My husband travels internationally for his job. Several years ago, he visited a bearing manufacturing plant in Thailand. As my husband entered the building, he noticed a teen-aged boy sitting just outside the plant's front door. The boy, said the plant foreman, was already employed by the plant, and was waiting for a spot inside. All the workers inside the plant also knew there was a boy waiting; chosen to replace the unlucky worker who would not perform to the foreman's standards.
Paranoia in the workplace is nothing new, but in insurance IT, it seems to be more prevalent than ever. Many insurers are burdened by the seemingly contradictory goal of facilitating growth initiatives while trimming costs. Others are saddled with the merging of acquired organizations, people, technology and systems.
Moreover, macroeconomic and market conditions have filtered down to the department level, often resulting in mandates to create efficiencies (read cost reductions). These efficiencies are often accomplished through various means-attrition, outsourcing and departmental upheaval-that instill anxiety in workers.
The sum of these factors is a widespread climate of unease among workers, if not outright fear. What are the operational consequences of this fear? When a worker is concerned about losing his job, say experts, he generally stops performing optimally. Some keep a lower profile while they hang on, functioning to provide the minimum requirements. Others become political animals, weakening team morale for the sake of their upward mobility.
Many will devote their energy to looking over their shoulders, watching how management treats their peers while asking "Who's next?" Indeed, if unchecked, this movement also can become viral, as fear hijacks rational thinking, infecting the entire department with paranoia. Even the best IT workers (the ones you want to keep) can fall prey to this mindset, focusing on ways to retain their jobs rather than the task at hand. Worse yet, this pervasive dread can stymie innovation as workers keep ideas to themselves in order to avoid making waves.
So how, as a manager, do you counter this inclination? Simple, appreciative gestures and a free flow of information are the primary weapons. Most insurance IT organizations are doing their best to keep their top talent, and your employees should be reminded of this. Workers who display the more visible signs of productivity—excellent time management, creativity with resources, getting things done quickly and efficiently—should be acknowledged.
Honesty, too, is a good policy. Pretending the boy at the door does not exist does no good for workers or managers. The good news is that for workers focused on something larger than themselves, the boy at the door has no power.
