Difficult Staff Conversations

My boyfriend in another agency has to let someone in his team go because they are not cutting it in their probation. Any tips for him?

I was thinking about making agency people redundant when I saw Up in the Air recently. George Clooney is a hired hand who travels the States, gaining a ridiculous number of airmiles and delivers the bad news to corporate employees.

In a way, being emotionally detached from the employees makes it easier but I think because of the detachment you would be the focus of the anger of the alienated staff too – I would expect a lot of car damage in that job. I am also reminded of a friend of a friend who was head of HR at the European HQ of a Silicon Valley company. He and his North American equivalent had to make a number of wide-ranging redundancies. My friend’s friend was luckier than his Californian colleague – one US employee demanded an appeal meeting with the head of HR after being told he was being made redundant and took a gun out and killed two people.

I mention these “upbeat” stories not to scare your boyfriend but to show we cannot forget that we are dealing with people’s lives, aspirations and livelihoods here. Also you cannot predict how people will react – maybe not with a gun but when I have been involved in such conversations, I am aware that people shut down and not always hear all that is said – it is a shock response. Therefore your boyfriend needs to display extreme sensitivity and phrase things in a very clear way.

The first questions that come flooding into one’s mind when one hears such news are “Why – what could I have done differently?” “How am I going to pay the rent?” “ What am I going to tell my family and friends?” Consequently, you need to bear in mind that you have to give a plausible rationale to the employee so they can process it emotionally. When it is an agency financial decision, it is easier – a case of the old “It’s not you, it’s me.” In this situation, where it is poor performance, although no doubt you can wrap it up in a financial excuse, I think you are better to address the real performance problem. – this is fairer for the employee’s future career. This means talking about what’s not working but not to the extent that the poor junior is bereft of all self-confidence.

Your boyfriend will need to involve HR in the meeting and make sure what he is doing is right according to employment law and right for the individual situation. This is when you need to make sure everything is by the book. I remember at a previous agency that someone tried to let someone go in their probationary period and then afterwards the employee rocked up with a letter from the dippy HR assistant confirming the probationary period was over a month before. Talking to HR can help you prepare how you phrase things and if your boyfriend has never done this sort of thing before, he should rehearse it in advance. What am I saying? I think even if you are a seasoned pro, you should rehearse it. The employee deserves this and and you will feel better afterwards having done it in a way that is sensitive and fair to everyone. Oh and choose your location wisely – the goldfish bowl meeting room in the centre of the agency is probably not the best place.

So in summary I would suggest he:

1) Involve HR and prepare for the meeting extensively

2) Be clear and sensitive in what is said

3) Be prepared for irrational reactions

It’s going to be one of those years where performance and financials is going to be under scrutiny so no doubt there will a number of these conversations throughout agencyland. Best of luck! And Up in the Air is just worth watching for those air travel tips - think again who you queue up behind in the security checks!

Fact or Friction?

Our account manager and our client are not seeing eye to eye and there is a lot of friction. The client wants to get as much as they can for nothing and the account manager needs to ensure they maximise return on the relationship and protect the agency. Something's got to give or we might lose the account and it is quite big - help!

You have two things going on and it is easy to confuse the two and just solve one, leaving the other to fester. In essence you have a chemistry issue between the account handler and the client but more importantly your client seems to be under a misapprehension about your cost basis. The former might be as a result of the latter but you won’t know until you solve the cost issue.

You are right – something has to give (and it could be the account) so I would suggest that you understand why the client wants to “get as much as they can for nothing”. In my experience, clients like this one either do not appreciate the basis of the remuneration structure (another client created it and is the only one who understands the agreed thinking behind it) or they feel you are too expensive or “ripping them off” so they want to get as much as they can for their – in their minds – overinflated fees. Whichever mindset, you need to take quick action and get this client on side by understanding their perspective. Give them a call and meet up for a chat about the costs, how the projects are going. It may be the opportunity to understand the personality issues, reinforce the cost basis and see if you are coming over as too expensive. Once you know what is really driving the issues, you can then make a decision re your account handler staying on the business.

So What Are We Going To Do In 2010?

I think we have enough commentators giving their prognoses on the world of on- and offline marketing this forthcoming year. So I thought I would share my very simple resolutions for 2010 with you:

Enjoy the work
I felt towards the end of last year we (myself included) were gritting our teeth and digging deep to get through the barrage of work. This year will be similar in terms of workload but my resolution is enjoy it more and make light of the challenges we face. I also think collectively we will do better work because of it.

Hold steady on the money
This will be another year where there will be downward pressure on costs. This is understandable and if a client has just let 10% of its marketing department staff go, then who are you to stand like Canute trying to resist cuts in your budgets. However, both your day to day clients and procurement will be trying to get more for less. This is where we do need to stand firm and have our arguments ready for what you can actually provide and also more innovative solutions to help them get to where they need to be on a smaller budget.

Do meetings more effectively
Tom Fishburne to whom I am grateful, as ever, for this post’s cartoon quotes Seth Godin on being more productive by reducing meeting drag. All of his suggestions make total sense. What I found last year is that clients as they are based in different offices are using meetings or telecons to catch on projects in bigger groups. The more productive thing would be to meet in smaller groups in advance and come to wider meetings with conclusions from the initial meetings. Also, as more and more meetings are virtual, I am constantly surprised how little concession is made to the fact people are not face to face (eg by circulating work in advance, eliciting feedback from all attendees to avoid dissension further down the line). Anyway for my part I am going to take Godin’s tip of 1) always circulating an agenda in advance and 2) doing more meetings around our pooltable which doesn’t have any chairs. Hopefully at least the latter will mean less time spent on meetings.