[Calis]

Ignore the back-end to your peril
Joseph Tay
Today Online, Voices, Monday, January 8, 2007

THE power outage late last month highlighted how, in the midst of our re-invention and obsession over the next big new thing, we must ensure the basics are still intact.

All the glitz will come to naught if we can't get uninterrupted basic necessities such as power supply. Breakdowns have also plagued our trains and telcos with some regularity.

The truth is, we don't give these utilities another thought until there is a breakdown. We become suddenly mindful that things don't just work by themselves — not even in this automated age. There is a human face monitoring and intervening to ensure things work.

From the stories many in operation and support jobs tell me, it is thankless work. They are largely taken for granted in their organisations and forgotten until something breaks down. Even then, they might not still be appreciated. The breakdown may be blamed on them for not doing their jobs right in the first case.

It does not matter whether the organisation is a business, charity or the civil service. Backroom people share the common fate of performing the unglamorous toil of making things work. They are just the hands and legs of the organisation.

Sales people get the limelight and the lion's share of the rewards in performance bonuses and incentives. The backroom people who also put in the work to turn the sale into reality do not bask in glory or share in the payout.

With few exceptions, no one who had supported the private bankers' business efforts will share in the fat bonuses they will reportedly earn this year. Yet, without the efficient backroom efforts, would these bankers be able to make their deals?

In its zeal to attract and retain teachers, the Ministry of Education now finds itself saddled with morale issues of some administrative staff who feel unappreciated. While schools don't exist just so the administrators can administrate, without the able support of administration, could the teachers fulfil their roles effectively?

It is an issue laden with strong emotions in any organisation.

Years back, in a company I had worked for, the struggle between sales and administration came to a head. Administrators tried to equalise the lopsided financial incentives that sales people were given versus the relative crumbs that administration arm was handed.

Sales managers immediately retaliated by asking to switch jobs with administrators, as there were no incentives to continue in the higher-risk sales jobs, where performance was pegged to aggressive sales targets.

It is not the intention of this commentary to take sides. While it is a reality that in any organisation there is a function that invariably takes the glamorous spotlight, it is important for leaders not to neglect the rest, the backroom functions.

While praising the "stars" in the workplace, it is also important to recognise — and be seen to be doing so — those who contribute behind the scenes to make things work.

In our eagerness to get things done, we become very focused on the task. We forget to pause and appreciate the contributions our people make in the workplace. We take the clockwork functioning as a given and jump at every malfunction.

Years back, an American multinational corporation retrenched staff en masse in its US factories. Soon after an old maintenance mechanic lost his job, the production machines under his care started developing technical problems.

The disruptions and quality headaches were costly. Despite all the hard work by the engineers, the problem persisted.

The old mechanic's assistance was finally sought. He said he knew about the problem. It had always been like that. He learnt from years of working with the machines that when they began to creak, all it took were a few squirts of oil on a couple of parts and the machines would continue to function normally.

He had never reported the problem and so it never got documented — because, as he put it, no one bothered to ask about his work. It was too mundane and insignificant.