Workplace Well-being -- From the Top Down to the Bottom Up.
What managers can do to support staff, and what staff can do to support themselves.
Workplace stress, bullying, exhaustion and burnout - it’s written about a lot but carries a certain...je ne sais quoi for the arts sector. Front of house (FOH) staff often carry higher expectations on them by visitors/customers as a lot of the roles are publicly funded - this is often interpreted as a license for visitors to be more demanding, rude, and generally take more liberties than they normally would to customer service professionals.
FOH Museums conducted some research into the subject. The full report can be found here.
A brief rundown of the stats:
58% of front-of-house staff feel undervalued, (vs 24% working in back-of-house roles)
48% of front-of-house staff feel motivated to pursue a career in the museum sector (vs 76% working back of house)
37% of front-of-house staff feel able to change museum practice (vs 80% for back-of-house staff)
It’s worrying to say the least. As a caveat, I should disclose that I have never worked in HR. I have never managed a team of FOH staff. But I have worked outside and within the sector in a range of roles including FOH. I have experience of incredibly positive management models, all the way through to workplace bullying led by management. So here’s my hot take on actions management and leadership can take or put into practice to improve working conditions for FOH staff, all taken from the best practice I’ve seen and a ‘lessons learnt’ from the worst.
Policies, beaurocracy and paperwork:
Include ‘pastoral care’ in the job description. I have had this in roles as a receptionist, through to very low level admin. Managers of FOH staff should at the very least have an awareness of the issues surrounding these roles and have it built into their role to be held accountable to manage and monitor it. And of course, make recommendations up the organisational chain to create a positive work atmosphere.
Take a person-centred approach
Look at the structure of the FOH roles. Lone working, lack of variety, on their feet all day, and inability to explore progression routes will all contribute to low motivation, drive, enthusiasm, poor wellbeing, and of course, the mental health of your FOH staff.
Build peer mentoring into your organisation, create time for staff to shadow other teams - this will help skills development, engagement in the wider organisation and also….everyone will actually meet each other? So often FOH staff don’t necessarily meet the rest of the organisation. Include them. If it’s an hour a week, try covering their shift for that hour. Involve other teams (eg Marketing, HR, Curatorial, etc) in the scheme. This will create better perspective, understanding, inclusivity and embed a more positive company culture as well as exposing and encouraging progression routes.
Create 121 time. I’ve had roles where this is done weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. In some roles (not necessarily in the arts), this is done while on the job, not in a separate space. Leadership witness the frustrations, treatment of staff and demands put on them by visitors and can take this away for positive action.
Enable clear channels for feedback (anonymous, face to face, and otherwise) - visitors have comment cards --- do staff? Feedback should be routinely collected, actioned and reviewed. This could be done through the aforementioned anonymous comment cards, through monthly/quarterly meetings, surveys via surveymonkey, or conversations that include the questions “how are things?”, “is anything not going well”, “what can I do to support you in your role?” through to “let’s have a chat about progression”, “what are your goals”, and the absolutely crucial “you’re doing such a good job”, “this is not an easy role - all the work you’re putting into it is appreciated”, “I know it’s been so busy lately -- you’re doing fantastic”, “if you need to vent, let me know”
Take time for small tokens of gratitude. You can get 12 ‘thank you cards for 1-2 quid at some shops. You can also get chocolate bars, like KitKats for pretty cheap too (even the snack size ones). Recognise things like birthdays, busy periods, challenging visitors, difficult experiences in the role, successes at trying something new with tokens of gratitude.
Celebrate successes, and acknowledge difficult times. Say thank you, make eye contact, make time, be kind and have a meaningful conversation - if you are expecting your staff to do all of this and more for visitors, lead by example and do the same for them.
Love learning
Embed learning in the role with study time. FOH staff are expected to know everything about the region, city, building, history, artist, exhibition, curator, community….amongst other things. Learning is included in every wellbeing model I’ve come across. Giving them the ability to step back from engagement with the public, have some quiet time, and learn how/what they would like to learn will benefit the organisation, their role, and their mental health in the long run. This could be learning through reading, online research, online learning (eg webinars, youtube videos - eg Museum Next), speaking with community organisations about what they do…..the list goes on.
On top of all of the above, I would also encourage looking into Mental Health First Aid training. Depression, anxiety, stress and burnout all come with demanding roles whether the position is at the top of the organisational chain, or the bottom. Working in constant communication and interaction with the public can double this pressure. Mental Health First aiders provide peer support in a non-threatening capacity, can facilitate conversations and are trained to recognise signs or symptoms of any of the above concerns. (I’m a trained MHFAer and happy to discuss this - if anyone wants to know a bit more, please get in touch!).
If MHFA isn’t possible, look at implementing a positive wellbeing policy so the organisation can be held accountable for poor practices. Familiarise yourself with models of wellbeing (I’ll be posting on these shortly) and ensure these are embedded in FOH working practices. It will bolster anything that needs to be escalated and ensure organisational comittment.
And lastly, openly take an active interest in your staff’s wellbeing. This is something I would expect in any sector, but with the added demands on FOH staff, its integral to staff wellbeing, (mental) health, happiness and engagement. Any signs of problems, issues, or concerns arising, be proactive. Failure to do so will erode trust and disengage the workforce.
Have a conversation, have MANY conversations.
Think outside the box for solutions and lend a compassionate ear to understand and resolve the issue. Simply saying ‘it’s the nature of the role’ is not enough, fosters a toxic culture, enables poor, unhealthy working practices and overall presents a long-term risk to the mental health of the workforce. Be as much a champion for them as you expect or would hope they would be for the organisation.
This is Part 1 on this topic. I’ll be posting Part 2 about FOH staff promoting/supporting/encouraging their own positive wellbeing/mental health in the coming days!