Creative & Management Consultancy

A client approached us with a very real problem: on one of their national sites, employee engagement was so bad that daily absentee rates had risen to more than 50%. This is a complex, industrial organisation with a daily turnover of material that requires all hands-on deck. Plus, the staffing unpredictability came with implied costs for extra labour. They needed to turn the situation around as quickly as possible and asked if we could help. To be honest, we thought this was a much bigger problem than they’d realised and, being a team of only two, we weren’t sure we could deliver this in addition to our other work. But we asked if they’d be willing to let us hatch a plan. After some careful consideration this is what we suggested. For the first stage of the strategy:

· We’d need to identify, then interview, the most disengaged workers

· Be allowed to listen without judgement

· Offer full anonymity, not ascribing anything said to one individual

· Accept what interviewees said as being utterly “true for them”

· Accept that the most vehemently opposed points of view would spotlight the areas of tension that needed resolving first

Having identified the most serious issues, the second stage of the strategy would be to:

· Offer all involved a chance to meet and openly give voice to their grievances

· Offer a neutral setting where we could mediate the conversation to ensure it was constructive, not combative

· And, having done that, we’d then design the third part of the strategy, which would be to reengage and reintegrate the workforce, based on the discoveries and insights gleaned from the other two

However, we never got past the second stage. Having listened without judgement, identified areas of conflict and set up “Talking Shops” where people could meet, talk and be honest without facing conflict, there was a rapid return to work across the site and daily absence fell from 50% to less than 1% in a matter of weeks!

We’re still trying to unpack what we did, exactly. We think if we could bottle the essence, we’d make a small fortune. Best laid plans and all that…