8: Managing and supervising staff

A: I employ a communicator guide myself and I’m finding it a bit difficult to manage them. Do you have any tips? I’m feeling like I’m not a very good boss!

B: Well firstly, I don’t think you should feel bad about this. Employing and managing people are a new thing for a lot of people who use direct payments. I think the fundamental thing is to have a clear and honest relationship with staff you employ yourself. This is the same for when you use self-employed, or agency staff too.

A: OK thanks, so what steps should I follow to make sure our relationship gets off to a good start?

B: I know some of this might seem obvious, but as you say it is really important to get off to a good start. You should be clear with staff about when you’d like them to support you and give them an idea of the tasks they will support you to do. It may be a good idea for you to draw up a list of guidelines or ‘house rules’ about what you think is acceptable behaviour for both you and your staff. It’s important to chat about these early on. For example, people who support you may know personal information about you. You will probably want to make sure that they keep this information confidential.

A: Right, another thing I find difficult is giving people orders, it doesn’t come naturally to me.

B: I know, again this is something that many direct payments users are not used to doing. It’s better if you think about it as ‘delegating’ tasks. This is assigning jobs to people. This is generally much easier if you have a clear relationship with staff. Some people find this easier if they establish a set routine or have a checklist for some tasks. This means you don’t have to feel like you’re always giving orders.

A: Sometimes, I have trouble finding time to sit down with staff and discuss things.

B: I know this can be challenging but having some time to chat can be really useful and make things much easier in the long-term. It might be useful to have a regular ‘supervision’ time. This will be a regular time when you can both review how things are going, and talk about things and how they could be improved too.

A: It’s hard if you’re always picking fault with staff though.

B: Yes I agree, that’s why it’s important to try to praise staff when they have done something you are happy with. This should help them remain motivated and feel that they are developing skills. Even if they are family or friends, people will still need encouragement and reassurance that they are supporting you well.

A: There are times when I or my staff get a bit cross or argue about what kind of support I want. What are the best ways to overcome this kind of conflict? 

B: Well all the things I’ve mentioned should help to prevent conflict arising. If things get a bit more difficult, it can sometimes be useful to go back to a member of staff’s job description or those ‘house rules’ to help clear up the situation.

A: I’d really like to give my staff some training and they’re keen to do it. How can I make this happen?

B: Well, it depends on what kind of training you mean. You need to think about whether you need to pay for it and if you have sufficient funds for this. There may be some free courses and some training could be done on a computer for example. You will have to think about whether you can give staff time off from supporting you so that they can attend the training. If you use self-employed or agency staff, you can suggest they attend the training. Contact Sense for information on training to support deafblind people.