Hi any H.R. input would be helpful.

Just taken on a group of staff who have a built in resentment towards former manager and various past upsets, a couple of them is looking to lodge a grievance against former managers behaviour.

Add to this a recent restructure which saw them downgraded has only served to demoralise and demotivate the team more, you will appreciate this is a very rocky road for me to navigate.

unfortunately I think the two issues have now become one and they are constantly huddled together either discussing or plotting revenge, their supervisor is new and inexperienced and scared to confront this behaviour, in case they walk.

My role is to try and create a top performing team, unfortunately with their number depleted because of sickness, new staff yet to be recruited and a supervisor who also needs lots of encouragement and support this is no easy task. I do not want to go in all guns blazing, but I feel this behaviour is out of control and they have clearly forgotten they are at work and not in a soap opera.

Any ideas on how to manage this situation without undermining morale further would be much appreciated.

I came across something similar in my last job.

Get the team together, in a neutral space, and clear the air. Restate the authority of the new supervisor and facilitate any action that the group wish to take on the understanding that this is the end of the matter.

I've always wondered why companies insist on putting new/inexperienced supervisors with the most challenging teams.

In my experience there's only one thing that will work: Ask them what they want and go upstairs with a plan to change things for the better.

After all, peed off staff won't produce, will go sick very often and will put a spanner in the works at every opportunity by raising grievances.

We had two years of a similar situation in my previous job and our team lost almost a million in revenue for that period.

Guess what they did... They sacked the manager.

So be careful and let your staff know that you wish to have a healthy and productive relationship.

Good luck.

Get to know your staff. - Taking an interest in them will help motivate them.

Tiny noticeable things - Make positive changes that help them do their job.

The problem here is you need to LEAD as well as MANAGE

There's a few really good points there, the staff are acting like they are for a reason so to understand that from their point of view is key to resolving it. Getting them together to acknowledge there's an issue and giving them the space to air it out will hopefully stop the huddles.

There may well be an issue of trust there too as their experience of the restructuring was potentially very different if their previous manager didn't handle it well.

There's certainly no harm in even using an external mediator or facilitator who is entirely neutral to get all of the issues out into the open. Would them raising a collective grievance be such a bad thing? Not if it gives you, the new supervisor and the company as a whole the chance to rebuild the relationship.

I get the feeling you've been tasked with fixing a staffing problem and not with addressing the root cause. Look at a change of tack perhaps, get to the bottom of the problem and start to address the issues.

you need to take an opportunity to explain why you are there and what is expected by your management an ask them what they are expecting you to do to help them perform their duties to the satisfaction of the organisation. Find out if they have something in common that makes them feel good (if they spend ages in a huddle they must get on with each other by and large) and see if that can be a start point for creating your team.

Get them to accept that you arent your predecessor and if there are any bigger issues offer to accompany them in any meeting they may wish to have with senior management/HR if the grievance is still on the cards but make sure that your support will be only based upon realistic claims and desired outcomes.

Thanks guys, some really helpful ideas, up to late last year I think this group of staff were pretty much left to get on with things and a culture has developed where any management intervention is unwelcome, when the last manager got involved with them she moved them, demanded they meet deadlines without really engaging with them, she felt they were trouble and treated them as such. I can see they are a close knit group and winning their cooperation is going to take some time,I will make sure this is recorded though as one posting said if it all goes sour they may sack the manager

I had exactly the same problem when I started a new role 6 months ago.

I spent time with the team, listening, empathetic, while also engaging in them in my ideas of a way forward.

They kicked and scream, had paddies - I remained firm but fair - I know have a fantastic team who are supportive, co-operative and defiantly will go the extra mile.

I used techniques

from a book called 'Transforming Behaviour', which is geared towards offenders but some useful cross over information which can be used with unwilling staff.

Good luck :}

Thanks, think I am seriously gonna need that book.

Available from Amazon by Sally Cherry - best £20 I have ever spent

Available from Amazon by Sally Cherry - best £20 I have ever spent

Thanks for the details, I'm just about to take on a new team and this could be useful.

I was trained by Philologists and they used this as their bible, at first I was the doubting Thomas! and couldn't see how if would help.

Even though is is geared around offenders, there are chapters around managing a staff team and changing the behaviour of the unwilling client that can be transferred onto staff as well.

I had tremendous results and changed my management styles to work in this manner.

Good luck x

Thanks, will go online and check that out now, luckily I have a few days before I meet with them again - AL and sickness etc, maybe give me a chance to grab some ideas.

No book will save you if your staff has got brain.

It's a chess game and the smartest is three moves ahead.

We have become experts at predicting what higher management will do next and carefully plan the counter move.

If your staff is your enemy you will lose, no doubt about that.

Your only hope is to find out what they want and if possible give it to them.

If higher management won't let you keep your staff happy, I'm afraid you've had it.

Sorry to be blunt, but many years in several big companies carved deep lines on my forehead.

I would recommend, as have others, Change Management.

First you need a trigger. That trigger here, is you.

Call your staff together and tell them you are here to instigate a new culture of mutual harmony and cooperation as a team (or whatever, use your own words).

Next, start calling the changes. The use of a Cultural Web (look it up) can be a useful model to apply.

Set up one to one consultations where each staff member can express their hopes and fears with you about the new culture.

Next arrange a changeover date with your new culture in place. This can be sudden or phased.

Next, negotiate with your staff. People resist change, so think of carrots and sticks.

Once change in place, make it clear mutiny is over. Anyone still resistant can be managed by disciplinary processes (look them up).

Thanks, have had a look at book recommended, transforming behaviour, and it pretty much echoes a lot of your opinions, I will certainly do a few one to ones though,because I have already observed a puppet and the puppet-master scenario, will be interested to get an individual response.