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An introduction to the services provided by Fulcrum Training Services Limited

The Context

The role of a manager is a difficult and complex one which becomes extremely demanding when having to deal with employee attitudes, behaviour or performance which fall short of the required or expected standards. Such failings may be alleged, suspected or apparent, and frequently arise during or as a consequence of the implementation of changes within the organisation, no matter how carefully these have been planned and prepared. During such periods employees’ sensitivities are raised and fear, anger or frustration is generated; motivation falls away, morale is lowered and team working becomes difficult. The situation is ripe for conflict to arise and for service standards to drop. Complaints from customers or service users increase, as do allegations from employees with regard to the behaviour of colleagues.

In any event, if such issues have not been prevented but do arise then, in addressing them, the manager concerned will need to find out what actually happened. This is a vital first step. Only then will it be possible for the manager to make the necessary decisions and take the appropriate action if it is found that what actually happened was not what should have happened because of employee attitudes or behaviour. Inevitably, in many instances the manager will be confronted by one person’s word against another, or disagreement or dispute as to the accounts which individuals give of the events which they were involved in. Employees will often be reluctant or even refuse to clarify events in which they were involved. The manager concerned will, nevertheless, still have the responsibility of deciding how best to resolve these matters in the light of such confusion and contradiction. Resolution is no just in terms of the employees actually involved or implicated in such matters; it also relates to the manager’s overriding need to maintain performance levels and working relationships of the rest of the work force for whom he or she has responsibility.

The Problem Areas

If you are a manager confronted with one of these situations, you will have to answer a number of key questions as you begin to address the matter. The following questions are the most obvious ones. “How will you act when the matter first comes to your attention?” “What actions will you take, why, and in what sequence?” “Will you undertake them yourself, or ask someone else to carry them out?” “How will you record your actions, why, and in what format?” “How will you answer all of these and other equally important questions in a way that will guarantee and demonstrate the integrity and professionalism of your response?” “How will you convince the employees concerned, and the other members of your workforce who are watching with keen interest, that you have been scrupulously fair and honest in your response?” “How can you do all of this and still maintain employee motivation, morale and commitment to your organization throughout?” “Are you aware that in answering questions such as these you must comply with specified legal and procedural standards?”

Being able to answer these and the many other related questions is the focus of the services provided by Fulcrum Training Services Ltd. Those services are divided into the following five main areas of the management response to such situations. The first area is that of the prevention of such matters arising from the outset, followed by the four areas which cater for the managerial response if prevention has not been successful. The last four are shown in ascending order according to the seriousness of the issues and, therefore, of the possible and eventual resolution :-

  1. Conflict resolution, negotiation, motivation and team work, the essential skills required of managers who are responsible for ensuring the successful and speedy implementation of organisational, personal or cultural changes, raising performance or service standards, etc., all matters which heighten employee sensitivities, resulting in employee behaviour based upon fear, anger and aggression, leading to an increased numbers of complaints and allegations of misconduct.
  2. Causal identification utilising such problem solving working tools as root cause analysis to determine and isolate in a structured process the fundamental reasons why a fall or complication in service provision or delivery has occurred, thereby enabling appropriate decisions to be made with regard to immediate resolution and restoration of required performance levels and, if the situation warrants, the commissioning of a formal investigation.
  3. Conducting formal investigations into allegations or suspicions of :
    • Staff misconduct such as rudeness, abusive behaviour, absenteeism, lateness, etc.
    • Employment Law contraventions such as bullying, harassment, prejudice and discrimination.
    • Breaches of national, professional or local standards of conduct.
    • Serious complaints from customers or service users.
    • Criminal behaviour such as theft and fraud.
    • Critical, unexpected or untoward incidents which, when they occur, jeopardise the functioning, performance or reputation of the organization or a part of it.
  4. Complaint handling regarding the processing of complaints made against employees in connection with an alleged failure to meet service standards, including:
    • Immediate investigation.
    • Prompt and informal resolution.
    • Formal recording and processing.
    • Preventing complaints.
  5. Implementing discipline procedures including:
    • Verbal or written warnings or cautions.
    • Staff suspensions from work or duties.
    • Convening, managing or presenting to Discipline Boards.
    • Dismissal of staff.
    • Attending an Employment Tribunal or Court of Law

Our Starting Point

It is our firm belief and conviction that the starting point for either preventing matters such as these from occurring in the first place, or of resolving them in the most appropriate manner if they do, rests with line managers and supervisors. We are, however, realistic in the belief - the issues which we have identified do and will happen, and no amount of management time, effort or skill will guarantee preventing this. The richness of human nature dictates that this will, on occasions, be the case. Nevertheless, the manager or supervisor will clearly have the dual responsibility of sorting these matters out while still maintaining core activities and performance levels within that part of the organisation concerned. This is the real test of management, and one which every manager or supervisor either is or will be facing; there is ‘no hiding place’ from this reality.

Our starting point is not to provide managers with more ideas or tools for the management emergency toolbox. Instead, we start with the managers themselves, the tool users. How well, if at all, do they really know and understand themselves as individuals? How well do they appreciate the particular styles which they adopt as they make decisions, react to events, and relate to colleagues and employees? Do they know how the workforce for whom they have professional responsibility actually perceives them and everything which they say and do? Do these managers know that such perceptions of them are based upon the preferred styles which each manager expresses as they move through the working day?

This is the area in which we excel - we facilitate and enable managers to get clear on and understand their preferred and least preferred styles in the key areas of conflict resolution, negotiation, motivation and team work. We help them to recognise and understand why certain styles will work in certain situations and not in others. We facilitate and enable their development of the other key styles which they will be required to demonstrate as their professional context evolves. We help them expand and practice in a safe environment their repertoire of these key skills and competencies. We help them anticipate and ‘read’ their changing environment and the employees and colleagues around them so that they can work through the most appropriate style or styles to utilise according to their perception. We empower these managers and supervisors as a consequence yet, in so doing, we also raise the expectations which their organisation will have of them as they face such management challenges. Managers, after all, must successfully manage in the difficult times as well as those when it is not so difficult. Getting it right first time and every time is the only tenable alternative!

The help and support which we can provide

The specific services which we provide, together with the detail of their objectives, standards and outcomes, are detailed within the Dedicated Services page which this link will take you directly to.