The ‘G’ word. From the recent ‘Me Too’ movement sprung by the Harvey Weinstein scandal, to calls for equal gender quotas, gender has dominated headlines increasingly over the last 12 months. But how can a business avoid gender bias in their workplace?

This article explores gender bias globally, the impact it has on the workplace, as well as how businesses can practically breakdown gender bias through working conditions, staff composition and awareness.
 
Global Gender Bias
Gender bias is a global issue. In the USA, women earn on average 21% less than men, and only 4% of fortune 500 companies are lead by women.  Despite the 1970 Equal Pay Act, UK women earn 81p for every pound earned by men in 2018.

Closer to home, Irish women face a pay gap of 13.9%, with occupations remaining divided significantly by gender. Meanwhile, Iceland and other Nordic countries take the top spots for equal pay.

Gender bias remains global. Its impact can be detrimental to any working environment, its demographics and its diversity.
 
The Impact of Gender Bias
Workplace dynamics can be severely impacted by gender bias. Women returning from maternity leave may face bias for promotion, due to their absence while other male co-workers have continued within the workplace network.

Others may face bias within work meetings, as their voices may not be heard over male colleagues, or their opinions not listened to adequately.
 

• Staff Turnover

Resentment sown by gender bias could lead to higher staff turnover, as female workers seek out other organisations with less bias.

If you are a small business, increased staff turnover can cause a loss of talent and performance, damaging your reputation.
 

• Lack of Diversity

Organisational diversity may also be damaged as a result of gender bias. If your business is not managed by both men and women, this culture may spread downwards, with more promotion and earnings received by men.
Businesses which do not take this cultural issue seriously will lack the ability to change in the future.

A lack of diversity can harm your business, showcasing its inability to create a culture of equality. Skills gaps can form as a result, making attracting new talent difficult for your workplace.
 
How Can Your Business Tackle Gender Bias?
Consciously or unconsciously, most workplaces are host to some element of gender bias. But businesses can act now to tackle this bias and transform their working environments.
 

• Equal Work Means Equal Work

A Workplace Experiences Survey has revealed that women were 29% more likely to do ‘office housework’ tasks than their male colleagues. Whether cleaning up after a meeting, taking minutes or fetching a morning round of coffee, these small tasks are often done by women more than men.

Equal work should mean equal work. Promotions won’t happen by making sure the rubbish is done every Wednesday.

By assigning equal tasks for both men and women, a business can breakdown gender bias in the workplace, providing all colleagues with equal opportunities for career progression.  

Rather than asking for volunteers, a weekly rota for general ‘household’ and administrative tasks could be established. Management can ensure all staff are given equal assignments which will allow them to develop their careers and experience.
 

• Awareness and Training

It may seem obvious, but gender bias can be tackled by providing awareness training for all staff.

Allowing colleagues the time to reflect on their thoughts can make them more aware of how easily unconscious gender bias can creep into the workplace and give them training to prevent it.
 

• Decisions, Decisions: A Group Approach

From promotions, to contracts, to bonuses, businesses face a lot of decision-making. While management faces these challenges, unconscious gender bias can creep in.

Avoid this by making all staff decisions with fellow management or supervisory colleagues. Of course, depending on the size of a business, any present HR professionals should also be involved in crucial decisions.

This will help to breakdown gender bias, and ensure all decisions reflect the merits of staff, not their sex or gender.
 

• Fair Targets for All

A business can act against gender bias by providing all staff with fair targets, such as job bands. If all staff are aware of job roles and performance targets, this can prevent gender bias from causing dispute in the workplace.

Organisations can also ensure that all assignments are given to staff according to the targets they are expected to meet. Both men and women can be evaluated and monitored equally, giving equal opportunity of progression to all.
 
What About Gender Quotas?
Adoption of gender quotas has increased gradually in recent years, sparking debate over their value.

While these targets may mean businesses have figures to achieve, ensuring women are given more senior roles, others have argued that the reduction of women to numbers may mean their promotion will not be based rightfully on their merits, skills or experience, but rather their gender.

On the other hand, as the statistics presented at the beginning demonstrate, a clear need to address gender bias globally persists.

Whether you are for or against gender quotas, you can act now to breakdown gender bias, introduce better diversity within the workplace and ensure all colleagues receive equal opportunities.
 

When any staff member leaves, it can be a difficult time for a company. If an employee leaves under negative circumstances, it can prove much more a challenge.

In this age of social media, high profile employee exits have the potential to dominate headlines, local and global. And with an increasing number of employees making cases against former employers, businesses need to prepare for resignations.

Preparation, procedures and a willingness to hear feedback can ensure effective employee exit management.

This article will explore the risks involved with an employee’s departure and how businesses can effectively manage both amicable and negative employee exits.
 
Employee Exit Risk: Loss of Talent
Employee departures can be difficult to manage for any company, but particularly for SMEs. With limited resources, this loss of talent can sever an enterprise’s ability to perform.

This can damage its reputation, as a business will struggle to keep up with their workloads for their customers or clients.  
 
Employee Exit Risk: Workplace Dynamics
By nature, workplaces large or small, rely on the teams that work on their behalf.

In other words, when an employee leaves, particularly from SMEs, remaining staff members have to take up the shortfall, leading to heavier workloads and a deterioration in workplace dynamics.

Resentment towards a company can increase, leading to higher staff turnovers. Again, this can spell trouble for small businesses, as they balance the need to meet tasks with keeping their staff content.
 
Managing an Amicable Employee Exit
While a hostile employee exit can be extremely difficult for a company to tackle, both during and after their departure, a cordial departure can also be a challenge.

While their exit may not be confrontational, they will have their reasons for leaving. Take measures to ensure such departures remain amicable and your relationship with former employee remains positive.

• Feedback

Take time to discuss your employee’s reasons for leaving, by asking for feedback.

Their honest thoughts about the company, its management and processes, will help you improve your working environment for remaining and future employees.

This approach also helps you to maintain a positive relationship with the former employee, while demonstrating a commitment to improve the workplace for existing staff. This can help prevent further staff turnover, ensuring your business continues to perform.

• Exit Interviews

A business can manage an amicable departure effectively by conducting exit interviews.

Such measures can ensure employees feel that their contribution to the company was valued. In turn, an employer can also improve their brand.

It is only natural that that employee will discuss their previous employment with their new colleagues, friends and family. If an employee were to feel undervalued by you as an employer, this could damage your reputation and brand with other publics.

Exit interviews will help to form lasting positive relationships between an employer and a departing employee, as well as provide a further opportunity for a business to improve their culture for remaining staff.
 
Managing a Negative Employee Exit
High profile, negative employee departures can severely impact an organisation, its reputation with stakeholders, and the workplace dynamics among remaining staff.

Not only can such exits damage an employer’s branding, but they have the potential to generate talent shortages as a result of higher staff turnover. Clearly a company’s ability to manage these hostile departures effectively is crucial.

While ensuring the departing employee provides feedback and received an exit interview is also crucial during more confrontational departures, an organisation must effectively plan legally for negative departures.

• Notice Periods

A business can conduct employee exit management effectively, by ensuring all staff are aware of notice periods, and their legal requirement to work for the full notice period.

• Company Materials

A business should plan ahead, ensuring that company materials can be effectively protected during the negative departure of an employee.

Ensuring employees have not taken confidential data, records or materials by checking hard copy materials as well as computers, businesses can protect themselves throughout these negative departures.

• Fulfil Legal Obligations

A company can protect themselves from possible legal challenges by ensuring that it fulfils all legal obligations to a departing employee.

Whether it means that all wages owed are paid efficiently, employees are aware of all required legal notices, and/or all benefit packages are met, companies can attempt to reduce the hostility of an exit, while meeting all legal obligations as an employer.
 
Plan Ahead for Effective Employee Exit Management
Whether an employee’ departure is amicable or not, a business can best prepare and conduct effective employee exit management by planning departure procedures ahead.

​This will ensure a company can protect themselves legally, ensure that its brand or reputation is not damaged amongst internal and external publics, as well as ensure optimum performance is continued.

In this series, the challenges faced by working parents as they return to work, and how best businesses can support them during this transition, has been explored.

This last article will delve into the importance of a parent-friendly culture, and how organisations can best create this in their environment.
 
‘Parent-Friendly’ Not Yet a Reality
In a 2018 survey by HR software provider CIPHR, just 55% of working parents felt able to access flexible working arrangements, something identified as a key way in which a business can support a working parent returning to work.

But such arrangements should be underpinned by a foundational parent-friendly company culture. Such an atmosphere can aid an organisation’s retention of talent and foster an inclusive environment for all.
 
Example of Best Practice: Deloitte
Working Families UK have revealed that in 2018, one of the most parent-friendly workplaces in the UK is Deloitte.

By joining initiatives like Mumsnet’s ‘Family Friendly’ programme, as well as publishing their parental pay benefits, Deloitte continue to foster their parent-friendly culture, ensuring the inclusion of working parents is an integral part of their organisation.

No doubt this helps this business to remain successful, retaining great talent and optimising their performance of the process.
 
Why Should Your Business Become More Parent-Friendly?
Like Deloitte, an enterprise which maintains a parent-friendly company culture can retain their best talent, while remaining diverse.

This will enhance an organisation’s performance, as it continues to employ their best talent, while improving their employer brand to potential recruits who seek a parent-friendly workplace for future employment.  
 
How Can Your Business Become More Parent-Friendly?
Below are just some of the ways in which a business can become more parent-friendly:

• On-Site Childcare

The provision of on-site childcare has become increasingly popular amongst some multinationals, but more widespread adoption is needed to aid working parents.

While childcare costs are rising both in Ireland and further afield, on-site childcare can give working parents peace of mind, as their children can be closer to hand.

By providing workplace discounts, this can further aid working parents to afford childcare, while ensuring that they can still meet their professional goals within their careers at an organisation.

• Job-sharing

The provision of job-sharing for working parents can greatly aid them in their work-life balance, while ensuring that a company can retain good talent and skills needed for their performance.

Different colleagues with children may have different commitments regarding the age of their children. Job-sharing can ease the pressure from both of these roles, allowing them to remain in a job and active in their careers, while meeting their parental duties.

Job-sharing can also ease working parent guilt, as it will provide those colleagues with more time at home.

• Regular Conversations

A business can provide extra support to working parents by ensuring regular conversation take place with management.

Regardless of what level colleagues may work within an organisation, having regular meetups with a manager or supervisor will ensure working parents have their needs or issues heard.

Management will also be provided with a better understanding of the challenges working parents face within the workplace, giving a better insight into how best they can help their colleagues.

• Family Bonding Workplace Activities

Businesses can solidify a parent friendly company culture by hosting an range of family bonding activities for all staff and their relatives. Whether monthly or annually, these activities can better develop relationships between colleagues, with the knowledge of each-others family situation.  

It could be an annual kids’ Christmas party, or it could be family fun days in aid of a local charity. No matter the event, these activities can greatly enhance an organisation’s culture for working parents.

With Irish childcare costs rising by €770 a year across Ireland, parents returning to work face more pressure than ever.

This is reflected in “working parent guilt”, experienced by 66% of men and 60% of women.

Regardless of gender or reason for parental absence, all working parents should feel adequately supported by their workplaces when returning to work.
 
Why is it Important to Support Working Parents as they Return to Work?
Returning to work after a prolonged period of time, for example maternity or paternity leave, can be exciting but daunting.

Employees come and go, while working tasks change over time. Returning parents have to learn new names and faces, while getting to grips with new tasks and managing their new work-life balance.

It is crucial workplaces support returning working parents as they navigate this new territory. Such support will prevent feelings of resentment creeping in, while large staff turnovers can be avoided, retaining returning talent and using this experience to develop new staff and improve the workplace.
 
How Can Businesses Support Working Parents when they Return to Work?
Returning to work can be a challenge, particularly for new parents, as they acclimatise to the responsibility of juggling a new baby alongside their existing workloads. Working parents with multiple children will also face new challenges.

A study has revealed just 14% of male working parents had never had a request for leave turned down. Clearly there needs to be more flexibility from employers for all working parents, men and women.
 
Flexible Arrangements
With a Eurobarometer study revealing only 1 in 4 Irish workers receive flexible arrangements, it is crucial Irish businesses improve to allow working parents the satisfaction of a positive work-life balance.

Whether it’s a dental appointment, or a sports day, allowing working parents the breathing space to balance their work more flexibly can only be positive for a working environment.  

Flexible arrangements can include:

·         Flexi-Time
·         Work from home days
·         Temporary or permanent part-time arrangements
·         Job shares

Such arrangements can enhance employee wellbeing, and prevent large staff turnover, allowing a business to retain their talent and their capacity for superior performance.
 
Upskilling Others
Employees seeking to ‘up their game’ and take on new tasks could also be utilised by a business to take the pressure of returning working parents. While not replacing the returning employee, by having an extra pair of hands on a task, businesses can improve a working environment while ensuring that their performance does not suffer.
 
Inclusive Culture
An inclusive working environment is crucial for returning staff. Not only will they need to acquaint themselves with new staff but begin to learn new tasks and remember old ones.

An inclusive culture where all staff feel that they can interact with each-other frequently and cohesively can only benefit an organisation. By fostering an inclusive culture, new or childless staff and returning staff can be provided the space to get to know each other, and to develop positive dynamics for the workplace.

Developing such relationships between staff will prevent resentment towards workloads from either staff group, while growing understanding between colleagues and the professional and personal challenges they may face.

​In the final article of this series, the importance of a parent-friendly culture and its positive impact on the workplace will be explored more in-depth.

Whether single, married, separated or divorced, all working parents deserve support from their workplaces during holiday season.

A recent survey found just 55% of working parents feel that they can ask for entitled annual leave during busy school holiday periods.

While SMEs can struggle to maintain performance with multiple employees on annual leave at the same time, effective planning and fostering of an inclusive culture will ensure school holiday periods are managed effectively.
 
SME School Holiday Challenges
Working parents juggle on a daily basis. From school runs to sports team try-outs, a child’s social schedule can be endless. On top of this, school holidays present a fresh challenge, as organisations face the task of giving parents time off, while ensuring company performance does not suffer.

School holidays cannot be avoided; give or take a few days, most working parents face the challenge of obtaining sought-after annual leave all at the same time.

While those with children are often prioritised, SMEs workplace environments can begin to foster a culture of resentment from childless employees, coupled with unnecessary guilt from working parents.
 
Impact on Workplace Wellbeing
Such a culture can damage a workplace and their employee wellness. Resentment from childless staff can cause a breakdown in dynamics between management, as well as fellow subordinate colleagues.

On the other hand, working parents may feel guilty to ask for annual leave during school holiday periods. This can result in a deterioration in their own workplace wellbeing and resentment towards poor management of holidays.

Ultimately, this culture of resentment and guilt can severely impact workplace relations, leading to higher staff turnover and a breakdown of organisation performance through loss of talent.
 
How Can Businesses Support Staff During School Holiday Season?
Working Mother recently published the “Top 100” companies for working mothers, with the top 10 featuring companies such as Deloitte and IBM. In this survey, it was identified that these top companies see childcare and working parental challenges as a joint venture between themselves and their colleagues.

Organisations like this raise the bar for their counterparts; SMEs, in particular, face the threat of losing staff to organisations that take working parents and the challenges that come with this sector seriously.

Annual leave is often considered a given, overlooked as nothing more than a simple holiday allowance. However, there are a number of ways organisations can improve their annual leave programme to boost morale, improve retention and support working parents.
 
Foster a Culture of Inclusivity
Businesses can learn to juggle school holiday season effectively by fostering a culture of inclusivity of working parents, as well as an understanding towards the resentment that can be felt by childless employees.

Workplaces can foster such a culture by ensuring that staff at all levels interact with each other. This could be through organising weekly meetings between different staff or departments, a staff night out, or even spontaneous coffee outings.

Such staff interaction can ensure that workplace dynamics are kept inclusive, establish greater understanding between colleagues and their personal situations, as well as prevent resentment from creeping in.

In turn, organisations can better understand how to support their colleagues during school holiday season.
 
Plan, Prioritise, Perform
Planning staff holidays well in advance will help organisations to satisfy employee needs, and prevent resentment growing between colleagues and towards management.  

By ensuring that effective cover is available, with equal skills, companies can support working parents while maintaining their success and performance as a business.

Prioritising tasks for employees who are about to go on annual leave should also be high on an organisation’s support agenda. Providing staff adequate time and space to plan, prioritise, delegate and deliver their workload leading up to their time off will ensure organisation performance is not affected.

Not only will this improve performance of cover staff, but a working parent will feel able to cope with their workload when they return.
 
Work Together with Working Parents
Working together with working parents is crucial for an organisation to retain talent, while ensuring effective performance regardless of time of year.

Businesses can improve relations with working parents by discussing how they can improve their annual leave programme to suit their needs.

An inclusive culture will eradicate unnecessary feelings of guilt often experienced by working parents when seeking annual leave during school holidays.

With many workplaces denying a carry-over of annual leave, this is critical. Organisations can ensure that all staff take their full holiday allowance, de-stigmatising this benefit, and improving employee wellbeing as a result.

Superior planning and management, alongside a ‘joint’ attitude will ensure organisations work together with working parents and tackle school holiday periods effectively.

The next article in this “ABC: Working Parents” series will explore how organisations can support working parents as they return to work.

We have all heard the saying, “airing out dirty laundry”. And we have seen this play out online. But what happens when a staff member abuses their workplace on social media?

A lack of employee awareness towards personal social media misuse can spell trouble for SMEs. It can lead to different forms of workplace bullying, including gossip and libel of management and an organisation.

Social media policies are key in helping businesses to avoid social media misuse by staff.  

Challenges of Implementing a Social Media Policy: Blurred Lines
Social media dominates all communication in 2018. However, the ever-blurring lines between the employee and the person, public vs private, are a growing concern.  

In September, the UK’s NHS disciplined more than 1200 employees for their abuse of social media, with cases including workplace bullying, defamation and the sharing of patient details online. 

Social media misuse from staff in the form of workplace bullying and defamation can affect organisations in a number of ways.

Social Media Misuse: Workplace Bullying
Social media can encourage and facilitate workplace bullying during ‘out-of-hours’. Not only can bullies utilise social media to spread gossip or falsehoods about an employee, but they can use it to target those that they bully when they are out of the office.

While some networks, such as Facebook, are introducing measures to try and tackle bullying facilitated by their sites, businesses can do more to tackle bullying in the workplace head-on.

Defamation and Libel
As more workers become empowered to air their views in public, companies face the risk of being libelled by their own staff on social media. This can significantly reduce the reputation of an organisation with its internal and external publics.

The Irish Court Service reported earlier this year that there had been an 85% rise in defamation cases as a result of the rising use of social media.

Similar to workplace bullying, libel on social media can affect an organisation’s working environment, as well as the dynamics of workplace relationships. Implementing a social media policy can tackle such threats head-on.

Why Should Businesses Implement a Social Media Policy?
As discussed in past articles, workplaces have a legal duty in Ireland to ensure that their environments are safe places to work for employees.

By implementing a clear social media policy, companies can help to prevent workplace bullying taking place via social media. Employees will be clear on what constitutes online bullying, and how to report such matters.

A business lacking a robust social media policy opens itself up to preventable costs, just as Tesla recently learnt in the aftermath of a tweet from former Chairman Elon Musk. After tweeting his ambition to take the company private, the silicon-valley enterprise’s share prices dropped dramatically.

Social media policies can educate employees on what constitutes organisational defamation through their personal profiles, how such libel can affect the image of the business as well as their own personal reputation. This will protect a company from a loss of reputation, as well as prevent the fostering of such a company culture.  

By educating staff in this way, businesses can act against employees who misuse social media for bullying or defamatory purposes, ensuring the workplace remains safe for all workers.

Implementing a Social Media Policy
Just as regulation of social media as a whole is not a clear issue, neither is the implementation of social media rules within the workplace.

Free speech is an important right for many. However, to protect their companies, business owners and managers should implement a fair and thorough social media policy.

While social media policies should prohibit any form of defamation against an organisation and its staff, SMEs should tread this fine line cautiously, avoiding prohibitions on employee political or personal beliefs, so long as they are not discriminatory or abusive in anyway.

​Management should be a staff member’s first port of call when faced with bullying in the workplace. But what happens if bullying takes place between a manager and staff member, regardless of whether it is upwards or downwards bullying?

A US study revealed that workplace bullying could cost businesses $250 million per year. Workplace bullying can impact a business financially, as well as contribute towards reputational and performance damage.
Businesses should take action against upwards and downwards bullying, and protect their organisations.

Downwards Bullying
While often workplace bullying refers to that which takes place between staff members, it can also take place between managers and their subordinates. downwards bullying refers to managers who bully their staff, or a certain member of staff.

With 80% of workplace bullying cases taking place from a position of power, downwards bullying can be unfortunately commonplace in many working environments.

We spend much of our lives in the workplace, forming relationships with co-workers. However, when a manager begins to bully a staff member, it can have lasting consequences, not only on that individual, but on the rest of their staff and the wider organisation.

How Can a Manager be a Bully?
While some managers are simply tough, bullying managers will be guilty of giving an employee unattainable tasks that either the individual is not trained for, or cannot complete under the deadline.

A manager may bully a staff member through overbearing supervision, or constant criticism of their work. Rather than provide constructive feedback, an effective management style, leaders may choose to bully staff by giving them constant negative feedback about different aspects of their work.

Another way in which downwards bullying can take place within the workplace, is through the blocking of promotion of certain staff members, or a manager threatening a staff member over their job security from no fault of that individual.

The Impact of Downwards Bullying
Top-down bullying can have a lasting impact, not only on a manager’s team, but also on the organisation as a whole. If a staff member is a victim of bullying from their manager, this will inevitably lead to a breakdown in communication between these two individuals.

Staff members may feel intimidated or even humiliated. This can lead to absenteeism, ultimately affecting the performance of that individual team, and the organisation.

Leading on from this, if an organisation failed to act upon any complaints against a bullying manager, their reputation amongst stakeholders and wider internal and external publics could also be damaged.

Upwards Bullying
While downwards bullying may be more common, upwards bullying can also take place within any working environment, large or small. Upwards bullying takes place when a subordinate staff member bullies their own manager, or another member of management in their workplace.

A recent Irish case saw a victim of upwards bullying, Geraldine McCarthy win a Court of Appeal against her employer, ISS Ireland Ltd, for not providing a safe place to work.

Between May 2009 and February 2011, the supervisor was subject to five separate incidents, where her subordinates displayed aggressive, abusive behaviour. Despite making a complaint to the employer after the first incident, no action was taken, leading to an unsafe workplace for McCarthy.

How Can a Subordinate be a Bully?
A subordinate may bully through spreading gossip or falsehoods about their supervisor or manager. Just as in the above case, subordinates can also bully management through verbal or physical aggression, leading to intimidation or humiliation of the manager.

Upwards bullying can also take place when an individual may gain a new management role in a new organisation or department, tasked with supervising staff members who may be longstanding. While the new staff member may be at a managerial level, they may feel intimidated or threatened by longstanding, subordinate colleagues.

The Impact of Upwards Bullying
Upwards bullying can make a significant impact on the ability of a manager to do their job. The dynamics of a workplace can be affected, with employees losing respect for that manager, and vice versa.

In turn, managers may become disengaged or ‘absent’ in their roles. Their health could also deteriorate as a result of stress and humiliation.

As with downwards bullying, the disengagement of management as a result of upwards bullying can lead to a breakdown in communication between staff. This could have lasting consequences for an organisation, as subordinate staff members become harder to control or negotiate with, affecting the performance of a company. Again, this can also lead to a deterioration in an organisation’s reputation.

Paired with the possibility of increased staff turnover, both downwards and upwards bullying can be costly to an organisation, leading to performance and reputational damage.

Take Action
Tackle any cases of upwards or bullying as soon as possible. By dealing with such situations head-on, organisations can protect their own reputation and performance, as well as ensuring healthy working environments for all staff, regardless of role.

While it can be difficult for victims of downwards bullying to report to management about their colleague, employees should be assured that a company’s HR team has an onus to deal with bullying. In Ireland, workplaces have a legal duty to ensure that their environments are safe places to work.

In terms of upwards bullying, affected managers can demonstrate their authority by calling on their superiors for help to tackle subordinate bullies, in a sufficient and decent way. 

By instilling an intolerance towards bullying in the workplace, an organisation can ensure that such incidences do not take place. If peers champion this culture, workplace bullies can be dealt with quickly. This will ensure that a business’ performance will not be affected, while remaining a safe place to work for employees.

Faced with an array of HR challenges, it can be easy for businesses to focus on areas other than senior leadership when seeking the source of an issue.
Absentee leaders have been highlighted as a detriment to a workforce, with employees criticising this type of leadership more so than other forms of poor management.
This article focuses on the impact that absentee leadership can have on an organisation, and how companies should avoid it.

What is an Absentee Leader?
In short, an absentee leader is in the office in body but not in mind or spirit.

A recent Forbes article described absentee leadership as ‘emotional disengagement’ with their role and purpose.
While this ‘leader’ may be present, their lack of guidance or advice to staff as a mentor and management figure can make a lasting impact on their team and company.

While troublesome staff members are often guilty of disciplinary-worthy actions, absentee leaders can often become detrimental for an organisation on a long-term basis.

Whether it’s frequently cancelled meetings, multiple unanswered emails or little to no feedback, a leader who maintains an absent attitude to their role, their staff and their organisation can leave a lasting impact.

How can Absentee Leaders Impact their Staff?
Just as absentee leaders project a poor attitude, fellow staff can become demotivated towards their work or their role within an organisation. By not receiving appropriate feedback, staff may struggle to imagine a future within an organisation.

Not only can their own staff become impacted, but fellow senior leaders may be forced to pick up an absentee leader’s workload. Other managers who may also be causing trouble in more obvious ways will be focused upon, allowing absentee leaders to continue their poor management, leading to consequences for an organisations in the future.

What about Organisational Impact?
Poor management from an absentee leader may take some time to impact an organisation, but the consequences can be bad news for any company.

With demotivated staff comes an unproductive organisation. The Workforce View in Europe 2018 found that absentee leaders were one of the worst causes of unproductivity for organisations.

As staff become disenchanted with an organisation and how it is managed, many may consider or follow through leaving. Not only will this result in a loss of talent, but a company could face significant skill shortages.

An organisation’s performance will also inevitably suffer. While some managers face criticism for ‘micromanaging’, absentee leaders can lead to a toxic reduction in an organisation and its standing with its publics.

How can Absentee Leaders ruin your Organisation?
Hogan Assessments CEO Scott Gregory has shed light on the top five ways that an absentee leader can affect, or even ruin an organisation.
With a simple infographic, the consequences of failing to deal with absentee leaderships are plain to see.

​If an absentee leader fails to ensure staff are certain of their role and purpose, this will affect organisational productivity in the near future. By failing to provide feedback, absentee leaders can cause uncertainty for staff on their own performance, and their responsibilities within their own roles.

Other ways in which an organisation may be ruined by absentee leadership is increased employee dissatisfaction and staff turnover. A lack of feedback or understanding can lead to demotivation. In turn, staff will seek career fulfilment elsewhere, affecting an organisation’s ability to retain talent and superior performance over competitors.
Absentee leaders can cause further stress for staff. As job dissatisfaction rises, staff burnout can become inevitable, affecting staff health as they tackle increasing workloads as a result of frequent staff turnover. 

What should you do about it?
Absentee leaders are clearly toxic for any organisation and its staff. If their own leadership is not engaged and ready to serve their purpose, other staff will become demotivated and follow suit. As job dissatisfaction increases, staff turnover will follow, leading to skills shortages and performance reduction.

Organisations should protect their own reputation amongst both internal and external publics. If an absentee leader is identified, an organisation should strive to understand why they disengaged in the first place and work to motivate this person towards their role and purpose with an organisation.

By taking a top down approach to this HR issue, organisations can ensure their success continues, and that all staff are certain and motivated towards their roles.

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Today’s employers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of employee morale to their company. Instead of ignoring issues with team members, they are implementing ways to enhance overall employee satisfaction. One of most popular tactics is promoting creativity in the workplace. Here are some ways to use creativity, amongst other methods, to ensure your team members are in it for the long run.  
​
Encourage collaboration
As a leader you should always be looking for ways to increase communication in your company. Frequent interaction will give employees a chance to get to know each other, resulting in a positive working environment. Importantly, greater collaboration translates directly into greater creativity and better problem solving thanks to the multitude of ideas and perspectives available.
 
Give workers a voice
Most workers lose satisfaction because they are made to feel unimportant or their voices can get drowned by other more extrovert personalities. Some of your employees will have ideas they don’t feel confident enough to share. Encouraging them will bring those ideas to the surface and some of them may be revolutionary to your company. One of the main reasons for lack of creativity is because it isn’t heard, so listen up.
 
Organise work stations so that your team are in close proximity, allowing them to converse. Creating a party for each employee on their birthday or milestone in their life such as an anniversary or engagement celebrations will be appreciated by your workforce. Don’t forget to arrange out of office events, including after work drinks, networking events or volunteering programmes.
 
Promote health and wellbeing
Bad health will negatively affect your workers motivation, denting your company culture. Start by educating employees on the importance of maintaining good health, provide books or organise talks.
 
Ensure your office is fully equipped with a fully running kitchen, have a microwave and fridge so that workers can bring in ready prepared lunches. Add a touch of creativity by organising health company competitions, for example have employees aim to lose a certain amount of weight and whoever loses the most wins a prize.
 
Don’t only focus on physical health, highlight the importance of mental health as well. Organise a weekly company counsellor to employees that may be highly stressed either in their work or personal life. Offer a discount for the local gym, exercise releases endorphins that helps both physically and mentally. This is important, a healthy employee equals a healthy working environment.  
 
Offer Flexitime
Flexible working hours and working from home options will accommodate all workers who each have different situations. Allowing a flexible schedule will increase overall productivity and gives increased job satisfaction, as it allows employees to get their work-life balance organised in a way that suits their lifestyle.
 
Allow regular breaks
Giving employees the freedom to take breaks will boost their productivity levels. Adding breaks into your work culture helps workers approach tasks in a calmer, but productive way. They can take five minutes out when feeling stressed about a looming deadline or project, which will help get their creative juices flowing again. 
 
Having a creative team is important for your company, so if you want to have a productive, motivated and insightful team of workers, follow these tips to ensure everyone is at their creative peak.

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