What is an Enabling Environment?
An enabling environment is constituted of:
Physical Environment: The effort which the organisation puts into providing and improving the physical working environment.
Tools and Equipment: The effort which the organisation puts into providing appropriate and effective work facilities.
Training for Current role: The degree to which the organisation provides training and development support/facilities to enable the employee to deliver their current job.
Sound IT/Work Processes: The effort which the organisation puts into providing processes and access to information to facilitate effective working.
Safety/Personal Security: The degree to which the employee is exposed to personal risks either in the workplace or during travel and other activities associated with work.
What Could This Mean in Practice?
“We have most things we need to do a good job”
- Re-furbished offices - with consultation on needs
- 'State of the Art' equipment - e.g. IT hardware, software, mobile phones
- 'Just in Time' training for effectiveness in current role e.g. interviewing skills, using emotional intelligence in handling clients.
- Taking out unnecessary bureaucracy
- Safe, secure offices and travel to work - e.g. use of CCTV in isolated areas.
The need for an enabling environment is not solely the responsibility of the HR function, and any work in this area will need to be undertaken in conjunction with several other functions:
- Property: changes or improvements to the physical environment
- IT: ensuring employees have the right equipment (and training) for the role
- Learning & Development: training for the current role and/or changes to the role
- Health & Safety: can provide excellent advice on potential risks and hazards, and how to overcome them
With extensive legislation around areas such as Health & Safety, it is important to cover not just the legislative minimum, but to also consider the message the environment is sending to employees.
Is this an issue in your organisation?
Once you have undertaken the analysis of organisational policies, employee perception, and your organisational practice, you may find that creating an enabling environment is a priority. If so:
Assess
- Is the working environment pleasant? If no, which employees/groups does this affect? What, if anything can be done to improve this?
- Do employees have the tools they need to do the job? Do they work consistently?
- Does the organisation provide sufficient induction and training for employees to perform their role?
- Does the IT work effectively and consistently? Most organisations have a growing dependance on computers, and an hour of unscheduled network failure results in many lost person-hours of work, and a lot of associated stress.
- Are there efficient processes to help people get the job done without overburdening them with bureaucracy?
- What health and safety hazards are individuals exposed to during their working day, and getting to and from work? What can be done to reduce these risks?
- Which of these issues can be changed by the organisation, and which are dictated by government? If there is no flexibility to change something, this needs to be communicated to employees to ensure they understand that you are attempting to act on their feedback.
Again, you will need to work with colleagues both within HR and in other departments to improve some of these areas.
Benchmark
External benchmarking (pdf, 25Kb) of non-financial awards may help you gather the evidence you need to support recommendations for change. Look at what some of the best employers are doing both here and overseas – Best Places to Work.
Consider
- Improving the physical work environment. Surveys tell us this does have a positive effect on employees, so consider the case for a more modern colourscheme or more comfortable chairs. This is as important for 'employee-only' areas as it is for areas seen by the public.
- Improving the tools and equipment for the job, whether this is offering faster or more reliable computing power or good-quality protective clothing (this doesn't have to cost more - since starting to provide leather shoes to delivery workers, Royal Mail have made leaps in service delivery and stopped losing money).
- Asking employees what training and development would maintain and improve their performance - as well as technical training, this could include time management or team motivation. Slough Council (and many call centres) offer training in emotional intelligence to help employees deal more successfullith angry or upset customers.
- Reviewing information or work processes that interfere with getting the job done. As an example, some GP surgeries now offer computerised, multi-lingual check-in facilities, freeing up the receptionists to make appointments, answer calls and deal with more complex enquiries.
- Review health and safety policies periodically, including transport policies for employees working late in unsafe locations.
Example
The University of Bristol states that “a Positive Working Environment is clearly influenced by the quality of buildings, interior decoration and cleanliness, personal and property security, as well as out personal and corporate approach to the environment”, and their approach is detailed on their website.
Further Resources
