Does it ever feel like you’re constantly striving to engage employees in cultural change, but not always hitting the mark? As an HR Director working in a progressive engineering company, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of your key objectives is to engage employees across your organisation in one kind of cultural change or another. I find that the three most frequent changes relate to introducing ‘lean‘ ways of working, embedding a coaching culture and/or increasing safe working practices. Whatever your focus, I imagine that there are many times ...

Why bother with performance reviews?  Aren’t they just a box-ticking exercise?  Aren’t they a waste of time? Experienced HR practitioners are well-versed in the benefits of regular performance reviews. We know they are an essential element in building an engaged, motivated workforce. In fact, it’s so blindingly obvious to us that we end up tearing our hair out because the managers in our engineering organisations don’t get it.  And they frustrate us further because they end up asking us questions like the ones ...

Does tackling tough topics bring you out in a cold sweat?  If it does, you’re far from being alone.  In our recent research, 66% of managers admitted to fear getting in the way of having the conversations they need to have. Managers in most industries would rather avoid tackling tough topics. But HR Directors in the engineering sector face a number of particular barriers when it comes to encouraging managers to do so.  Telling direct reports that their performance isn’t up ...

You’re a good HR Director – right?  You know the questions about managing performance that managers in your engineering organisation need answered – right?  You’ve already provided the answers they need to these questions – right? Well, I won’t contest your view that you’re a good HR Director because, let’s be honest, I don’t know if you are or aren’t.  But I will contest your view if  you believe that you know the questions about managing performance that managers in ...

What’s in a good conversation? The ability to judge this doesn’t always come naturally, especially when you’re ‘in the moment’ and dealing with tricky subjects such as performance. Research shows that conversations we find difficult tend to be handled badly or avoided completely by over 90% of managers [Performance Coaching International, Coaching at Work, 2008] – and that’s managers in any sector, not just engineering. There are always good reasons why managers prefer to avoid these conversations.  Some, such as being afraid ...

It’s got to be the fundamental part of every manager’s job: to drive up the performance of the people who report to them. Yet it is frightening how many managers treat this critical element of their role in a cavalier way, believing that the day-to-day, in-the-moment conversations they have with their direct reports are sufficient. They aren’t. Those everyday interactions focus on getting tasks done – and usually on fixing immediate problems so that the task in hand can progress. ...