RESTORING RELATIONSHIPS FOR HAPPIER WORKPLACES

DEALING WITH THE DIFFICULT WHILST IT’S STILL EASY

What happens when:

• It is no longer a joy to come into work?

• People in your team fall out with each other at work?

•Someone has a bad day and comes into work and takes it out on someone yet on every other day they are a hard working and helpful colleague?

•You feel you are being micro managed and feel diminished as a result – it’s not exactly “bullying” but you don’t feel happy to be here?

•You feel you are performance managing someone and you end up being accused of bullying yourself?

OUR INTERNAL RESEARCH :

AS A MANAGER,

FOR 85 – 95% OF THE DAY-TO-DAY,

YOU DO NOT NEED AN

HR POLICY FOR OR AN HR PERSON.

IT IS ABOUT HAVING THE CONFIDENCE TO LEAD

WITHIN THE ORGANISATION’S VALUES

REPORTED

TOO LATEEmployer

Led

Leaving Career Limiting

FormalPunitive

Absence

NO

T REPORTED

OR RESO

LVED

SarcasmDisrespect

Shouting

Poor Decisions

Ignoring

BlameUnsupported Swearing

Isolated Incidents

Poor Attitude

High Level

High Impact

Reported Situations

Medium Level

High Impact

Unresolved Situations

Low Level

Impacts over time

Unresolved Situations

The Tip of the Iceberg is not the Full Picture

Old Way (ACAS) = “Investigate the Complaint”

New Way (ACAS) = Informal Approach

Old Way = Adversarial / Punitive

PERSECUTOR

FEAR VICTIM SHIFT TO RESCUER

“Your HR policies make victims out of adults”

(Luke, 19 years, Apprentice, Recruitment Team, SCC)

With an Adversarial approach – How many times in your experience does it all end up with happy people in Restored Relationships ?

Is There a better Way ?

????

Tapped into :

• Surrey’s Youth Services – Principles of Restorative Justice

Coaching at the Heart of Surrey’s Turnaround

The Right Leadership Culture

What Do We Need to Enable a Restorative Approach ?

Deciding “who is right” when there is conflict and disagreement is almost impossible – it forces people into combative/defensive mode

It isn’t about who is right and who is wrong – where there is a problem, the parties to it need to find the solution.

They need help and support to do this – In Surrey, there is a “family” of tools and support:

Coaching Pool – 30 internal Coaches in pool Fairness Champions Team of 30 trained mediators Coaching programme High Performance Development programme NLP* “bite-size” training

Training in “Better approaches to resolving differences at work” –

available to all staff

* NeuroLinguistic Programming

Change of Mind-Set is Needed

Key Ingredients of a Restorative Approach

Doesn’t all this take up a lot of time ?

Informal = Restored Relationships

Event Informal Formal Resolution

Put enough time, energy and care here

So you may not need to go here

(Key)

HOW DID SURREY INTRODUCE THE RESTORATIVE HR APPROACH?

Integral part of the Surrey People Strategy – Living the values stream

Evolution not Revolution

Organisation-wide conversations – lots of them! How are things working for you now? Could there be a better way?

Trade Unions involved as equal partners – part of the Living the Values Network

Some service areas more “ready” than others to try the new way

Successful pilot in Children’s Services

Organisation-wide investment in High Performance Development Programme – on-going roll out to over 1,000 managers

HR Team – Lots of conversations plus re-training of all HR Advisers -

Restorative HR Programme• Developed in partnership between Surrey County Council and Mayvin (

www.mayvin.co.uk)• Two cohorts of total of 28 HR professionals• Accredited to Postgraduate level by Middlesex University using the unique

‘action learning questions’ method• Experiential workshops and action learning (it’s all about the application)• Surrey and East Sussex CC people working together• Facing the political and systemic challenges alongside the skills development

Key Trends in getting RHR to work

How to do RHR?

Theme 1 - What’s happened?

Everyone has a different perspective on any given experience or issue

Let everyone express how he or she personally experienced what has happened or is

happening.

Theme 2 – Thoughts and Feelings

Thoughts influence Feelings

Invite people to express what they were / are thinking and how they were / are feeling as a result

of these thoughts.

Theme 3 – Impact and harm

Conflict and wrongdoing impact on people and cause harm; this harm needs to be repaired

Invite each in turn to consider who has been or is being harmed / affected by the situation/event

and how. Encourage accountability and responsibility.

Theme 4 – What do people want?

In the event of harm everyone involved will have similar needs

Invite each in turn to consider what they need now to repair harm/solve the problem, to feel

better and to move on.

Theme 5 – The way forward

Those harmed/affected need to find ways forward for themselves

Invite each in turn to consider how each of the needs expressed can be met, what

support they might need to do this and how they will do things differently in the

future

So How is it Going? Half of all cases in Children’s Services - Restorative Saves money on investigations & suspensions Viral effect is catching on – more and more people are saying “Let’s have a Restorative

conversation” Restorative approach doesn’t fit every circumstances – some situations too far gone or too

grave for an informal approach Feedback 70% of staff & managers are using the informal approach over formal HR

Processes Staff feedback - they have been treated with dignity Sickness absence improved – 2008 13.2 days per FTE; 2015 6.45 days Teams and people are not locked down in conflict for months brining down morale and

productivity People are engaging in constructive conversations to find early solutions to problems and

conflict before they fester

This can only be good for the quality of service to residents

“ I love coming into work now I’m not “knee deep” in investigations” (HR Adviser)

“I’m getting quite good at this!” – Senior Manager

HR Case Work Employer Led Cases Employee Led Cases

2011/12 194 57

2012/13 163 37

2013/14 157 29

People inherently want to do the right thing

“Human beings are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make

positive changes in their behaviour when those in positions of authority do things with them,

rather than to them or for them”

International Institute for Restorative Practices

“We underestimate people’s capacity to forgive”

RESTORED RELATIONSHIPS