An employee with a worsening attendance record has been seen by Maria. From what I have heard the investigation was professional and correctly done. Though the employee feels that Maria was unsympathetic to her particular transport problems and taking children to school.

Her team have noted, with some amusement, that she stands by her office window at lunchtime and as soon as she sees the MD or the Sales Director walking to the Canteen for lunch will quickly grab her coat and will rush to join them.

It’s been noticed that over the past few weeks Maria has been identifying those people with real influence in the organisation. A particularly important strategy for any new hire.

So far she seems to be making an effort to engage with the Sales Director, Project Manager and Company Secretary.

The Sales Director views having the Personnel Manager on his side as being a very useful alliance as he has some changes in mind for the structure of the sales teams and he will need help and advice to implement these correctly.

Developing a network seems to be going well for Maria. There is one fly in the ointment however. She was overheard running down some members of her team to the Sales Manager saying, “I’m not sure how Christine (her assistant manager) would be much help to you, I think she’s overrated. If you need some help, come directly to me”.

Maria continues to develop her poor reputation for team management capability and leadership amongst her team.

Today, Friday she has given them all some work collating some statistics. The work will take hours to complete and will delay some people leaving the office to start the weekend. But Maria has indicated that delivery is urgent and required by the CEO for an early meeting on Monday.

Maria has told everyone that she has an important meeting during Friday afternoon, unfortunately her husband has phoned in soon after she left to say that “He may be a few minutes late meeting her for some early Christmas shopping”.

Most of Maria’s team have chosen to ignore the unfortunate opening statement Maria said when she met them as a group. (See previous blog). Perhaps it was just how it was said.

Maria has been in the job a few days and starts to arrange 1:1 meetings with her team. Her objective is to forge a relationship with each individual and to discover some of their strengths and weaknesses.

She’s delighted with the way the meetings go. Lot’s of ideas come from the team but they seem short on being able to identify weaknesses in the HR system and company in general and this concerns her.

Her team, however, think her approach to their 1:1s strange. She began by saying, “I’ve looked at your file and I must say I’m most impressed at the work you have done and would value your opinion on a few things.”

Maria continued, “What improvements do you think we can make in HR and I’m interested in knowing your thoughts on the weaknesses in the rest of the HR team and management in general?”

Maria has arrived for her first morning at her new job and has spent some time with the CEO to discuss with him the CEO’s plans for the HR Department.

She now decides decides that it’s time for her to meet with her new team and calls a team meeting. She begins by introducing herself, “Hello everyone, I’m Maria and I’m a fellow of the CIPD and a professional”. After meeting with her small team she arranges some one to one meetings and returns to her office satisfied that she’s started off well.

Could she have made her first error. Some of her team have interpreted her first statement of being a “fellow of the CIPD and a professional” that she thinks perhaps her team may not be! (qualified enough or unprofessional)

Time will tell

I came across a case study that I thought I could share with you as it develops. That is the adventures of Maria during her first six months in her new job.

Maria has volunteered herself to be featured in this blog and it will be interesting to see if she makes the typical mistakes of a new hire and a few “special mistakes” of her own.

Over the months of her job transition we can follow Maria and develop a case study around her.

The story begins:

Maria has landed a job as HR manager at an Insurance brokers employing about sixty people. Her team is made up of five people who are all qualified by examination with the CIPD (Chartered Institute for Personnel Development).

On her first morning she meets with the CEO and discusses the company’s main priorities with HR which is to reduce turnover and increase HR capability. She feels well briefed.

It’s estimated that the financial downturn is likely to increase job turnover at the senior levels as companies search for executives able to weather the financial storm.

Top search companies and Headhunters in The City are gearing themselves up for an increase in the number of companies searching for senior executives with the right skills and experience.

However, if you think that a financial downturn will reduce salaries or provide a better negotiation platform when discussing the remuneration package with a new hire…then think again.

Senior executives with the necessary skills and experience of working in a financial downturn are few. As a result we estimate that incoming top executives will be demanding higher salaries and more severe severance packages.

We consider that this is more likely where the incoming executive is also a “Change catalyst” and is being recruited to turn the business around or to protect it.

However, we also predict that recruitment for middle management will decline as “change catalysts” shed staff in order to make bottom line savings.

Some months ago I was working with a client who had a senior member of staff, James, in the same job for over ten years. Whilst James had done an excellent job for the first six years he had lately lost the drive to implement new ideas. In recent times James admitted that the jobwas easy and enjoyed the social aspects of his work. He was well liked by his colleagues and those that reported to him.

James was full of expectation that he could remain with the company for many more years. However, he felt that the company should be rewarding him more for his long and faithful service. He had mentioned his expectation of a substantial increase to his salary to his new boss at the last appraisal.

James thought his new boss, Philip, was difficult to work with and had a difficult management style. James often found that his boss gave him irritating tasks to do and he often didn’t understand their purpose. James thought that Philip was demanding and often rejected his warnings that change caused reduced morale and confused working methods. In particular James was able to point out to Philip when suggested changes had been tried before and failed.

Philip, his boss, saw things differently, however. He felt that James was the kind of individual that he longed would leave so that a more enthusiastic employee could be recruited. Someone with new ideas and who wouldn’t always verbalise the reasons why something couldn’t be done. In fact James was the type of employee that the boss dreamed of supplying a job reference that read, James Smith has informed me that he has led the production department for the past ten years to HIS entire satisfaction. Philip was against giving James a merit increase on his salary for his past year’s work.

Indeed, for the past six months Philip has been working with HR Director to develop a strategy that would result in the Company not being taken to an Industrial Tribunal in the event of James being dismissed. Over the past twelve months Philip and the HR department has been creating a log of the times when requests had been made to James and which had not been carried out or completed in an unsatisfactory manner.

You don’t have to be a soothsayer to predict that James is heading for trouble and whilst not every situation is as clear-cut how do you recognise when it’s time to jump ship? After all, the trick is to jump ship on your terms and to avoid the situation where you are being asked to leave where there is little chance of a good severance package and it will be difficult to find another job.

There are three distinct areas that you should consider:
The first is the way you feel about the work itself

• Has the work ceased to be fun?
• Has the work ceased to be a challenge?
• Have you stopped learning?
• You’ve stopped communicating with the boss
• The work is comfortable without being stretching or bringing joy
• Does the current job afford you the benefits of a desired lifestyle in terms of leisure time, time with friends and family?
  

Secondly consider the management style of the boss and the actions that your boss might be taking. Never concentrate on just one of the situations detailed below to decide the time has come to find another job. Consider them in clusters and based upon past behaviour: ( If the boss begins to check you expense claim form in detail it might just be because the Finance Director or Accounts Department have instructed all managers to reduce expenses).
However, if three of more of the situations below become evident over a period of three or more months then alarm bells should be ringing.

Finally there is your overall career pattern.

However, before you rush to write your resignation letter you might like to consider gaining some career advice from a professional. There are many companies on the Internet that offer such services. However, be clear about the sort of advice you are wanting as many of the companies that advertise on the Internet are job search firms and their advice may not be what you are looking for.

Then you need to develop that network of contacts you should have but never got around to contacting. Too often people leave a business and find that they have few people outside their current employers that can help find a new job or offer practical help and advice if wanting to change career. Joining on-line networking clubs such as Linkedin and Ecademy long before you jump ship can provide many contacts. In addition begin attending those networking events run by the institute that you are a member of or join one. Networking isn’t just something that the self-employed do, it’s important to everyone.

Choosing the exact time to jump ship is always problematical, not least because it often has an impact of family as well as oneself. The art is to do it at a time that suits you, giving a better set of work results than exist and which provides a further career prospects when it’s time to jump ship next.

Stephen Harvard Davis is a leading business relationship specialist and the author of  “Why do 40% of Executives Fail?”  He advises senior executives and organisations on transition management and how to attract and retain top talent within the business. He is also a sought after speaker at high profile conferences and business meetings. Stephen can be contacted on 44 (0) 1727 838321 www.stephenharvarddavis.com & www.busrelcon.com

Having a positive e-image is essential to attracting top talent to a company and for creating a “feel good factor” for existing staff. Companies that have a good e-image for staff recruitment include TESCO, Barclays Bank and?Standard Chartered Bank.

?Essential information?includes:

• A career pathway
• Training and development opportunities
• Collection of talent contact details
• Culture
• Vacancies and fast track promotion ?

?Which other companies do you think have a positive e-image and why?