Managing in a different culture Part 2

Since my last blog entry, I am overwhelmed with ever changing circumstances that make having a solid plan to work with a tough task. Since I started to work with this firm about two months ago, I spent most of my time with the staff, learning and leading. The staff I work with is responsive to my inputs and they are willing to take on new challenges, but only if I am constantly pressuring them. Having spent considerable time with the staff, didn’t leave me time to work on more pressing issues, such as (securing new contracts, marketing, budgeting, facing new challenges, quality control, etc.)

In my last blog I mentioned seven areas where I wanted to see changes:

• Absence of general management: I resolved this issue by taking two steps:

1-assigning the duties of the general manager to the most senior and experienced
Staff member.
2-having a weekly meeting (more than once a week if necessary) with the general manager and his immediate assistance.

I have made may expectations very clear to the general manager and his immediate assistance, I have micro managed them and coached them well enough in order for them to handle daily management issues that don’t require the attention of the upper management. As a project Manager, I had to keep in mind to always have my replacement be ready to move in as I move out. Someone in the staff must be ready to take charges of my current responsibilities in order for me to move to the next task where my skills are needed.

• The compensation system was not adequate: the staff members had no clear idea of the compensation system, the pay worked on standards that would change frequently. I had a separate meeting with each employee to hear their point of view on a fair pay system. They didn’t have a clear idea on how they wanted to be paid. With the current system, there was no clear policy on tardiness or no show no call issues nor did they have time reporting system. When an employee is late or doesn’t show up for work, a brief meeting follows with the manager which usually results in a pay deduction from the employee’s salary, the same rules apply for good work or overtime, when an employee does a good work or works overtime, a meeting follows with the manager on duty and usually concludes with extra pay for that work period.

The above system is not practical, it doesn’t have control system built in it, and the management doesn’t have a fair and balanced system to use to reward or punish employees. The employees wanted a pay rise and they wanted to work on per hour pay system. Since the company didn’t have any record keeping system, I was not able to authorize and immediate pay increase. The employees didn’t have a clear idea about how hourly pay system works, they wanted to get paid per hour and at the same time wanted to keep the benefits of the salary based system. In Saudi Arabia, per hour pay system in not widely used, so many workers may have heard about it, but they don’t know the details of the system.

I made up my mind to use the per hour pay system, and on the meeting with the staff, I explained to them how the system will work, I sensed a bit of disappointment of the benefits they will lose with the new system., but I had to stick with my plans since with the old system, there was so much productivity loss due to tardiness and no show for work..

As thank you gesture, I issued a pay rise to all staff in order to ease the transaction to the new pay system.

The new pay system:

1-workers, excluding management, will be paid based on per hour pay.
2-there will be overtime pay for work done outside the normal business hours.
3-there will be performance review every three month and any pay rise will be based on the performance report.
4-there will be bounces giving on celebrated public holidays, in Saudi Arabia and in most of the Muslim world, that would be after the month of fasting (the holy month of Ramadan).

We will see how this new pay system will work. See you later as I continue my work trip