Cases often reach me too late. A manager has seen that something is wrong — too much work, a conflict, or someone who has stopped speaking up in meetings. Then they put off the conversation. By the time it reaches people, the person has often already decided to leave. Or they have stopped caring.
The most important work happens in what managers do closest to people. Not in what we take into HR.
I want to know: do managers get to act on what they see, before it becomes a formal case?
Challenges I run into
When the numbers look soft, we quickly start a survey and new initiatives. What is more often missing is the ordinary conversation with the concrete person.
If managers do not have a place to do that, two things happen. Either they pretend it will pass. Or they send it to HR. Both cost. The first loses people. The second fills us with cases that should have been handled in the team.
We often notice the strong performers last. They rarely shout. They deliver a little less over time. Then they are gone.
What I think matters to watch for
Managers need to raise what they have put off — in the 1:1 — without it automatically becoming a formal case. They need to know we expect that. And they need a place to write down and follow up what is hard to say outright.
We should also stop answering soft numbers with yet another company-wide program. Often we already know which teams it concerns. Then it is better to follow up there than to send out a new message.
And we have to keep a clear line between a people case and the manager’s job.
How Relatable fits in
Relatable gives managers a place to put situations they would otherwise only remember until the next 1:1 — or until they send them to me. That makes it easier to raise the concrete thing before it becomes formal.
That is where I want the work: closer to the team, earlier, and without everything having to become a case.