The modern workplace is often too hectic for HR teams to notice something has gone amiss before it escalates. Hybrid work models are doing their best to mitigate the risk, but there’s no helping human nature.
That being said, businesses need to keep an eye on multiple elements and strive to create a supportive workplace culture.
Just exactly how to do that?
Put Frontline First
Frontline employees are the first to suffer the strain should anything go wrong. These people are traditionally stressed out and on a constant lookout for a better job opportunity.
Retention rates among frontline teams speak volumes. That’s why all businesses should train their frontline managers and listen to employee feedback for additional guidelines.
Use the latest tech to automate repetitive and time-consuming processes, streamline communication tools and technology, and set up dedicated channels to connect your frontline workforce.
Finally, use a unified platform to simplify data access. Create clear protocols for communication, data procurement, and other processes to simplify the workflow. Explaining complex information to your team doesn’t necessarily have to be traumatic as there are plenty of opportunities to actually streamline multiple processes and tasks.
Set Up Knowledge Management Systems
Overcoming challenges in project management — which are numerous and rather diverse — is best approached through shared organizational knowledge.
Namely, training is the common approach when it comes to onboarding and upskilling, but there’s one efficient model that gets overlooked too easily: a knowledge management system.
Expertise and know-how are only efficient when nourished and shared. Make sure that information is immediately accessible when needed and that all employees know exactly how and where to access it. The process shouldn’t be time-consuming or complicated.
As things stand now, when looking for a piece of information that hasn’t been documented, employees often can’t find the person to ask for advice. This leads to many issues that can’t be resolved. The best approach to tackling this issue is to create a platform combined with people and processes that collect and store information in a central location.
Modern knowledge systems rely on AI as to ease this complex process as much as possible.
Identify Unconscious Bias
The more hectic the workplace, the more nervous the employees become. Businesses absolutely need to focus on identifying unconscious bias before it metastases.
Typical types of unconscious bias that may manifest in the workplace include:
- Affinity bias: The tendency to favor others who share similar characteristics, backgrounds, or interests.
- Confirmation bias: The tendency to seek out information that confirms pre-existing beliefs or opinions while ignoring information that contradicts them.
- The halo effect: The tendency of allowing a positive impression of a person in one area to influence overall perceptions of that person. E.g., if someone excels in one aspect of their job, this perception may extend to other unrelated areas.
- The horns effect: The tendency of allowing negative impressions of a person in one area to influence overall perceptions of that person. The effect can lead to unfair judgments and hinder growth opportunities.
- Attribution bias: The tendency to attribute the behaviors of others to internal characteristics (e.g., personality) while attributing one’s own actions to external factors (e.g., situational influence).
- Stereotyping: The tendency to assign specific traits to an entire group of people based on their perceived membership in that group.
- Beauty bias: The tendency to favor individuals who are perceived as physically attractive.
- Conformity bias: The tendency to adopt the opinions or behaviors of a majority, even if they aren’t well-founded.
Understanding these types of unconscious biases and developing programs to deal with them is the right way to a supportive workplace culture. The only way to do this is to understand the manifestation of biases.
Handling the issues may include the following approaches:
- Self-reflection
- Feedback mechanisms
- D&I training
- Examining workplace data
- Inclusive leadership
- Anonymous reporting systems
Consult Fractional Integrators
Finally, use fractional integrators when needed. These people are graced with a number of behavior treats not every employee is, as follows:
- Balanced behavior patterns — the capability to demonstrate suitable behavior patterns towards the individuals whose endeavors they are integrating
- A balanced orientation — the capability to strike a balance between the extremes that arise between the members of the departments whose efforts they are integrating
- Decision-making rooted in knowledge and competence and not in positional authority
- Sense of unity — awareness that overall results are more important than the integrator’s individual performance
- Ability to resolve all kinds of disputes and conflicts in an efficient manner
All these predispositions make integrators influential and they can become exceptional mentors. On top of that, they can align roles and processes and deal with any potential conflicts in an efficient manner.
Additionally, integrators help businesses achieve differentiation and integration simultaneously. To do this efficiently, they must possess exceptional leadership skills and be able to seamlessly execute the business plan, provide cadence, and be accountable for the profit and loss results.
Integrators directly influence business and corporate development, communication, engagement, and project management. Their goal is to achieve consistency, boost agility, drive results by ensuring efficient prioritization, and integrate the leadership team.
With so many advancements, businesses should be able to tackle any other issue that may or may not materialize. Here’s the parting tip: set up an anonymous feedback system and keep an eye on complaints.