carmel millar - surrey cc
TRANSCRIPT
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