Balanced teams, equal opportunity.
An opinion piece by Adrian Leach
In my working career I witnessed first hand how firms will recruit new staff rather than promote from within and even pay them more than existing staff doing the same job. A strategy that I always found short-sighted and mis-guided.
Recruit, they shouted
Often line managers and HR will argue that ‘new blood’ brings a fresh perspective to the company, and that promoting from within will simply move a good member of staff out of the excellent job they are doing now. A rather lazy attitude to those they are responsible for.
In some companies I saw good team members not bothering to apply for job that would give them progression and a chance to develop their skill sets and realise their ambition because the culture was to ‘bring in new people’ who allegedly already had the necessary skills. Not only was the company culture ‘anti-internal applicants’, but if the role was in another part of the country, there would be no help in making the transition to the new location anyway. I would often hear, ‘if you want to progress, then leave’. How demoralising.
If it isn’t broke, don’t touch it
Some organisations I have visited had unintentionally created a ‘permafrost’ of middle management that became complacent and lazy in their strategic thinking, tactical implementation and towards their team members. This permafrost effect engulfed entire teams who went on to become benignly negligent in their dealings with clients and suppliers. You could argue the team ‘knew the minutia of the job or the appropriate policy to the nth degree’, but they had become so bogged down in the detail they had lost sight of what they were doing and for whom and lost the application of common-sense and seeking solutions.
All change
At the other end of the team composition scale, some organisations juggle team members like a circus clown on steroids, moving decision-making employees before they have the chance to see the effect of their decisions and creating a merry-go-round of different strategies and prevailing opinions that are forever changing the team’s direction.
A cracking example of this is the use of senior Armed Forces personnel heading up units primarily staffed by civilians. The senior decision-making leaders are often swapped out every 2-3 years so they can ‘experience’ another unit or department. The new incoming decision-maker will often change their predecessor’s approach for their own. Just as that approach gets resourced and implemented so the cycle starts again.
Balance
Like most things in life there needs to be a balanced approach. Teams do need new leaders, fresh thinking, a shake up in attitude and behaviours on a regular (not frequent) basis and opportunities for team members to progress. However, teams also need strategic directional consistency, together with equal pay for equal roles and responsibilities that comes with a mid-to-long-term approach. Getting that balance right is the Executive team’s role.
Relocation supports balance
What does come as a surprise to me, is just how many companies have no policy and no understanding about the role of relocation support for internal applicants. To take a balanced approach to team development means that firms must aid internal candidates, so they have the same chance as external candidates. However, an external candidate may live locally to the job role location whereas the internal candidate may live many miles away. Without clear relocation support, firms are effectively asking an internal candidate to ‘pay’ for the chance of internal promotion.
Sometimes the solution used is a taxable ‘lump sum’ which the internal applicant may use, but that isn’t ‘support’, it’s a nod towards the cost of moving. The lump sum amount varies depending on how desperate the line manager is to get someone, which causes an inequality across relocating employees.
A Relocation Policy and a wake up call to Government
As someone working in the relocation industry, it won’t be a shock if I recommend that every employer should have a relocation policy that is applied fairly across their employees, and which considers the tax liability.
I would also recommend that Government start taking relocation support more seriously. Professional relocation support is something that creates equality, stimulates diversity and inclusion, and encourages social mobility. The current £8000 Relocation Tax Allowance, unchanged from 1993 is utterly hopeless and an anachronism that needs addressing.
Agree, don’t agree, don’t care…
If you want to comment on these ramblings, please drop me a line at Adrian.Leach@hcr.co.uk