To Retain Your Staff, Remember These Six Supervisory Guidelines
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There are lots of ideas out there about how to be a successful supervisor. Recent research and practice wisdom has confirmed that a measure of the success of the supervisor is related to the ability to reduce staff turnover amongst direct reports.
It’s for certain that the relationship between supervisor and employee is a complicated one with lots of opportunity to for misunderstanding and flat out error. Indeed a study by the University of Florida indicated that about half of all employees do not trust their supervisor. So here are six ideas that can assist a supervisors in carrying out their responsibilities.
1. Supervision is a hard job, sometimes you’ll handle the responsibility well, other times your supervisory behavior could stand improvement. Don’t be afraid to ask for help; ask other supervisors for their opinion about how you handled any given situation.
2. Remember the 15-70-15 Rule. Fifteen percent of your employees are high energy self starters who give much more back to the organization than they take. You don’t have to worry about them. They may make some mistakes but you know they are always trying to do the best they possibly can. Another 15% are very poor performers who are barely capable of handling the job’s responsibilities.
Most likely they should not have been hired in the first place and they will not likely survive their first year on the job. The remaining 70% are folks who are not perfect but they are willing to learn. Don’t ignore them or their behavior could turn sour quickly. What you can do is formulate your workplace polices and procedures around them. They will be responsive and will enhance your reputation as a good supervisor.
3. As author Frank McNair put it in his recent book entitled, Golden Rules for Managers, “don’t send your ducks to eagle school”. This means, don’t ask your staff to do things for which they are not prepared; that’s setting them up for failure. It can be a bigger issue than whether or not they are properly trained. It can mean that they may never be suitable for certain tasks; they simply don’t have the temperament for it.
4. Don’t forget to acknowledge excellent work and say “thank you”. I’ve never heard an employee say that their boss compliments them too much. On the other hand I have heard lots of employees say that the only time their boss talks to them is when they have made a mistake. Ignoring good behavior will soon extinguish it.
5. Use a win-win strategy whenever possible. Establish workplace rules and procedures that allow both the employee and the organization to get something of value. If it’s the employee who always draws the short straw, that employee is not going to be around very long.
6. Make sure your employees know the priorities of the organization. You cannot talk about that too much. Make sure they know how their work will lead to the success of the organization. Point out specific examples whenever you see them occurring.
Are these concepts the only ones that supervisors need to be aware of? No, they are not. We’ll deal with others in future articles.
Do your supervisors really supervise? Our FREE newsletter has lots of tips for supervisors. Send me an email: lwenger@workforceperformancegroup.com and type SIGN ME UP in the subject line. We’ll send you a free copy of a recent newsletter entitled “Golden Rules for Managers”.
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