Managing Meetings

I bet we've all, at some point in life had to endure long, boring and probably useless meetings. Meetings are one of the most common ways organisations communicate-- planning, assigning tasks, reporting progress, follow ups, performance feedback, etc. It is said that meetings empower people and develop work skills and leadership in an organisation.
In order to arrange and actually execute an effective meeting, be it business or otherwise you are advised to do the following:

• Have an agenda-- business or topics to be covered during the meeting. Ensure every participant gets an agenda in advance to enable the prepare.
• Who is invited-- consider who you would like to be part of the meeting, e.g if you are announcing a change, call the individuals who are going to be affected.
• Be prepared-- somebody said that luck most often comes to those who prepare for it. Prepare in advance so as to effectively handle the business at hand.
• Manage time-- decide on the length of time the meeting will take and ensure that you handle all your scheduled business in the said time. Meetings which drag for hours on end can be very draining and uninspiring. People have lots of stuff to do!
• Reduce frequency and improve quality of meetings, fewer but effectively managed meetings will leave attendees looking forward to the next one.
• Focus-- it is important to focus on the matter at hand to avoid wasting time on non-issues. Lack of focus is the main reason meetings last forever.
• Pick out and assign action points-- high light the outcomes of the meeting and assign members tasks and timelines. 
• Ask for feedback from the participants, plug the identified loopholes and improve on subsequent meetings.

Kindly let me know how you would rather handle your meetings.

Employee privacy

Invasion of one's privacy is something that has taken a sizable amount of concern among Ugandans, especially since the passing of the (in)famous "phone tapping" bill. The main argument is that, an individual, according to the constitution, has a right to some reasonable degree of privacy. However, how much of that privacy do do individuals retain while at their respective places of work?

Most employers will often monitor their employees' activities using cameras, or record employees' activities while using computers or telephones. Using sophisticated software, hidden cameras, phone-tapping devices, smart card security badges and global positioning systems technology; employers may electronically snoop employees'computer key strokes, internet and email usage, locations, movements and activities, phone conversations and job performance.

Employers argue that this is necessary because among other things, they have a right to protect their property from theft, sabotage and violence. It is their responsibility to prevent potentially damaging behavior like sexual harassment and above all monitor employee productivity.

In a majority of private organisations, employee surveillance is the norm, however, the ethical challenge is, should should they first warn employees before cameras and other surveillance paraphernalia are turned on?

Legal suits where employers are respondents are on the rise even in Uganda where unemployment statistics are rather miserable, it would therefore be safer if employers developed well- defined monitoring and surveillance policies, document them and get written acknowledgement from employees. Where computer and email monitoring policies exit, they should clearly state this at the time of job offer and/or acceptance.

Satisfied at Your Job?

Job satisfaction, simply put would refer to one being content with their job or aspects of their job. Not long ago a group of researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle carried out a survey (Job Satisfaction and Morale in the Ugandan Health Sector). Their abstract began with the following observation:

Ugandan Health workers are dissatisfied with their jobs, especially their compensation and working conditions. About one in four would like to leave the country to improve their outlook, including more than half of all physicians. Policy strategies to strengthen human resources for health in Uganda should focus on salary end benefits (especially health coverage), working conditions and work load, facility infra-structure( including water and electricity), management and workforce camaraderie.

One would be excused to believe that the health sector is the worst hit but wait and take peek into other sectors like Education, Police, Manufacturing, etc and you will be surprised by what you find in there; but the question is what or who is responsible for this plunge in workers' job satisfaction and what can we as a country do about it?

There may be a number of factors that affect job satisfaction but common among these are aspects like pay, management practices like supervision, workplace Health and safety policies, employee training and development policies, employee exit, etc. When one looks at this list he/she finds that it is basic managerial deficiencies that is responsible for the nose-dive job satisfaction has taken. If indeed this is the case, then I can't over emphasize the the fact that organizations actually shoot themselves in the feet (or rather managers do).

An HR guru once wrote that what you ask for in an employee is what you get, I can,t agree more.

Addressing a sexual harassment complaint

Susan Heathfield suggests the following:

• Ensure all your employees are informed of your organization's policy regarding sexual harassment;
• Assign a knowledgeable individual to handle the complaint;
• Plan the investigation based on current knowledge;
• Interview the complainant and reassure him/her that he/she will be safe from retaliation and that they took the appropriate step in reporting the incident;
• Inform the employee that you need to know immediately about any retaliation, purported retaliation or on-going harassment the employee experiences;
• Ask the employee to narrate the incident in his/her own words;
• Inform the accused person that a complaint has been filed and no acts of retaliation will be tolerated;
• Assure the accused that there will be a fair and just investigation;
• Interview potential witnesses and seek facts that support or disprove the allegations;
• Interview the accused;
• Make decisions about whether sexual harassment occurred or not;
• Recognize that you are not perfect and no situation can be perfectly investigated;
• Ensure that no further incidents occur by following up and documenting follow-up;
• Afford the employee who may have been wrongly accused the same courtesy of following up and documentation.

It is worth noting that not every allegation of sexual harassment is a foregone conclusion that it actually took place, there are potentially malicious allegations that employees may throw in their colleague's direction and this is the more reason a thorough and just investigation needs to be carried out in order to weed out these malicious claims against the innocent.
Uganda's Employment Act, 2006 requires that every employer who employs 25 people or more must have a sexual harassment policy in place, how the number 25 was reached is still a mystery to me. Just for argument's sake, let's say my company employs 10 people and the same acts that constitute sexual harassment take place between 2 individuals and that I don't have a sexual harassment policy in place would my company be let go scott-free?
Anybody out there to help me with this?

Sexual harassment at the workplace

When Alexandria, a data entry clerk with four years under her belt approached her immediate boss to inquire about her chances regarding a recent internal advert in her organization, he reassured her and promised to put in a good word for her with the line manager of that department. She strolled out of his office humming her favourite tune-- God will always make a way.
Later that evening, Alexandria's cell phone purrs the low, gentle melody she had set as her ringtone and on checking who the caller was, she saw it was Bicks her boss.
"Hello, boss," she answered excitedly expecting good news about the position they had discussed earlier that day.
"Alex my dear. How are you" he said.
"Am cool, is this about our earlier talk? she asked.
"Yes, as a matter of fact the job is yours for the taking but....." he hesitated. "Is there a problem, boss?" Alexandria asked.
"Oh no, no Alex all I wanted to ask is that we go out together tonight," Bicks said.
" Oh sorry, Bicks, I'd love to but I can't. I've got Charles my boyfriend to pick from the airport tonight."
"Maybe tomorrow then?" he asks tightly.
"Am sorry boss, but that won't be possible," she answered without any further explanation.
After a short period of silence he said, "Hey, do still remember that opportunity we talked about? It might just go to someone else who is more cooperative," and he hung up on her.

There are numerous stories similar to this one doing the rounds in Uganda, remember sex for marks at some of our tertiary institutions? With the sickening statistics of unemployment in Uganda today, many of our young people-- both male and female-- have to put up with this kind of thing and are either very afraid or outright ashamed of speaking out.

Section 7 (1) of our Employment Act, 2006 says an employee shall be sexually harassed if that employee's employer or his/her representative directly or indirectly makes a request for sexual intercourse, contact or any other form of sexual activity that contains: a promise of preferential treatment, threat of detrimental treatment or threat about the present or future employment status and that these subject the employee to behaviour that is unwelcome or offensive and have a detrimental effect on that employee's employment, job performance or job satisfaction.

Come on guys how many of you have been and/or are still being sexually harassed at work and you've done nada to stop it?

Ethics at the Workplace

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine complained to me about what he thinks is a disturbing trend, the deteriorating levels of what he termed the four pillars of ethical conduct at the workplace, viz: Honesty, Integrity, Respect and Professionalism. I just continued staring at him without asking him any question but I silently urged him on, for my antenna was now up and running.
He intimated to me how one of his fellow sales people was  paying illegal fees to promote his product (one of the many that particular company handles). His issue: unfairness and/or rather the disregard of all four concepts that define workplace ethics. I thought I got his point clearly but then I also wanted him to look at it in a much simpler and clearer my way.
My pitch:" Well, lapses manifest in all sorts of forms and on all sorts of ethical issues, e.g.

• carrying home that day's issue of the news paper meant for the reception desk
• printing personal documents on that one page of company stationery
• personal phone calls on the company line
• hiding a used cup of coffee under your colleague's desk
• face-booking during official working hours unless it is part of your job description
• special treatment in return for sex, etc."

I looked him straight in the eye for his reaction to this, he simply threw up his hands in the air and concluded that it was like pissing in the wind-- the piss is simply blown back and splashed onto your pants and face.
How much more abuse is the workplace prepared to take?

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