Employee Supervision

1. Employee Supervision Management guru Peter F. Drucker once quipped, “Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.” Effective employee supervision is vital to the growth of your employees, your managers, and your business. Done well, it will create a cohesive, happy, and productive workforce. Neglect employee supervision, and you’ll breed a workplace culture with poor productivity, low morale, and high turnover. https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

2. SUPERVISOR • Support growth   • Unite with your team • Praise others • Expect excellence • Require accountability • Verify potential • Instill independence • Share continuously • Optimize ownership • Reinforce relationships https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

3. Support growth • Employee supervision is geared toward fostering the professional development of the employee. In other words, employee supervision is designed to help the employee master the skills necessary for him or her to be successful in doing their job. But even more than that, professional development is designed to give the employee the freedom and opportunities to push the boundaries of their job description and to think about new and better ways to work. • Professional development is grounded by a professional development plan. This is usually a formal, evolving document that sets out milestones for the employee that match up with the needs of the company.   • As Stewart D. Friedman, practice professor of management at the Wharton School, notes, “If I account for the interests of the whole person, not just the work person, I’m going to get more value from them.” In learning about an employee’s interests outside of work, you may discover untapped skills that could be brought to bear in the workplace. This is part of working with your employees to understand their goals and then help them achieve those goals at work. https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

4. Unite with your team • The manager and employee should meet on a regular basis to review the employee goals and track progress toward meeting the milestones, taking remedial action as necessary. During this process, it’s important for the manager to communicate to the employee that personal development is one of the company’s core values, evidence that it invests in its employees. • Part of employee supervision is also communicating that you as a manager are accessible to your employees, stressing that you are always available to answer their questions and address their concerns. Consider a literal (or even just metaphorical) “open door” policy. It’s important for employees to know that their concerns and questions are taken seriously. https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

5. Praise others • While some companies are only interested in employees when they do something wrong, good companies are also interested when employees do things right. • An established and formalized employee recognition system can boost morale and increase productivity. The system can be tailored to your type of business, but it should incentivize quality work, teamwork, initiative, and all the other values central to your business. • These programs aren’t just good for morale—they’re also good for business. A survey by Bersin & Associates shows that performance-based employee recognition programs result in a 31 percent drop in voluntary turnover. Unfortunately, the survey also noted that 87 percent of employee recognition programs are not performance-based but instead simply reward employees for sticking with the company. Bersin notes that these nonperformance-based programs were ineffective at boosting morale or lowering voluntary turnover. https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

6. Expect excellence • It’s easier to expect and demand excellence from all employees, of course, if they feel that their work is being recognized. • The first step in expecting and receiving excellence is creating a clear job description with carefully delineated roles and responsibilities. It’s hard for an employee to do something well, after all, unless he or she knows what that something is. • To reinforce all of this, there should be regular meetings, both collectively and individually, where the staff receives feedback. The individual sessions are called performance reviews. Since nobody is a mind-reader, it’s important for managers to clearly communicate what’s expected of employees and how work is to be done. And managers should of course lead by example: if they don’t model excellent performance themselves, how can they expect employees to strive for excellence? https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

7. Require accountability • In their book Journey to the Emerald City, Roger Connors and Tom Smith articulate a four-step process for creating a culture of accountability: • What are the desired results? Be clear on those. • What’s needed to bring about those results? Identify those actions. • What beliefs will produce the desired actions? Identify those beliefs. • What can the organization do to inculcate those beliefs? Take action. • To ensure an organization’s credibility in the eyes of employees, it’s vital that no one be above the law. • When managers and other leaders don’t walk the talk, employees get cynical. • Put simply, managers who want to keep good employees and reduce turnover must hold themselves to the highest standards. https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

8. Verify potential • Generally speaking, employees desire to do a good job. They spend many of their waking hours at the office and want to feel that their work is both meaningful and valued. But we’ve all heard the expression “set up to fail,” and all too often this is the case in the workplace. • How can managers create a positive work environment from the start? Give your employees opportunities to be successful. Make sure they understand what’s expected of them (see our discussion of expectations earlier in this chapter), give them help when needed, and recognize their achievements. At a higher level, employees should also know how the work they’re performing fits within the direction the company is moving. • As part of this ongoing exercise with your employees, you should, when appropriate, make a public announcement about an employee’s accomplishments. When other employees see this, they’ll know that managers are noticing quality, creative work. And of course employees who do superior work should be rewarded in more tangible ways as well, with raises and promotions. No organization should lose its best employees because those employees feel there’s no room for advancement. https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

9. Instill independence • While it’s important for your employees to be able to ask you questions and seek advice, managers should be careful not to foster a culture of dependence. Employees should be given the tools they need to succeed, but they should also be given the freedom to fail. At first this sounds counterintuitive (why would any business let its employees fail?), but the point is that part of an employee’s professional development process is taking more responsibility for his or her work deliverables. • Instilling independence in employees helps avoid the plague of micromanagement, where managers feel obligated (or even want) to oversee and make all the small decisions required on a daily basis for each employee. A good manager is more concerned about achieving the desired outcomes rather than mandating certain processes or steps to achieve those outcomes. https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

10. Share continuously • A well-run company encourages active listening between management and staff. This is an enhanced form of communication where each person focuses on what the other person is saying and then repeats back what they thought they heard. • While this seems trivial, research has shown a lack of careful listening in everyday business communication. Sometimes the person “listening” is just angrily thinking about how they’ll respond. Sometimes the person “listening” is simply daydreaming. Active listening, on the other hand, only works when both people in the discussion are focused. • Active listening is also a good way to reduce miscommunication between managers and employees. https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

11. Optimize ownership • Your employees don’t want to be passive participants in their work environment. As much as possible, they want to be involved in decisions that affect how they do their job at present and what trajectory their role will take in the future. While it may not be practical for employees to sit in on manager meetings, they should have a role to play in strategic planning sessions, where many of the “big picture” decisions are discussed, debated, and decided. • The logic is clear: if an employee is going to commit to giving their time and talents to the company, they expect some sort of say in how the company is run. • This doesn’t mean that employees can veto management decisions, but it should mean that they can provide input—and most importantly know that what they say will be heard and seriously considered. https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

12. Reinforce relationships • Good interpersonal relationships are at the heart of any successful business. Managers should take the time to get to know each of their employees on a personal level and understand what motivates them. • Another aspect of reinforcing relationships, both between managers and employees and among employees themselves, is permitting everybody to bring some of their personal life into the office. Well-run companies understand that people work for them—and people have families, outside interests, hopes and fears, and successes and failures in relationships. The more that managers can encourage their employees to be themselves, to be fully human, when they’re in the office, the more those employees will feel a sense of self respect and self fulfillment, which more often than not translates into great job satisfaction and productivity. https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

13. Key Terms • Active listening: The process by which two people (manager and employee) intently listen to each other and repeat back what they heard, clarifying any miscommunication • Employee goals: The personal and professional objectives of an employee • Employee milestones: As part of a professional development plan, these are the key outcomes expected for each employee within a certain time frame (e.g., mastering the company’s content management system) • Employee supervision: The process in which a manager comes helps employees to be successful and fulfilled at work, leading to professional and personal development https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169

14. Key Terms • Micromanagement: A negative form of management in which the manager is directly involved in making the multitude of small decisions that lead to a desired outcome • Performance review: A formal process in which a manager provides feedback on an employee’s performance, suggesting both ways to improve and recognizing recent achievements • Professional development: The formal and informal methods used to help employees master their job functions and develop new skills that will lead to new professional opportunities with the company • Strategic planning sessions: High-level discussions about the current state of the business and how it’s performing as well as next steps, such as new strategic investments and targeting new market verticals https://vbcourse.knowledgematters.com/assignment/startReading/135169