HRfocus, January 2009

Copyright 2009 Institute of Management & Administration
All Rights Reserved
HRfocus

January 2009

SECTION: HUMAN RESOURCES Vol. 2009 No. 1

HEADLINE: TRAINING: How to Help Line Supervisors Improve Profits & Productivity

BODY:
Main Article

Times are tough, and most organizations are trying to maximize existing resources. Looking within for existing talent and strengths is becoming standard operating procedure. Fortunately, most organizations have a management resource ready and waiting to be developed.

A little training and preparation can make your first-level supervisors major players in contributing to the organization's profits and compliance efforts.

WHY TRAINING COUNTS

While organizations are always glad to move employees into management, too often this step is taken without the right preparation. This can be a costly mistake because unprepared managers can lead to poor performance, reduced productivity, and missteps that can lead to legal claims and lawsuits. These are never desirable outcomes, of course, but they are even more dangerous during this time of economic and business uncertainty.

''Employers need to be systematic in investing in training and support if they want managers to manage the performance of their employees effectively,'' said Gene Boccialetti, director of management development and HR management at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in New York.

TRAINING RESOURCES

''There are plenty of resources out there to help employers help their line managers get a sense of how things can work better right there on the shop floor,'' said Rhonda K. Reger, associate professor of management and organization at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park, Md.

''The best companies of whatever size will begin by first making sure they have selected the right person for that frontline job.'' This means being certain to interview the prospective manager in depth and closely check his or her experience and credentials, whether the candidate is a recent business school graduate, a transfer from within the company, a promotion from within the department, or a new hire from outside, Reger said.

Desirable traits include intelligence, adaptability or willingness to learn, and familiarity with the job at hand, Reger continued. "Most of all, remember why you want that person there managing on the front line,'' she said. "Isn't it about increasing productivity--and profit--through wisely managing your front-line workers?''

The best environment for front-line managers to acquire skills necessary to succeed is found where the chief operating officer is behind them, Reger said. In a small company, that might mean the boss or owner having coffee with the new manager regularly outside the work cycle, a time to share ''war stories'' on how to get things done within the culture of the enterprise and simply getting to know each other.

"This is important,'' Reger said, ''because time and again we find that most CEOs were, once upon a time, front-line managers themselves. And they rose to the top because they were 'change agents,' starting as front-line managers, where they raised standards and continued to do so wherever they served in the company.''

Medium and larger companies, whose CEOs' time is spoken for in countless ways, also profit if the CEO pushes for front-line manager support, Reger said, whether it's a hands-on relationship with the new managers or just standing be-hind the HR department as they do their part in training and supporting front-line managers.

In such an environment, front-line managers have the opportunity to be mentored by more seasoned managers and are encouraged to participate in professional associations relevant to their work--perhaps serving on an organization, community group, or a local governmental advisory board--places where the front-line manager will be exposed to new organizational cultures and practices, Reger said.

''When the top leadership of a company is engaged, front-line managers 'get it,''' she said. They have the sense that they are responsible for self-developing their skills both inside and outside the company.

"It's all about skill acquisition,'' said Reger. And whether it comes from employer-financed classroom study, a hired outside consultant coming to the workplace, mentors from within, or a rotation of executives from outside to collaborate with the front-line manager, there are many options, and they don't have to cost a fortune, she said.

''Concentrate on the basics,'' suggested C. Thomas Willett, director of Cornell's management program in New York City. ''Front-line managers need skills in working with people. It's as simple, as basic as that.''

Training may include boosting employee performance, the challenges of managing a diverse workforce, coaching techniques to push employee performance levels, how to create a culture of service excellence, time management, and problem solving and decision making.

Other topics: enhancing managers' people skills, effective meeting management, leadership for women front-line managers, better interviewing skills for managers, effective on-the-job writing, learning how to listen to employees, navigating difficult conversations, conflict resolution, negotiating effectively, managing distant workers, and legal is-sues for front-line managers.

''Don't trust 'received' information from job descriptions alone or out-of-date work rules for the department,'' Willett emphasized.

Effective front-line managers have to ''start building value'' right away by independently analyzing the work being done in the department and establishing what the job criteria are, no matter what job descriptions say; the effectiveness of the individual workers doing the work; the true costs for product, salaries, and support in the department; how the work is connected with the work in other departments; and where all this leads in terms of production and profit. Once the front-line manager gets a grip on these metrics, a whole new way of managing becomes possible, Willett said.

The front-line manager will be able to communicate effectively up the leadership chain on the ''reality'' of his or her department and, if necessary, overcome misperceptions held by senior managers, Willett said. At the same time, the front-line manager will be able to understand the work of each staff member and be able to talk to each of them about their contribution to what the particular department produces or does.

''That's a powerful tool,'' Willett said. With it, front-line managers can begin to ''put it all together'' to do what they've been hired to do--raise the performance of everyone in the department.

At Cornell, the emphasis is on the need for front-line managers to become engaged closely with their workers even in these times of increasingly different work values finding their way into organizations, leaner staffing, and greater diversity and complexity ratcheting up tensions between management and workers.

''I tell managers that their workers need ready access to performance indicators,'' Boccialetti said. ''Most people want to do their jobs well, but many workers never hear how well (or how poorly) they're doing from their immediate supervisors, and their talent or interest in initiative may be frustrated by management's 'silence.'" He said the new manager ought to be able to ''talk straight'' with these workers on how to improve or maintain their individual performances.

KEEPING IT LEGAL

''A whole lot of good management is common sense,'' said Daniel P. O'Meara, a partner with Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhodes and vice chair of the Philadelphia law firm's labor and employment department. ''If you hire the wrong person, someone without common sense and judgment, you can train them or hire consultants or what-ever, and it only makes them a little less dangerous to the employer.''

This can be especially important when it comes to making sure legal requirements are followed, he explained.

Good management on the shop floor sometimes is about building the ''preventive worker'' or establishing a workplace where--through constant reminders, repeated conversations with supervisors, and good ''listening'' for feed-back from the workers--managers create a setting where employees understand the legal requirements the employer must uphold and that ''you, their supervisor, absolutely cannot and will not tolerate certain actions at work.''

It's up to the employer or its HR department to make certain that supervisors are fully engaged on this aspect of managing employees, O'Meara said.

"Most new supervisors want to do the right thing, but they frequently don't know what the right thing is unless the company explicitly informs them.''

What seems to work best, O'Meara said, is both good support for frontline managers from the HR department and an ''open door'' by superiors willing to listen and talk front-line managers through the issues that arise.

HOW HR CAN HELP

''HR departments can be significantly helpful for managers even if they don't know what they're looking for,'' said Willett.

A relationship with HR that the line supervisor sees as an alliance, rather than an obstacle to problem solving, should start with the assumption of management responsibilities, in Willett's view.

''HR leadership itself has to 'drill' into the culture of its front-line managers" to build the relationship and make sure the managers see HR as a partner.

Reger agreed. ''The message to managers has to be 'I'm here to support you, I know how to deal with what's happening on your floor, and I have strategies to help you be the best manager you can be.' ''

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