CHALLENGE
SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY THAT HAD NEEDED SUPPORT AROUND A RECENT AND UNEXPECTED BEREAVEMENT.
A Dublin based social media company contacted me following a serious and tragic incident involving one of their employees. Managers wanted to support their team whilst juggling with the continual demands of ongoing, high-pressured work that needed addressing.
On meeting the Managers it became apparent that not only were the Managers still in grief themselves and at different stages but that their employees were also coping in different ways and had different responses to the incident.
SOLUTION
With the Managers, I first did some educative input around grief and normal responses, the stages and likely feelings and responses that may be evoked. It was also important to keep in mind that each team member would still have their own unique response but the educational aspect helped them identify what to look out for and how to respond. They found this very helpful. We then discussed the issues around demonstrating support whilst also attending to the demands of the work. Through the workshop, they became more confident in recognising and understanding the grief and were able to identify ways that they could provide support whilst also helping the team attend to some of the work.
CHALLENGE
ORGANIC FOOD BUSINESS IN CO KILDARE
This organization had issues with staff turnover, they were recruiting new people, but they were finding it difficult to retain them. The owners approached me and explained how they were at a complete loss on how to fix things and that the problem was costing them in terms of low morale and loss of work output.
SOLUTION
I met the Directors and listened to their concerns and then met with current and past employees. I was able to gain their trust and they shared some of the issues they were experiencing.
The outcome of this intervention was that the Directors understood better what the actual issues in the business really were and as a result, they recognised the need to hire a Manager to deal with staff day to day issues.
FEEDBACK FROM INTERVENTION
We are happy to say that we have now found some great people to join us and as a result of all the changes that we implemented we have much-improved management/ staff relationships.
We would happily recommend Monica in her ability to gain the support of staff in identifying issues and helping us restore a productive and healthy work
environment.
DEIRDRE O SULLIVAN NURNEY FARM
CHALLENGE
IT DEPARTMENT IN MEDIUM-SIZED COMPANY.
The HR manager in a busy organization explained that the IT staff had been inundated with work from various sources within the organisation and they needed help in managing conflict.
SOLUTION
When I met with the staff group, I gained a fuller understanding of their difficulties and it became apparent that they were finding it very difficult to prioritise work and that they tended to be “Firefighting” rather than approaching their workload in an organized and methodical manner. Many were experiencing high levels of stress as they were, in fact, unable to meet the demands of the organisation as they were unable to manage their heavy and unpredictable workloads. They had very little job satisfaction and finding their job very difficult and they weren’t satisfying their customers either.
By giving them the opportunity to really clear as a team what precisely the issues were they could then begin to identify how the issues might be addressed. They recognized that in fact they were not prioritizing or telling their colleagues that they were unable to meet their demands immediately and managing expectations. I was also able to help them develop skills around prioritizing and managing relationships whilst developing systems to organize the work needed done and making decisions about how to deliver on the demands being made. They also looked at the need to be assertive and manage expectations so that they could do their jobs in a more efficient and satisfactory manner for themselves and their clients.