We are sometimes so focused on our residents that we forget the other important relationships we have within our communities – our staff.
Ask yourself, what is your relationship like with your team?
Every year Gartner run a webinar on the top priorities for leaders in the year ahead. The webinar looks at the top HR trends and priorities based on the results of Gartner’s annual survey of over 500 leaders in Human Resources.
This year, we sat in on the webinar and it was interesting to hear the theme that was emerging, especially after our most recent Professional Development Day series where we the DCM Institute team was able to connect with so many managers and leaders in our own sector.
Overwhelmingly, the top trend reported during the webinar by leaders was an unsettled employee-employer relationship, with productivity anxiety and mutual mistrust identified at alarming levels.
Productivity Anxiety in simple terms, is a feeling of stress or unease that comes from worrying about the constant pressures to meet the high expectations of the business and the customers, and in turn to keep up with the demands of work and life.
According to the survey, 58% of organisations are confident that they can meet their performance targets in the coming year. That said, 45% of employees were worried that can’t sustain their current level of performance next year.
Mutual Mistrust arises when the relationship between individuals in the business is strained, and it manifests in scepticism and uncertainty in the workplace. Gartner reported that 63% of organisations said they trust their employees however only 53% of employees trust their organisations.
Now, its important to note at this point, this was a global survey. It doesn’t stop us from asking if this is something you are seeing in your own organisation with your own team.
When looking at this sort of research and reporting and reflect on our own learnings in the sector over the past year with 2 out of 5 Village Managers indicating they won’t be in the sector in three years’ time.
The Gartner webinar is a timely reminder that as leaders we need to also be considerate of our teams, how they are responding to the demands on their productivity and support them to succeed.
As leaders, we need to be both mindful and proactive. We need to ask ourselves as leaders within our own businesses how we can continue to keep our teams motivated and focused on the outcomes that result in great resident outcomes.
Something we will be exploring at our upcoming Village Summit event, where Matt Church will be presenting on leadership and motivation.