Where to Start

Have a Plan – Clearly Define the Position.  Before you go any farther assessing the skill levels of your leaders, you need to know what your standards are. We usually find these spelled out in a job description.  It gives us a point from which we can measure. What are your expectations from your supervisors and managers.  What do you hold them accountable for?  What skills are a necessity and what skills are a bonus? What is your definition of competent, how do you measure that? Be fair, specific and be realistic in your expectations.

Evaluate their Interest Level. Let’s also look at the interest level of your leaders.  Do they actually WANT to be a supervisor or manager?  There a specific qualities that exist in potential leaders.  Simply taking on additional responsibilities for additional pay is never going to be a strong enough motivator.  You need a person in a supervisory or managerial position who actually LIKES people, is patient and willing to take on the daily challenges that leading people brings to the table.

Match Skill Levels to the Plan. Then, match the skill level of the individual with your expectations.  We are defining two areas: are the skills in place at a level you want?  Are there skills that need to be added?

How To Assess

There are many ways to assess skill levels.  Often it takes an incident to trigger the assessment process. It forces us to pay attention to areas we may have been aware of, but chose to overlook for various reasons.  Usually we recognize a gap between how we expected a supervisor to handle a situation or conduct themselves and the reality of what actually occurred.  This identifies an initial area that needs our attention, but we should be careful to not approach this with a “Band-Aid” mentality.

An example: you have a supervisor who routinely fails to document employee performance issues, is this really a skills development need or simply a lack of awareness about a documentation policy?  Is the lack of documentation because they didn’t know they should or because they decided to not be bothered.  These are two very different issues. On the one hand, we would have a training to demonstrate how to document, why it is important and so forth.  On the other hand, if you have a supervisor who is ignoring policy, the assessment would point us in the direction of a need to change their behavior and understanding of what it means to be a leader representing the company. This might involve a one-on-one coaching or counseling.

Once you have identified the area that requires attention and we are as clear as possible about the underlying cause, and not just the surface issue that has brought it to our attention, we can then proceed with how we wish to implement the training and development process. This is routinely the process that all training and development general assessments go through.  First we define the area of need, focus on the underlying cause and then provide the proper training tool to address the issue.

Other Business Indicators

You don’t have to wait for an incident or problem to surface. There are many other ways to assess the skill levels of your managers and supervisors. A few of these can include:

•    Have sales figures dropped?
•    Has turnover increased?
•    What is the general attendance like?
•    What is the departmental error ratio?
•    Has performance of staff improved, stayed the same or declined?
•    Are customer complaints up, the same or down?

Aside from pulling reports, we can also gather information by being aware of our surroundings and observing our workplace. How are employees behaving?  Are their spirits up?  Is HR receiving a disproportionate number of complaints about certain areas or individuals?  Are employees courteous and cordial with each other or nervous and short-tempered?  Stress can also be a flag that we have a potential for harassment or inappropriate behavior, overbearing management or a general breakdown in the leadership.

When it comes to your observations it is extremely important to know the “pulse” of your workplace.  Surveys are also a great tool for taking the pulse of the work environment.  If individuals are assured of confidentiality, they will be frank.

In our third and final post in this series, we will examine the five methods to train and develop your managerial team.

What is a Manager?

Who are these individuals that are such a vital link in the success of employee relations and the business?  From a legal standpoint, they are considered agents of the company.  We have seen this clearly demonstrated in harassment, discrimination and retaliation cases time and time gain.

Employees look to this level of leadership to effectively and fairly lead them, apply policies and procedures, and to ensure that senior management know the needs and thoughts of the employees.

However, managers are often the Achilles heel of most companies.  Lawyers know that managers not only supervise the staff, but are also the ones to implement, defend and apply the company policies. They are also the individuals who are heavily tasked with duties, other than managing staff. These individuals upon whom we so heavily rely may be new and freshly out of business school, employees who have been promoted into a supervisory or managerial position, or existing managerial level individuals we have brought in from outside.

Expectations

As time has gone by, we have come to expect more and more from our supervisors and managers.  We expect our supervisors and our managers to:

•    Legally interview and hire, knowing what is and is not legal to ask
•    Be gifted interviewers who know how to select the best candidates
•    Have all of the legal ducks in a row if termination becomes a necessity
•    Know the policies and procedures and make sure all staff are following the program
•    Know how to effectively motivate
•    Use progressive discipline as a tool to reengage staff
•    Conduct performance appraisals
•    Maintain the team balance
•    Solve problems and resolve conflicts
•    Know the laws regarding overtime, meal and rest breaks and enforce these laws
•    Be knowledgeable enough about the various leave of absence laws in the state and federal levels to notify Human Resources when a scenario may be unfolding.
•    Maintain an OSHA compliant work environment and hold employees accountable for safety standards
•    Maintain a safe, healthy work environment free from harassment, discrimination, and retaliation, serving as the ultimate ethical role model.

If we expect our supervisors and managers to succeed, we need to make sure that have the tools to succeed, that they are using their skills, and to be sure they want this role to begin with!

In our next post we will discuss the step-by-step process of assessing, and training, your managerial team.

1. Don’t promote people to leadership simply because they are technically competent

Joe is a brilliant programmer who got promoted.  His new position requires that he manage a team of 12 people.  He is not interested in leading people, is generally a “work alone” type of personality, and only desired to do his job well.  He wonders why he is being punished and now finds himself in a job that is slowly killing him.

Solution:  Only promote people who have the technical knowledge AND the potential to lead.

2. Don’t promote people and then assume they know how to lead

You promote Susie to a leadership role and she is very excited, and also scared to death.  Why?  She has never led a team before and doesn’t know how.  It really isn’t that easy.  A leader needs to understand the styles and personalities of the team, tie all these diverse characteristics together into a viable team that understands and fulfills the department/team goals as well as company goals.  That’s a lot of responsibility.  Don’t be surprised if untrained individuals like Susie revert to modeling the negative behavior of her past managers—she has nothing else to go by.  It is not uncommon for newly appointed supervisors and leaders to gravitate to micromanagement.  Their necks are on the line, and they will take all necessary steps to ensure success.  They may be well meaning, but their lack of skills will drive employees away.

Solution:  Have a comprehensive leadership development training program in place to get new managers up to speed.

3. Don’t assume existing managers don’t need development

You may have hired a manager because they have the managerial skills in place (at least according to the resume and how they answered interview questions), but this does not mean that they are a great manager. If they aren’t a great manager, provide them developmental tools.  If they are a great manager, they are going to be interested in continually developing a increasing their knowledge base and skills.  A desire for ongoing learning is a characteristic of great leaders.

Solution:  All leaders should have an individual developmental plan and should receive training annually.

4. Don’t allow mean leaders to lead teams

Mean, surly, demanding, rude, offensive leaders…have we met these people before?  They lead through fear, not respect.  Why is this behavior tolerated?  Because they are great at their job? Because they get results?  Because they have been with the company a long time? These aren’t good reasons and these types of managers will cost you in the long run.  OSHA considers forms of bullying in the workplace as potential violence and there are 16 states considering legislation aimed at managers exhibiting exactly these types of behavior.

In such an environment, you can be certain that the staff they supervise are not performing at their full potential, and that there is underlying resentment and anger. There is a saying: “If you lead through fear, you will have no respect.  If you lead with respect you will have nothing to fear.”

If companies allow their managers to bully their staff, what message is that sending to the employees?  “We allow our managers to treat you like dirt but we still value you,”—yeah right!

Solution:  Provide tools that teach alternate methods of management and put them on notice.

5. Don’t allow executives to think that they don’t need development

How often do you hear, “We can go ahead with the training, but our VP won’t be attending”.  Why is this?  Why isn’t senior leadership interested in the new information and knowledge their direct reports are receiving?  Because attending the training might, a) intimidate the other middle management staff or, b) be considered an admission of incompetence.  Arrogance and ego may often rob senior level leadership of development they might need.

Solution: You can always separate levels of management for trainings, but encourage senior level to actively increase their knowledge base.

6. Don’t wait until you have a vacant leadership role to identify talent

When there is a vacancy at a leadership level the ensuing “plan” is often to fly by the seat of your pants.  There is a brief scramble to slam someone from the department into a temporary role and then hunt for qualified candidates.  Sometimes other managers are asked to take over positions—positions they don’t know anything about, over a team they are unfamiliar with, in addition to their own huge workload.

Solution: Create a contingency plan BEFORE a vacancy develops to prepare new potential managers for the role.

7. Don’t assume once is enough

Once may be enough in certain areas of training.  But understand that many of the areas in which we expect our leaders to be competent are often areas they may not routinely do.  As is true with all of us, one training will become stale and forgotten if not used frequently.  The knowledge we receive stays with us because of our use of that knowledge.

Solution: Plan for regular trainings at periodic intervals to ensure the skills remain sharp and fresh.

Hopefully, by developing strong managerial leaders, we will help develop a strong and vibrant organization.

Key points of various topics appear below. To hear the complete presentation, follow this LINK.

The HIRE Act.

The Act provides a wide range of incentives for employers including a tax holiday for hiring “new” workers and a tax credit for retaining such workers. The goal of the plan is to stimulate the economy and bring people back to work.

The key highlights of the “Tax Holiday” are:

•    Relieves a “covered employer” of its obligation to pay its 6.2% match for Social Security on the first $106,800 of wages (potential savings of $6,622)
•    Applies to those workers hired after 2/3/10 but before 1/1/11 on wages paid between 3/19/10 and 12/31/10

Health Care Reform.

Two bills were signed into law on March 23rd and 26th, 2010 – The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act, respectively. Both laws have important consequences for employers and group health plans.

Effective 01/01/2014 employers with 200 or more fulltime employees must automatically enroll new hires in health coverage. Employers with more than 50 fulltime employees that do not offer coverage must pay a penalty of $166/month per employee (excluding first 30).

Disability Discrimination.

Recent California case law has changed the playing field, once again, in regards to disability discrimination. The two key updates are:
1.    In the event an employee has been previously granted special accommodations for a disability, the employer has a continuing duty to inform new supervisors of these accommodations. Failure to do so can place the employer at risk of being sued.
2.    Employers are required to actively identify and offer available positions to disabled employees – it is not sufficient to merely “allow” the disabled employee to apply for a new position.

Harassment Claims.

Attorneys have previously advised managers that “being a jerk” on the job, while impolite and unprofessional, does not violate the law, so long as the negative behavior was work related. However, a recent case made its way to the California Supreme Court (Roby v. McKesson) wherein an employee claimed her manager demonstrated particular hostility towards her, despite the fact that the behavior was in the context of job and performance criticism. The Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, stating the manager’s behavior created a hostile work environment. The clear message to managers: don’t be a jerk to your staff in the office!

Additional topics covered included defending discrimination cases, arbitration agreements, spying on employees at work, protecting business trade secrets, and non-solicitation of employees and customers.

Once again, if you missed the presentation, we highly encourage you to hear it at your convenience. It can be downloaded HERE.

If you have any questions about these, or any other HR related topics, do not hesitate to contact a CPEhr Human Resources Outsoucing Representative.

Here is the simple take-away from today’s post: Management is an extension of their employer. As such, management practices can be pinned back to the employer, who can ultimately be held responsible for the managers’ actions.

What is a Manager?

Managers are the primary contact with most of the rank-and-file employees in an organization. Whether it is an office manager in doctor’s office, or the warehouse manager in a storage facility, or  inventory manager in a retail operation, all managers interact with their staff on a daily basis. In an informal poll taken by AllBusiness (a division of Dunn & Bradstreet), managers were asked, “What is a manager’s role”? The answers were wide-ranging, but all shared the same underlying theme – daily oversight of the staff:

“A manager’s role is to provide proper oversight and direction to a group that is trying to accomplish a certain task. They may also act as a mediator between those under him. Managers may need to be called upon at times to be disciplinarians or morale boosters.”

“To make sure the place runs smoothly.”

“A manager’s role is to maintain a productive atmosphere while conserving cost. He is the  communication link between the employees and upper management.”

Another question posed was, “What do you like about managers?” Again, the answers revolved around staff interaction:

“I like managers when they fulfill their job with respect toward their employees. Also, when they show understanding and use their authority with kindness.”

“They have the answers to our problems.”

“When a manager does his job right, it promotes a pleasant atmosphere to work in.”

“They keep the workers organized.”

So what is the point?

The point is simple – for a manager to effectively do their job, they must be educated on the proper methods of discipline, motivation, and management. These tasks may seem like common sense and simple enough to implement. However, in fact, dozens of State and Federal laws dictate precisely how managers can treat employees, speak to them, discipline, warn, and terminate them.

Some of the most important laws governing these areas are:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin;
• the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which protects men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination;
• the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older;
• Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which prohibit employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in the private sector, and in state and local governments;
• Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities who work in the federal government; and
• the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which, among other things, provides monetary damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.

Educated Managers = Safe Employers

So, while you may have hired your manager to “make sure the place runs smoothly”, or to “maintain a productive atmosphere”, equally, if not more important, is to make sure your management team is aware of the laws that govern their daily interaction with their staff. If you follow the steps below, you’ll be on your way to protecting your company, and yourself, from lawsuits:

1. Make sure management is familiar with all company policies and procedures
2. Managers should actively review the Employee Handbook
3. They should be familiar with the company Mission Statement.
4. Managers should be positive role models, always acting ethically with motivational leadership skills.
5. Act professionally at all times.
6. Encourage management to attend training classes to further educate themselves.
7. CONSTANTLY and CONSISTENTLY contact the Human Resources department before taking employment-related action.

In summary, encourage and provide learning opportunities to your management staff. Make it clear to them that conscious application of that knowledge is expected on a daily basis. Following these best practices will go a long way to help you and your business keep a motivated workforce, and stay out of trouble.