I had instructed our receptionist that I was not to be disturbed
just before I went to my favourite chaise lounge in my office. That was
my sanctuary, where I have been repeatedly baptised from all the stress
from work. It had the perfect view and as I looked out of my office
window at the Abuja landscape, I was once again grateful that I had this
scenic picture of distant rocky hills embraced by Dongoyaro trees to
always give me clarity.
It was my favourite time of year too, when the harmattan season kissed this elegant but temperamental city of mine with cool but dusty winds and veiled her with a beige coloured robe from the Sahara desert.
As I felt the cramps in my stomach, I knew that my challenges at work were once again affecting my health, a part of my life I had been struggling to balance with no success.
The problem was the introduction of a new HR appraisal scheme in the third quarter of 2015. This was done to strengthen our work culture.
Our organisation had just won a big facilities management contract and had also commenced a five-year strategic plan for intercontinental partnership. Our portfolio had to be air tight to bring substance to any partnership and negotiation table.
We had also studied the present economic climate in Nigeria and knew that 2016 was going to be challenging, especially as a new government had taken over the state of affairs and was faced with the threat of a recession due to the global decline of oil prices. We were trying to be proactive and planned to align ourselves economically to prepare for any unforeseen eventualities by taking steps to radicalise our entire HR platform.
With strict policies in place to seal any loose ends regarding work suffering as a result of sloppiness from staff members, we tied hard work as a means to earn a thirteenth month salary, a technical bonus, which was previously an entitlement.
I thought all seemed to be going quite well until the end of the year when bonuses, drawn from appraisal evaluation, were to be paid, but an uproar ensued. Our employees were livid and this was beginning to affect their work output.
Totally confused and exhausted, our Managing Director and I decided to go Sherlock Holmes on this surprise outrage. A lot of mental work (not to talk of long nights at the office) had gone into putting this platform together. We had taken a generic appraisal method and tailored it specifically to suit each member of staff based on our organisational culture, taking into account level of education, work experience, language barriers, skills gaps and even ensured sensitivity to individual religion.
Our HR consultants had explained all in detail to our in-house HR rep, who in turn was to pass on the policy to the rest of our thirty-seven team members and monitor.
We were confident that we didn't leave any stone unturned and she constantly reported back that all was working out smoothly, so what could have been the problem? Whatever the problem was, needed to be sorted out quickly to restore the moral of the organisation.
So our MD and I started our investigation by calling individual meetings with each and every member of staff, asking specific questions on what their personal grievance was. From the answers we gathered, we realised that our HR rep was probably overwhelmed with the technicalities of this new programme, but was too embarrassed to speak up.
She had gone ahead to explain her own version of what she understood of the appraisals, which got more complicated each time a member of the team came back to her for further clarification. They in turn went on to tell their own adulterated version to their colleagues until a perfect storm was brewed.
Thankfully, in the end, all was sorted out. We explained to them what the HR programme was about. This was followed by a truck-load of questions, coupled with an intense group training carried out by our HR consultants.
But because of this experience, we decided to do an exercise on "Chinese whispers" at the training to put into practice the impact of miscommunication.
What started out as "I can't wait till this training is over, my legs are killing me and I'm hungry" came back as "That you should go to the security post!"
Nothing gave our situation more illumination than that exercise. There were gasps of disbelieve coated with amusement that filled the room.
Even though I was extremely relieved the entire confusion was finally over, the exasperating episode only reiterated my strong opinion that information without proper verification and left to it's own devices can birth an uncontrollable monster.
Thank goodness it's all over. Now, on to the next chapter.
It was my favourite time of year too, when the harmattan season kissed this elegant but temperamental city of mine with cool but dusty winds and veiled her with a beige coloured robe from the Sahara desert.
As I felt the cramps in my stomach, I knew that my challenges at work were once again affecting my health, a part of my life I had been struggling to balance with no success.
The problem was the introduction of a new HR appraisal scheme in the third quarter of 2015. This was done to strengthen our work culture.
Our organisation had just won a big facilities management contract and had also commenced a five-year strategic plan for intercontinental partnership. Our portfolio had to be air tight to bring substance to any partnership and negotiation table.
We had also studied the present economic climate in Nigeria and knew that 2016 was going to be challenging, especially as a new government had taken over the state of affairs and was faced with the threat of a recession due to the global decline of oil prices. We were trying to be proactive and planned to align ourselves economically to prepare for any unforeseen eventualities by taking steps to radicalise our entire HR platform.
With strict policies in place to seal any loose ends regarding work suffering as a result of sloppiness from staff members, we tied hard work as a means to earn a thirteenth month salary, a technical bonus, which was previously an entitlement.
I thought all seemed to be going quite well until the end of the year when bonuses, drawn from appraisal evaluation, were to be paid, but an uproar ensued. Our employees were livid and this was beginning to affect their work output.
Totally confused and exhausted, our Managing Director and I decided to go Sherlock Holmes on this surprise outrage. A lot of mental work (not to talk of long nights at the office) had gone into putting this platform together. We had taken a generic appraisal method and tailored it specifically to suit each member of staff based on our organisational culture, taking into account level of education, work experience, language barriers, skills gaps and even ensured sensitivity to individual religion.
Our HR consultants had explained all in detail to our in-house HR rep, who in turn was to pass on the policy to the rest of our thirty-seven team members and monitor.
We were confident that we didn't leave any stone unturned and she constantly reported back that all was working out smoothly, so what could have been the problem? Whatever the problem was, needed to be sorted out quickly to restore the moral of the organisation.
So our MD and I started our investigation by calling individual meetings with each and every member of staff, asking specific questions on what their personal grievance was. From the answers we gathered, we realised that our HR rep was probably overwhelmed with the technicalities of this new programme, but was too embarrassed to speak up.
She had gone ahead to explain her own version of what she understood of the appraisals, which got more complicated each time a member of the team came back to her for further clarification. They in turn went on to tell their own adulterated version to their colleagues until a perfect storm was brewed.
Thankfully, in the end, all was sorted out. We explained to them what the HR programme was about. This was followed by a truck-load of questions, coupled with an intense group training carried out by our HR consultants.
But because of this experience, we decided to do an exercise on "Chinese whispers" at the training to put into practice the impact of miscommunication.
What started out as "I can't wait till this training is over, my legs are killing me and I'm hungry" came back as "That you should go to the security post!"
Nothing gave our situation more illumination than that exercise. There were gasps of disbelieve coated with amusement that filled the room.
Even though I was extremely relieved the entire confusion was finally over, the exasperating episode only reiterated my strong opinion that information without proper verification and left to it's own devices can birth an uncontrollable monster.
Thank goodness it's all over. Now, on to the next chapter.
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Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Gigi_Adoghe/2223850
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