Question

Matteo was recently promoted to a supervisory position at the Panhandle Insurance Agency and has 5 claims adjusters reporting to him. All of the claims adjusters (except Luciana) have been with the Agency for more than 2 years.

1. Charlotte
2. Simon
3. Luciana
4. Morgan
5. Markus

Matteo has reviewed his weekly reports for claims activity and has been pleased overall with the number of claims that are being processed within the appropriate guidelines issued by the Agency for personal injury claims. For example, a whiplash claim resulting from an automobile accident with no other injury is generally settled for less than $1,000; a minor slip and fall accident with resulting sprains and no broken bones on a homeowner’s property is generally settled for $1,500; and, other more serious injuries are settled according to other guidelines based upon the severity of the injury, lost time from work, etc.

Matteo hired Luciana on April 15 based primarily upon the work record represented on her resume and her outgoing personality and appearance during the job interview process. When he called to verify her references from her past employers, they would not provide any information other than her start/stop dates of employment and her job title. Matteo knew this was fairly typical when calling for references, and he had a good feeling about Luciana and extended to her an offer of employment with a 60-day probationary period.

It is now June 7 at 6:30 p.m. and Matteo is ending a long day at work. On his way out of the office, he notices a light appearing underneath the doorway of the conference room and assumes someone just forgot to turn off the lights before leaving. He opens the door and to his surprise discovers that Luciana and Simon are engaging in inappropriate relations in the conference room … and both are about half dressed. Matteo is stunned and embarrassed and quickly shuts the conference room door. He considered Simon to be one of his friends and had even socialized with Simon and his wife numerous times outside of work. Matteo is not sure if he should tell his own wife what he just discovered, although he is sure she will be able to detect that something is clearly on his mind. Matteo is also deeply concerned about his ethical responsibility to his employer.

The Panhandle Insurance Agency is entering into their busiest time of the year and Matteo needs to be able to depend on everyone on his team working to the best of their abilities to resolve claims by the end of the quarter, which is June 30. If his team meets their goals, they will all receive a $500 bonus.

What should Matteo do?

(In your answer, consider the Stakeholders’ Approach to Ethics, discussed in Chapter 2 of your textbook.)

Answer 1

As a business owner, or manager, you need to ensure that you make best use of all the resources that are available to you. One of the most important resources you have is the people who work for you. If you want to get the best from your employees, you have to ensure that they reach their full potential. This may involves the investment of time, effort and money, but the results make all of this worthwhile.

Making sure employees reach their full potential – how to do it

As a business owner, or manager, you need to ensure that you make best use of all the resources that are available to you. One of the most important resources you have is the people who work for you. If you want to get the best from your employees, you have to ensure that they reach their full potential. This may involves the investment of time, effort and money, but the results make all of this worthwhile.

If your employees reach their full potential, they are more productive. This means that the overall productivity of your business improves, which has a positive impact on your performance in the marketplace. You can see the benefits, but how can you help the people you employ to reach their full potential?

It’s not just about work time

One of the main things you need to remember is that your employees do not just exist inside the workplace; they have a full life that you probably know little about. This life can have a positive and negative impact on the potential they reach in work. We are not suggesting that you get personally involved in the life of every employee, but you can put lifestyle advice and support in place.

• Emphasise the importance of a good diet. This could include healthy eating days when you provide a lunch for the workforce.
• Provide help with childcare where possible.
• Encourage exercise. You may want to think about setting up a deal with a local health club, or bringing in someone to provide exercise classes on a regular basis.
• Hire speakers to talk about lifestyle issues such as the importance of sleep. People are not aware how much effect beds such as Simmons Beautyrest Black, and sleep routines can have on their health and work performance.
• Encourage open discussion about work/life balance and be flexible wherever possible.

The more you support your employees in living their lives, the more likely they are to be able to reach their full potential while working for you.

Creating a feeling of involvement

If your employees do not feel they are involved with the running of the business, they are less likely to want to do their best. There are several ways in which you can create a feeling of involvement in your business.

• Communicate openly and effectively. The people who work for you need to know what is going on in the business. This information needs to be communicated in a planned and efficient manner, so that you do not create an environment of rumour and misunderstandings.
• Encourage integration. Creating silos of teams across your business is not a good idea. In order for people to reach their full potential, they need to be able to see the wider picture. This is why you should encourage shadowing and interaction between teams.
• Set up a suggestion scheme. Creating a successful suggestion scheme takes some effort, but it’s worthwhile. You get access to some really good ideas and you bring out the potential in your workforce.

All of these ideas can foster a sense of involvement in a work place.

The importance of training and development

If you do not ensure that your employees are well trained, and have access to development opportunities, you are never going to enable them to reach their full potential. This is not just about training people to do their own job, although that is important, you also need to think about other options. You need to allocate a significant part of your budget to ensure that your training and development provision is sufficient. Areas of training you may want to consider are:

• Management training.
• First aid training.
• Myers Briggs testing and awareness.
• College courses.
• Financial awareness training.

It’s a good idea to use personal development plans, so that training and development can be tailored to help each individual reach their full potential.

Building and maintaining a strong team ethos

There is plenty of truth in the saying that no man is an island. Most of us need people around who can help bring out the best in us. This is why it’s so important to create strong teams in your business. There are plenty of ways for you to do this.

• Encourage regular team meetings, and “get – togethers” outside of the workplace.
• Use online team building ideas.
• Host away days to strengthen the wider team.

Yes, this article is about helping individuals reach their full potential, but making sure they are part of a strong team is a good way of doing this.

Hopefully, you can see how important it is to make sure your employees reach their full potential. Doing so takes time and effort but the benefits to your business make all of this worthwhile.