We all have a job to do.
Right. But be careful.
Defining, valuing, respecting, and adhering to specified duties is difficult, particularly in times of a pandemic when so much is expected of all.
In recent times there has been increasing evidence that job descriptions have been set aside. So too have skill-sets, expertise, experience, and training. Everyone, it seems, is being asked to dig in and do more.
Geographic and operational boundaries have been dismissed, marginalised and (seemingly) removed from organisational charts. Coverage has been “thinned”. That is, State Managers have morphed into Regional Managers, notwithstanding the difficulty of travel and the need for closer and more repeated support and interactions.
Business Development Managers, Franchise Support Executives and Member field staff-members are less conspicuous and fewer in number.
During testing times each of these initiatives can be justified, reconciled, rationalised, and tolerated. However, they do come at a cost.
CAREFUL
Declines in morale are among the most noticeable consequences. Increases in staff mobility and attrition rates are others. Fractures in group cohesion evolve. People dislike change, particularly unannounced, and when arbitrarily applied.
The costs do impact the bottom-line. Productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness measures typically reflect downturns. The cascading effects are evident in margins, profits, longer-term competitiveness, viability, and sustainability.
New and redefined duties should not be a consequence of an individual’s geographic proximity to senior managers who are delegating and attributing duties and responsibilities.
A reasonable contention, seldom expressed, is the need for the rescripting of job descriptions, conditions of employment, remuneration packages and job specifications. The latter tends to be a rare document. It details the human requisites and characteristics necessary to fulfil a position. Alas, a marketing manager may not be appropriate to undertake one-on-one counselling with those in networks.
Graphic designers may, and often do, fall short in taking up all the duties of a social media or digital marketing executive. It does equate to horses for courses.
COMMUNICATION CONSEQUENCES
In trying times established rules and practices are inclined to be set aside.
The implications can be, and often are personal. Understandably, many people become introspective. They withdraw from formal communication channels. Casual, informal, and non-recorded discourse increases.
Among the common resultant phrases and statements shared are:
· That is not my job.
· I was not recruited to do that.
· Those new duties are a distraction.
· What do I prioritise?
· I do not have the resources necessary (to do that).
· I have the responsibility, but not the authority to achieve.
Many team-members feel that they are already stretched. Additional duties will be undertaken at the expense of others. Choice and priorities do not appear to be within the realm of the lower-order staff-members.
Moreover, in some instances duties can be incompatible. That is emotionally challenging for those implementing the changes and for those being subjected to the outcomes.
RESTRUCTURED PRIORITIES
Reassigning duties tends to be a defensive, if not a holding, endeavour. It is by nature tactical.
Addressing immediate needs and circumstances are understandable and appropriate. However, realigning shorter-term targets can have significant, profound, compromising, and negative consequences for higher-order, long-term focused strategies, and goals.
Therefore, to maintain cohesion, focus, integration, and harmony, it is imperative that consideration be given to impacts and cascading consequences of “corrective,” remedial short-term and opportunistic management decisions and initiatives.
In short, if a tactic, target, and duty are changed, consideration needs to be given to the necessary refinements to objectives, goals, missions, cultures, purposes, job descriptions, job specifications, terms of employment and remuneration packages.
Phew! Spontaneous decisions, which seem so easy to make, have broad, specific, cascading, and ongoing consequences. It is time to recognise and respect that no man, woman, or workgroup is an island. They seldom, if ever work in isolation. Consideration must be given to others.
So too, targets, tactics, and duties.
Each need to be reviewed, refined, extended, and developed – but never in isolation.
DISCIPLINED ACTION
A forensic review of strategic, business action plans, along with assessments on the currency of job descriptions and specifications, and evaluations of operational procedures should be undertaken and documented periodically. The experience can be insightful, beneficial and, for some, cathartic.
The word and concept, discipline, is an essential driving force, if one is to seek, attain and sustain optimal performance, productivity, competitiveness, and relevance.
Just get on with it.
Barry Urquhart
Marketing Focus
Business Strategist
M: 041 983 5555
E: Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au