Managing employees through change
By Daleen Vorster, Founder of Jumping Fox Software
I have spoken quite a bit about employee morale to date, and it certainly is one of the aspects of running a business that lies close to my heart. Something else that I personally place high importance in, is helping the right people grow and achieve their goals at my company. However, I often find that an employee’s transition into their new role, is made all the more challenging by the emotional aspect of the change that they are undergoing.
The fact of the matter is that whether you are promoting a loyal employee, or hiring a new one, managing their morale and motivation levels throughout the first few months of their transition is crucial. With this in mind, I have compiled a few ground rules that the savvy business owner should always keep in mind.
- Do not let promising employees slip into a comfort zone
One of my biggest frustrations is seeing my best and brightest employees crumble after a recent promotion. Especially in instances where you have been working with a particular individual for many years (and you understand exactly what they are capable of), it can come as a complete surprise when they express frustration – or even break down in tears – over their new responsibilities.
In my experience, this is often the result of having allowed these individuals to fall into their comfort zones. Thus, my first piece of advice is to keep your most promising employees on their toes with new tasks and changes to their most repetitive tasks from time to time. Ensuring that your employee can adapt to regular changes, will make their eventual promotion infinitely less bewildering.
2. Acknowledge the challenges
Something that we often do with new recruits or people in new positions, is to assign new tasks without taking a moment to recognize the learning curve that they are experiencing. As author, Anne Kreamer says, “skip the superhuman act”.
As managers, being honest about our struggles earns extra employee loyalty and trust. When your team knows that you’re under pressure to accomplish something, they’re better able to help you in the way you need them to.
By that same token, we should also acknowledge when we have given an employee a difficult task, and encourage them openly talk about their pressures and challenges.
3. Open and honest progress reports are crucial
Having your employee regularly report back to you on their progress and workload, is absolutely crucial to managing their transition. I have often found that not doing this usually results in missed deadlines and disappointments very early on in the employee’s new role.
Even if you expect the employee in question to work autonomously in their position, you must manage them much more closely during the transition period. Schedule weekly or bi-weekly touch-base sessions with your employee for the first few months at least. Asking the right questions and drawing the right information out of them during these sessions can help you to correct or avoid major setbacks down the line.
4. Know when to give them space
An important point that is often forgotten by eager managers, is knowing when to take a step back. While you usually need to keep close control over a situation involving a new recruit, you should also understand that you are sometimes only adding to their problem.
Sometimes providing space and time for employees to deal with what’s going on at their own pace is the most effective way to manage an emotional employee. If you suspect that you have been pushing an employee too hard, ease up and sop checking in for a little while. It may even be helpful to rather send one of their peers to assist.
There are indeed many more aspects to managing emotional employees, or individuals undergoing a major transition, but these are the points that have added the most value to the way that I manage my team. In the end, making room for the emotional side of promotions and new appointments can really pay off in the long-run.
For information on how to streamline credit risk management processes, contact us on 021 – 0014758 or visit the Jumping Fox Software website