As many businesses turn their focus to managing the challenges caused by increasing unpredictability and responding to continuing global uncertainty, it’s important that the response is not at the expense of, and has proper regard to, the benefits of retaining hard-earned certainty within employment relationships.
Put simply, certainty within employment relationships is a foundational and critical tool for businesses seeking to create, or maintain, a high-performing, culturally aligned, and cohesive workplace. By creating and maintaining clearly defined roles, performance and behavioural expectations, adherence to operational systems, individual and business outcomes, and the terms of employment, businesses lay the foundation for a more productive, cohesive, and engaged team.
One of the most direct benefits of creating and maintaining certainty within the employment relationship is around employee performance. When employees understand their responsibilities, the systems they are required to use, required performance standards, and the criteria for progression and reward, they are empowered, and more likely, to be focused and motivated towards the outcomes the business needs to achieve to be successful. In contrast, uncertainty (whether created through poor communication, a lack of necessary information, or moving goalposts), breeds a lack of focus, reduces efficiency, kills innovation, and leads to progressive disengagement as employees lose the confidence to take initiative, and fail to achieve their own expectations around reward based on their own perspective of their effort.
Certainty also plays a key role in employers delivering on their positive duties around workplace behaviour, and ensuring appropriate employee conduct. When workplace policies, Codes of Conduct, and disciplinary procedures are communicated clearly, employees are trained effectively, behaviour expectations are consistently enforced, and employees remain engaged and rewarded at work, those employees are more likely to understand and adhere to the professional and behavioural expectations of the business. Self-evidently, this reduces the likelihood of misconduct caused by uncertainty or confusion about what is expected, and what is acceptable. Certainty in this space also creates a solid foundation upon which remedial and disciplinary actions can be taken, and in turn, typically reduces the likelihood of employee claims based on a misalignment of expectations.
When examining workplace culture more generally, certainty creates stability and is a major contributor to achieving a positive, inclusive, and respectful working environment. Job security, role, effort and reward certainty, and trust founded on predictability are key pillars in employee engagement, and motivation towards workplace social inclusion. Engaged employees drive innovation, foster collaboration, reduce the causal factors of conflict, and help attract and retain talent. Ultimately, a workplace culture built and maintained on transparent communication, certainty around mutual expectation, and accountability promotes mutually beneficial alignment between individual and organisational values.
As we unavoidably discuss and respond to external uncertainty, it’s critical that we don’t do that by creating avoidable instability, and at the expense of the benefits internal certainty delivers.
