Have You Hired Effective People Managers To Uplift Your Team?

People management is a critical consideration for any organization, and although effective people managers are not easy to come by, they offer up a new standard of support wherever they go. A showcase of people management skills and strategies is expected from every manager but few are trained in the art of handling the workforce in a way that acknowledges the needs of the team. From rerouting communication to appropriate channels to bridging the gap between the employer and employee, effective people managers are just as important as the HR personnel who handle the “human” element of the organization. 

Some HR professionals are adept at handling technology, managing PTOs and leaves, and ensuring all employee records are maintained without a hitch while those who come in with the right people management techniques help the workers at an organization flourish.

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Exploring the Importance of an Effective People Manager

Effective people managers may be hired specifically to understand and support the workforce, but all leaders need to have their own roster of people management skills that they can put to use when they regularly interact with their workforce. While project managers function like task keepers and overseers of strategies, goals, and deadlines, people managers bring in critical qualities like being understanding and providing the workforce with what they need. 

According to an SHRM study titled “Effective People Managers: The Linchpin of Organizational Success,” 92 percent of HR executives say that people managers are critical for an organization’s success while 82 percent believe they are critical for accomplishing strategic business objectives. 

Considering how closely HR professionals watch the mood of the organization and analyze how workers are reacting to each other, it is fair to trust their assessment of what motivates a team and what role they plan in the organization’s functioning. The SHRM study also found that 64 percent of workers rated the managers as highly effective while 28 percent found their managers to be average and 8 percent found them to be ineffective. While 64 percent is a pretty good number, organizations without effective people managers are missing out on experiencing the productivity of satisfied employees.

Workers with highly effective people managers are twice as likely to be fulfilled by their work and feel a sense of belongingness towards their employer. Such employees feel like an active part of the team, confident that they are valued by the organization. Of the respondents, 81 percent of employees with a highly effective manager are satisfied with their job but only 41 percent of those with a non-highly effective manager feel this way about their role. 

Workers who enjoy their roles are more likely to do their jobs with interest and enthusiasm, which is something that cannot be manufactured—only authentically derived—from an employee.

People Management Skills That Are Essential at Work

Effective people managers are not good at their job by default—they need to develop essential people management skills and techniques to improve their approach. These individuals need to create a space where employees feel safe and can share their thoughts with some degree of freedom. There are some qualities that can be prioritized to improve people management skills within a workplace.

• Communication skills: Effective people managers are great at making conversation with employees, putting them at ease, and allowing them to feel seen and heard at work. Even small talk is invaluable in acknowledging another individual.
• Active listening: To improve people management, a manager needs to have a strong understanding of how employees are feeling and what their concerns are. 
• Extensive background knowledge: Employees appreciate when the organization makes an attempt to know them as individuals, not to the degree of becoming invasive, but at least to the point where they feel like colleagues and not machines.
• Empathy: People management techniques include being empathetic and understanding what an employee is expressing at work. Using these learning points to improve the work environment can go a long way in boosting an employee’s enthusiasm for the workplace.
• Providing constructive feedback: Providing feedback regularly is very helpful for employees and it sets them back on track with a healthy frequency. If the feedback is constructive instead of being merely critical, it becomes more useful to the receiver.
• Flexibility: Effective people managers do not rigidly hold on to a predetermined strategy but are more sensitive to the needs of the employees, and they try to make adjustments to the workplace on the go.
• Commitment: For people managers to be able to inspire a sense of loyalty to the organization, they need to feel some commitment to the employer themselves. Only when their own ties with the organization are strong can they lead the way for others to feel the same.
• Mentoring skill: Sensing a connection with a manager, employees may frequently turn to them for guidance. Knowing how to be a good mentor can go a long way.
• Conflict resolution skills: People management strategies need to have a clear approach to conflict management at work. When the peace of the work environment is disrupted, so is an employee’s desire to focus on their task. Successful people managers actively handle a conflict and help in its resolution before it escalates.

People Management Tips and Techniques

To improve people management within the workplace, employees need to focus on developing people management skills that can make them better understand their roles and how they need to navigate them. The impact of a bad manager is considerable and employees quickly begin to feel a disconnect between their role and their employer when they don’t have a good manager to bridge the gap. So, it’s in an organization’s best interest to help its managers develop the necessary people management strategies to do their jobs well.

• Set clear guidelines for their roles: To create effective people managers, companies need to be clear about what the manager needs to do as well as how their goals will be set and their progress will be measured.
• Communication is key: Employers need to communicate with managers to establish goals and check in on progress. Similarly, managers will need ways to communicate with employees and track how they are doing. Establishing simple communication channels and guidelines for using them is essential.
• Regularly providing managers with the resources they need: As managers establish their people management strategies, they will often need support from the employer to execute their plans. Organizations need to be more clear about what resources are available at the managers’ disposal.
• Collecting feedback: The organization and its managers need to tap into how employees are feeling about major changes within the workplace so they can make changes in the right direction.
• Support quick decision-making: Employers may need to explicitly state situations where a manager is free to make decisions quickly and where they need to revert back to the employer first. When the people manager does direct a decision to the organization, the decision should be made quickly.
• Acknowledging successes: Sharing positive news with the organization and celebrating any success that is witnessed by the team can go a long way.
• Placing trust in managers and employees: To improve people management, organizations need to be able to display some evidence of trust in the people managers to do their jobs well, and this also extends to other employees.

There are many other ways to improve people management within an organization but these techniques are a few good ways to get started. Effective people managers can make a world of difference in an organization but their work needs to be prioritized and supported first. 

The post Have You Hired Effective People Managers To Uplift Your Team? appeared first on The HR Digest.

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