaged to do but what excited us about it was that everyone wanted to improve communication in order to have a healthy worklife.
The tune has switched to I want to stay, why should I go?