Well, the trust reform is coming to Norwegian workplaces. Here is some advice from Denmark
The trust reform is on its way to both state and municipality here in Norway and is getting good advice on the way from Denmark. It has existed there for ten years already.
In just a few years, the trust reform has become a well-known phenomenon in Scandinavia. Ten years have passed since the first Danish companies introduced the trust-based form of management in working life.
A few years later, the Swedes completed a trust inspired by Denmark.
Now it’s finally Norway’s turn.
The trust reform: – We have a big job to do, says the Nav boss
Good examples
My advice is to put on the high beam. Because you have to expect that it will take a few years to introduce the trust reform, says Tina Øllgaard Bentzen.
She is an associate professor at Roskilde University and has researched the trust reform in the public sector ever since it started in Denmark in 2012. Now that Norway is finally starting the work here, she has some good advice and experience to share along the way.
Over the years, they in Denmark have set several good examples of how more trust has led to a better working environment and better services.
Gentofte municipality is an example of how targeting trust has yielded significant results. They can see this both in the economy and in having won the award for the best place to work many years in a row.
– There they have focused on the individual employee, building up competence, being skilled at creating shared values and understanding of how to work, as well as more freedom. Among other things, the employees have taken part in deciding how to document the work, says Bentzen.
Another example is the municipality of Esbjerg. There they have introduced new cooperation between shop stewards and politicians and invested heavily in building competence among managers and shop stewards. They have also cleaned up the steering. In the Danish equivalent of NAV, which is a strict framework, they have, among other things, introduced four-day working weeks, which gives greater freedom to plan work. At the same time, they have introduced a structured culture that provides room for experimentation and encourages employees to test new solutions.
In elderly care, they have introduced something they call self-visitation. This means that the home nurses themselves assess which types of services are needed, within a certain framework, of course. Here they have also worked a lot with trust-based management.
A good basic idea
Here at home, NAV stands as a pilot in the introduction of the trust reform in the public sector.
In the municipal sector, a little has already happened.
Researcher at the University of Oslo, Marte Winsvold, has researched what has come out of trust reform in the municipal sector in particular. Now she is working on a research project that looks at the trust reform in municipalities in Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
– What we see is that there is no one way to work with trust. But there is a basic idea of what trust reform is in the Norwegian sector, she says.
NOT EXCLUSIVELY POSITIVE: Researcher at UiO, Marte Windsvold, sees several challenges with the trust reform in the research she has done on it in several Norwegian and Danish municipalities.
Guro Gulstuen Nordhagen
This basic idea here in Norway means that working life is organized on the basis that employers have confidence in the employees and do not have to control them. That the employer believes that its employees are competent, have good intentions and follow the rules. When they then do not check and ask for documentation, it becomes less detailed management.
This in turn gives the employees more time to do what they need to do, which is to provide services. And that they get a bigger room to show discretion. According to the basic idea, this increased time and space should then lead to better services for users and more satisfied workers.
– This also makes it more attractive to work in the municipal sector, it becomes easier to recruit and you get less turnover. It is the idea that exists at all levels, both national and municipal, and among workers, says Winsvold.
An important interaction
But it is not a conclusion on how to reach the goal with this idea of trust reform. Few do not even call what they are working on trust reform.
– Only about 20 municipalities say that they work actively with trust. Most say they are working to change the organizational culture in a positive direction. For example, by sending managers on a course in trust-based management or working to change the mindset of both employees and managers in a trust-based direction, explains Marte Winsvold.
Others work with trust in the way of trying to involve more workers more closely in management. This can be by expanding the sharing collaboration or by involving employees more directly, such as by inviting shop stewards to meetings. Some also invite employees into the management by letting them set up rosters, make work plans and contribute to recruitment processes.
As in the municipality of Esbjerg in Denmark, some Norwegian municipalities have also closed down the allocation office in the home service, giving the nurses and health professionals greater opportunity to make decisions themselves.
Several municipalities in this country have also worked to find the balance between control and trust.
– We had an expectation that Norwegian municipalities would be concerned about reduced control. But there are not that many who have initiated measures for it. They want to give the employees trust, but do not allow themselves to control them anyway, says Winsvold.
The Danish Tina Øllgaard Bentzen has also done a lot of research on this.
– Trust is often perceived as the opposite of control. But there are also situations where control reinforces trust. In other words, trust and control can be partners with the right conditions. In order to achieve that, it is crucial to look at how the control experiences it as being subjected to it, says Bentzen.
If it is perceived as meaningful by those who have to live with the control, it is good conditions for trust and control to play together.
– Thus, you cannot say that the trust reform is about removing control, says the researcher.
Everyone must join
The general impression Marte Winsvold has gotten is that there is great enthusiasm for working based on trust in Norwegian municipalities. Employers also find it positive.
– Many we have spoken to on the employer side find it a relief to be able to show trust in your employees and to be able to trust them to assess their good, she says.
Likewise, she has also found some challenges.
The first is the aforementioned relationship between trust and control. Controls can be perceived as mistrust, even if they are not. Sometimes there may be reasons why employers, for example, have to collect documentation. It can be management information or to be able to document above the users and residents that they get what they demand and to ensure their trust in municipal services.
Another challenge is the relationship between state governance and municipal freedom.
– One reason why so few municipalities have reduced control is that they have no reason to do so. Many services are strongly governed by law, and the state controller at the municipality fulfills the law’s requirements. But it is clear that when the municipality is controlled to deliver services in a certain way, it is difficult for the municipality to let the employees go, says Winsvold.
The municipalities believe that if they are to be able to release their employees, they must also release the state, according to the researcher. For example, through a free municipality search.
– Trust reform must involve the entire management chain.
Good advice is close at hand
In Denmark, they have carried out such free municipality trials for a number of years. Municipalities have been exempted from existing governance and laws and given greater freedom in certain areas and thus could experiment within a freer framework. This has produced several positive results, but some have also been criticized for being too bureaucratic.
Several Danish municipalities have also tested something Bentzen calls partnership management.
You cooperate with all actors who must have something to do with the management from the start of the management. This is how they develop ironing and control tools together at several levels and levels.
After many years of experience, Tina Øllberg Bentzen has some good advice to share with her Norwegian friends.
– Firstly, how control and trust play together is absolutely crucial. My advice is to be very reflective about how you talk about control and what function it has. It might be wise to talk more about trust-building control rather than removing control.
Finally, she wants us to remember this:
– Trust reform is both an attempt to create a free framework and to create autonomy for the employees, but not alone. It is an important task in the trust reform to create competence among employees and managers in order to create security. A trust reform is something you have to constantly remind each other about. It has to work with both as a structure and as a culture, she says.