How employee representatives can build credibility

Do people ‘believe in’ your consultation process?

If employees don’t believe in the consultation process, as they simply don’t find it credible or adding value, then representatives will invariably be disheartened and find they are fighting an endless uphill battle that they simply cannot win. Worse still, some representatives may feel embarrassed or shamed in the role, through no real fault of their own.

If managers and HR/people teams don’t believe the consultation process is bringing value to the business, then representatives will find themselves increasingly ignored, sidelined, minimised, or perhaps worse still, humoured as a necessary evil. How embarrassing is that?

Just to be clear, this is not all on the shoulders of the representatives, who all too often find themselves in a situation they feel they neither fully understand nor can control.

The essentials for credibility

I have so many thoughts on this topic of credibility, much of which I share when delivering representative training, but here are just a few of them (please note I am focusing on representatives here, not on what is required for, or of, managers, senior teams and HR):

1. Understanding why credibility is important – if there’s no credibility with the consultation process amongst employees and/or the senior team/HR then you will find representatives get frustrated and as a result will either step down, get confrontational, start just ‘playing’ at it, or otherwise won’t stand for re-election when the time comes. So… a loss of continuity, a loss of engagement and a loss of commitment.
2. Taking time to work out how to build credibility and how to maintain it – an essential step for representatives is taking time out from serving others, i.e. dealing with other people’s concerns and providing support as required, to focus on planning, organising as a team, working out who can and will do what, and what they are seeking to achieve. It’s about looking after themselves before they can start to look after others. Sound familiar?
3. Avoiding what might erode credibility – Aside from the ‘master plan’, a key part of having credibility is knowing what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and how you’re going to do it. Some of the things that I see representatives and their organisations doing that erode credibility include:

• • dabbling without serious intent
  • dabbling/interfering in areas that are not within their remit, e.g., stepping on the toes of other employee forums within the organisation
  • a lack of trust between representatives and the senior or HR/People team and failure to build trust and relationships as a priority
  • getting distracted on peripheral non-essential stuff
  • not understanding the boundaries and parameters of the role
  • arguing about the wrong things
  • believing it’s about confrontation or conflict, not partnership
  • addressing surface-level issues instead of taking time to understand and address root cause issues
  • hearing what people say, but not understanding what they mean (I am referring here to colleagues who are sharing ideas for agendas/voicing ideas or concerns)

4. Essential skills and behaviours for credibility – to perform the role effectively, to build and maintain credibility, representatives will likely need to develop a good understanding of people, emotions, communication and employee engagement. These are not typically ‘life skills’ that many possess naturally, so they probably have to be learnt through experience or training. I’m thinking about understanding things such as:

• • how to feel comfortable with discomfort – as representatives will be working outside their comfort zones
  • what actually (genuinely) motivates and engages people (I’m not talking doughnuts here)
  • what tends to create conflict and/or frustration amongst people
  • how mismanaged or misunderstood expectations can drive conflict
  • how to ensure people feel genuinely heard
  • how to have difficult or sensitive conversations
  • how to avoid being drawn into ‘drama’ or ‘victimhood’ which is an emotional cycle that never achieves anything
  • how to dig deep to understand the real drivers of behaviours/emotions/issues
  • how to ensure communication about purpose, value, actions etc are communicated in a way that ensures the messages are actually heard and understood. In my experience, neither boring minutes nor telepathy are effective when you want to share a ‘win’ or ‘challenge’ with your colleagues.
  • how to be accountable, and how to enjoy being a role model for accountability, including confidently handling difficult feedback or conversations

Credibility is not a one-off action

It’s not just important to build credibility, but to maintain it too. This is a learning journey for most representative groups/forums, as well as the HR or people team that supports them.

I recognise it’s not going to be an easy ride, with many bumps and obstacles along the way, but just taking time to remember and refocus on credibility at regular intervals is essential, especially if you want your forum to be sustainable and effective. I know it’s obvious, but also remembering why people wanted to be representatives in the first place is a great reminder of why we need to build credibility:

When people step forward into a representative role, they are often seeking a combination of:

• Supporting/advocating for their colleagues.
• Enhancing their own CV/job/skills.
• Supporting the organisation in the interests of everyone.

Is this true of the representatives you have right now, or are there other motivators at play that are worth reflecting on?

And whenever an employee engages with their representative, bringing an idea, an issue, some feedback or similar, they have expectations about what will happen as a result. Your employees have expectations of your representatives, sometimes very high expectations, and we need to ensure we do not take that lightly.

To deliver on these expectations around the role, as well as ensuring an effective and professional process for all involved, I think that taking just a little bit of time to think about how they can build and then maintain credibility as a representative forum will be a great use of everyone’s time.

Where are you going to start? Baby steps are fine, just as long as you are heading in the right direction!

Any thoughts on this article, please do share in the comments below.