You always remember your first supervisor. That first job, with the anticipation of earning a paycheck, being part of the team, and most important, receiving positive recognition from your first boss, is truly memorable. There is a common thread throughout many of our shared experiences: The people in charge have the power to change our lives. My first job was with a technology-producing company, and my first supervisor was tasked with turning me, a newly graduated liberal arts student, into a first-line technical manager in an environment where engineering ruled and union labor brought complex designs to life. There was a lot to learn. I still admire my first supervisor as an excellent coach and a sound, down-to-earth leader. As Mark Twain noted, “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”1 Making his charges feel great is why my first supervisor was a legend among those who were lucky enough to experience his leadership.
Employee Challenges in Today’s Data Environment
Today, employees face the challenge of a fast-paced, ever-changing environment driven by data that is the centerpiece of getting things done. All the while, they must grapple with the challenges of data credibility and relevance. Data must be sorted, fact-checked, and translated into executable business operations in a very short amount of time before it becomes outdated and requires updating. No one faces the challenges of the data environment more than the front-line contributors in the audit and compliance professions. Being an individual contributor in today’s data-rich environment is filled with variables, and in the middle of all this variability are those who check and inspect the work: our audit and risk management employees. Managers know the list of obstacles well: understaffing, matrix management, and even physical work changes from remote, to hybrid, to in-office environments.
It has been said that the most important decision one can make as a manager is to hire the right people. The second most important action is to encourage employees to do their best so that their work is valuable and they feel valued. Enabling employees to handle the data environment is specifically where managers must focus. There are several common obstacles in a data environment:
- Data interpretation and who is in charge—Where compliance and audit employees are torn between the direct-line view of the data and the business operations perspective of the data
- Data awareness and availability—Which can create feelings of isolation and exclusion for those who have restricted access or are not aware of which data is important
- Data overload—Where there can be too much to do and too much data to process in a timely manner
- Data accessibility—Which, due to data ubiquity, pushes employees to remote environments, then pulls them back to in-office environments, making them feel that they must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week
Data Interpretation and Who Is in Charge
The question is, where do we start? The first objective for managers to tackle is that of data interpretation and whose opinion counts. It is critical for compliance and audit managers to develop a strong relationship with business management. Just as employees must develop a scope of work when outlining an audit program and understand the operations process, management must be well-versed in business operations and compliance requirements. A strong background helps the audit manager be a solid coach to employees while also creating a collaborative relationship with business management. This clarifies leadership direction for employees, giving them a sense of confidence in their management and therefore in themselves when working with the enterprise. It helps diffuse confusion over whether the business organization or audit/compliance team calls the shots. Finally, it develops a tone of collaboration with line management in charge and encourages an environment that acknowledges working together to interpret data and get the job done in a compliant manner.
Data Awareness and Availability
Effective managers build collaborative relationships with business management. A manager’s employees believe in them because they sense the manager is in charge and works well with the business on their behalf. Employees also benefit from a manager who can navigate through the data-everywhere environment while keeping organizational direction in mind. The world of compliance and audit can feel isolating, especially when employees are subjected to an exclusionary, need-to-know atmosphere. Data availability is an important part of making employees feel included and that they are valued members of the team. Managers must provide the access that employees need to do their work and to collaborate with others. In terms of restricted data, managers must scrutinize restrictions and ensure that restrictions do not make employees’ work unnecessarily difficult if they do not have access. If the data is appropriately restricted, it is important for managers to communicate with employees so that they do not feel excluded or less valued. When possible, managers should communicate the essence of the information as it relates to teamwork without violating confidentiality or privacy considerations.
Just as employees must develop a scope of work when outlining an audit program and understand the operations process, management must be well-versed in business operations and compliance requirements.
Data Overload
Managers have untied employees’ hands by providing access to the information they need to do their work, but today’s data environment is riddled with information, and even good data is in overabundance. It is yet another overwhelming task employees face when trying to get work done effectively and efficiently. Managers can help with this challenge by communicating priorities and encouraging open dialogue with both the audit/compliance team and the business team being reviewed. Starting by identifying what data and what tasks are priorities helps employees focus their work activity. A manager who can help individual employees declutter if they are too detail-oriented and help employees who tend to skim the surface take a deeper dive into priority data will be a great asset for orchestrating the work group’s activity.
A corollary to data management is workload management. Workload prioritization is best performed after taking a step back from urgency. It is common for there to be more work than can get done by the deadlines a team faces. Creating a workplan helps anticipate and organize the scope, including understanding due dates and negotiating hard deadlines. A manager must set expectations with peer managers that recognize both business needs and the time it takes to do quality work. When expectations are finalized, managers must not only communicate expectations to the team but also brainstorm with team members about how to get the work done. A manager can prioritize by:
- Understanding organizational and departmental strategies and objectives—Managers should ask themselves what these mean to employees and how the information can be used to foster work outcomes that are on target with what the organization or department values.
- Creating stability by anticipating workloads and brainstorming if needed with peers and employees regarding what qualifies as priority work and important data—Managers who take time to do this minimize the disruptive issue of constant reprioritization.
- Documenting processes and work instructions—Sometimes information is made available only by word of mouth. Putting things in writing builds consistency and a common understanding of how to perform certain tasks.
- Ensuring work expectations are specific and timebound—After expectations have been communicated to and acknowledged by the team, managers must enable employees to meet deadlines on time and during reasonable working hours, without the need for late nights that invade personal time.
Data Accessibility
A manager often finds that being able to access work data anytime and anywhere is enjoyed by some employees and dreaded by others. For example, consider the always-on nature of having data available via laptops and mobile phones. It is difficult for employees to leave work behind when receiving email at all hours or when fielding text messages from colleagues or managers during nonworking hours. The data-is-everywhere issue goes further, encompassing the remote vs hybrid work life, a problem that raises lifestyle uncertainty instead of building a sense of flexibility. Each employee has different preferences, and managers must take time to familiarize themselves with what motivates employees to do their best. This means respecting employee personal time by sending data and correspondence during appropriate hours, keeping in mind that what is considered appropriate often varies from employee to employee. Even the employee who wants the immediacy of real-time information should be encouraged by their manager to draw boundaries. High-quality work is work performed with downtime and breaks in between tasks.
Managers face the unenviable challenge of handling ever-changing organizational policies regarding where employees work with data, which may include (returning to) the office. Work location policy shifts can prove difficult when employees feel that data ubiquity contributes to a strong argument to stay remote. This can be especially challenging when employees have altered their personal lives to adapt to remote work, including regarding child and pet care.
Each employee has different preferences, and managers must take time to familiarize themselves with what motivates employees to do their best.
Understanding the tone at the top is also important. It provides guidance on when a manager can use their own judgement to enact policies, and when a request to one’s own manager can potentially garner needed flexibility for employees so that they can manage shifting physical work protocols. Work location policy facilitation may include flexibility in start and stop time, detailed oversight of workstation tools and space, and face-to-face team meetings and one-on-one manager sit-downs to highlight in-office benefits.
Conclusion
Managing a team in today’s ever-changing, overloaded data environment can be done successfully if managers keep two priorities in mind: themselves and their employees. A manager must be a respected employee themselves by meeting deadlines, getting quality work done, and, yes, having career aspirations. The manager should then consider the additional factors of listening to and understanding their employees. With an understanding of employee skills, motivations, and needs, the successful manager becomes equipped to thrive in the data environment, thus enabling employees and making them feel valued.
Endnotes
1 MacLaren, G.; Morally We Roll Along, USA, 1938
Cindy Baxter, CISA, ITIL FOUNDATION
Is executive assistant to the Massport Community Advisory Committee (MCAC). Baxter is pleased that technology has allowed her to reinvent her career and continue learning through all of it. She had the privilege of learning technology and managing Fortune 100 client relationships at AT&T. Baxter then applied her expertise as an IT operations director at Johnson & Johnson before moving to compliance and risk management roles at AIG and State Street Corporation. After a brief period of running her own consulting business, Baxter joined MCAC, which advocates on behalf of communities impacted by the US State of Massachusetts Port Authority aviation and port operations. She applies her expertise to website redesign, drafting vendor requests for proposals (RFPs), updating bylaws, and providing regulatory support to the MCAC board. In her spare time, Baxter serves as compliance and operations officer for the ISACA® New England Chapter (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, USA) and volunteers on the Nantucket Lightship.