business focus
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
OPEN PROGRAMMES BE EXCEPTIONAL. THE HENLEY WAY.
Do difficult conversations keep you awake at night?
Flexible working ‘makes life better’
New research
commissioned by global medical technology company BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) has shown that both employers and employees in Reading and its catchment area can benefit from flexible working.
henley.ac.uk/open
One of the most challenging aspects of leadership is dealing with difficult conversations, and even the most knowledgeable manager can lack confidence when having to deal with a disciplinary issue, internal conflict or challenging performance management discussions
And in increasingly competitive times, the emphasis on robust performance management can put pressure on managers to maximise productivity, and cause some employees to feel that they just can’t meet expectations.
The inability of an organisation’s leaders to deal with such situations has been cited by employees as one of the major reasons for seeking alternative employment, so maintaining workplace harmony can protect the time, energy and cost invested in recruiting and developing workers.
For many managers, the immediate response to a challenging staff issue is to ignore it, but this only leads to increased resentment within the team and often escalates the problem. There is still an organisational culture of dealing with difficulties in a reactive way, as and when they arise.
Debora Brockwell, programme director on the Henley Business School’s Developing Management Practice (DMP) programme, believes that
Diana Richards 01491 418767
exec@henley.ac.uk henley.ac.uk/DMP @HenleyExecEd
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good managers and leaders understand the options and develop a confidence in applying a range of approaches that will yield positive outcomes whatever the characteristics of their colleagues.
“There needs to be a robust, systematic and clearly understood approach to performance management,” says Brockwell, “which includes regular dialogue as well as annual reviews.”
The DMP programme uses a variety of tools and techniques – including the Thomas-Kilmann and Myers-Briggs – to assess delegates’ styles and preferences, and this helps to emphasise the flexible approach needed to resolve conflict.
The programme introduces new perspectives that support individuals to have level-headed conversations. This instils the confidence needed to tackle difficult scenarios by avoiding the conflict in the first place, or recognising when action is needed and taking that action promptly and decisively.
BD is consolidating its former operations in Oxford and Basingstoke at a site in Winnersh, having identified the Reading area as its ideal, new location. The company commissioned research on flexible working among Reading area businesses as the company operates a flexible working policy and was keen to test how such flexibility was valued and appreciated.
BD commissioned independent market research company, MindMetre, to canvass senior managers at 300 companies in the Reading, catchment (40-minute drive time) online between September 2016 and February 2017.
The research – which canvassed views from 300 businesses in the area – clearly identifies the major contribution that flexible working makes to employee productivity and concentration. This is a key benefit for employers with flexible working policies, encouraging improved quality and quantity of professional output from employees who work this way.
However, the research also shows that the benefits of flexible policies works both ways, providing improved work-life balance for staff and consequently increasing motivation. Not only can employees avoid travel at the busiest commuting hours, they can also adjust the way their
working day is scheduled, perhaps making time to take children to and from school, or fitting a regular exercise regime into the day outside of peak hours. Such work-life flexibility benefits employees from junior roles to top management. The resulting increase in staff motivation helps deliver higher levels of staff retention, higher quality of thinking, action and ultimately improved commercial results.
Finally, around one-third of businesses also consider that flexible working directly contributes to staff health and physical wellbeing, reducing stress levels to contribute to a healthier life. Improvements in both work-life balance and physical healthiness means that companies offering flexible working policies are more likely to attract the best talent, which in turn helps organisations stay at the competitive forefront of their field.
Mike Fairbourn, vice- president and general manager, UK & Ireland at BD, commented: “Offering a level of flexible working, where appropriate to the role, really is becoming the hallmark of a modern company. In our business, we are far more interested in high-quality outputs from our employees than we are in simply the number of hours they have been in the office. We are operating in the ‘knowledge economy’, and we are firmly convinced that flexible working is one key factor in helping us to attract and retain the talent we need to forge our future success. Indeed, the policy is already paying dividends as we recruit for a number of positions in preparation for our move to Winnersh.”
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2017
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