Best_Practices_Manual

Best Practices Manual for Supervisors Best Practices Manual for Supervisors As a Supervisor, you will encounter many different scenarios in the course of your career. Supervisors and leaders all possess the ability to manage employees. Many of our leaders have different preferences and styles which they bring to the workplace. Therefore, they approach their jobs in different ways. This manual has been compiled from a team of veteran supervisors who have had a total of 32 years experience combined. We asked them to give us some of their best practices to pass along to others who would help them get a good head start to a great rewarding career. The following supervisory responsibilities will include best practices: * Demonstrating communication skills * Determining effective orientation and training methods * Improving productivity for teams * Conducting performance appraisals * Resolving conflict * Improving employee relations Demonstrating Communication Skills Communication is one of the most important skills you will have to possess as a supervisor. It is a very essential piece of your job as a leader. Communication is easily described as the form of exchanging information verbally or written. This kind of information can be instructions, commands, influences, information to inform, and even motivation and guidance. On a daily basis, we communicate with others. It can be through email, interviews, reports, telephone, meetings or conferences, face to face, and even cell phone, text, memo or walkie-talkie. It is used to instruct, command, inform, influence, and persuade others. Without communication, there would be many people left lost with not knowing what to do or what needs to be done. Communication can also be used to motivate those who are lagging in their jobs. Learning proper and effective communication is the one most important aspects of improving the productivity and effectiveness of an organization overall. Without being able to communicate effectively with your employees, you will never get the results you aspire to have. With effective communication, you can exchange important information with others. A supervisor who can communicate effectively is a going to be a successful in their career. They are easily able to motivate employees, exchange information seamlessly with others, and can effectively deal with customers and employees. Communication does not only deal with the one to be communicating as the one who is doing all the talking. It also requires a great amount of listening. In fact, in the business world, listening is done more than speaking (Rue, L. W., & Byars, L. L.). A supervisor must ensure, through the feedback from those who are being communicated to, that their information or message being communicated is being received with clarity and understanding. By listening to those who have just gotten the information, the supervisor will be able to ensure that the message will be received effectively. Best Practice #1: Learn to effectively and actively listen. Absorb what the other person is saying. What tone or body language are they using' Identify what the speaker’s purpose and main ideas are. Best Practice #2: Respond to the speaker with appropriate tone and body language. Information should flow back and forth between the sender and receiver. Never assume the other party has fully understood what has been said. Ensure they understand by asking questions, or repeating the information. Seek feedback, either verbally or nonverbally, from the other party before continuing on the communication process. Communication is the key to success. The book titled The Communication Problem Solver by Nannette R. Carroll holds very informative tips on how to communicate clearly and build a relationship with your employees so that they may be more productive and collaborative. It discusses the downfall to unclear communication and gives tools and techniques on how to communicate effectively. No matter how unimportant one thinks they are in their job, they have to hold a high standard of communication skills in order to get through the day. It is best to email or make notes to your employees in order to send them some form of communication. No matter the job you hold, you are a person who needs to know things. By communicating effectively with others, we can be a successful company. Demonstrating Effective Orientation and Training Methods Orientation and training is an important part of teaching new employees to become the most effective employees. As a supervisor you want to ensure that all employees all follow the same training. The employees need to all represent a company in such a way so that when a customer walks in to one of the many stores in the area, they feel the same in every store. They will not be able to tell the difference in customer service from one store to the next. Although all employees have been hired to do the same thing in different parts of the store, they have been hired to give the best possible service to the customers. Best Practice #1: Set expectations in all areas of their job. This includes attitude or personality, reliability, initiative, personal appearance, and maturity. Conditions of employment regarding hours, overtime, conduct, punctuality, and attendance should also be discussed. Also discuss pay, evaluations, raises, company benefits, insurance, holidays, vacation, and sick pay. Best Practice #2: Make the employees aware of their job responsibilities and the functions of their job. A copy of the routines of a normal day should be given to each employee according to the job duties they will be responsible for. The routines will list from opening time until closing time what will need to be done by them. They should be encouraged to ask questions, and make any suggestions if they think something can be done better. The employee should feel confident that they are able to perform their job duties alone. They should still go by the routines list and be able to learn them in order. Communication will be the method which will be used to evaluate the success of the training program. The training program will prove to be a successful one as long as we keep an open communication between everyone from the supervisors, down to the employees themselves. The best part is to keep encouraging the employees to perform well even after their training is over. Improving Productivity for Teams Teams are the best part of accomplishing a big task in a small amount of time. It is important that the employees on the teams are all working towards the same goal and communicating with one another. Delegation is a big part of managing people. One person cannot handle all the tasks that may come up throughout a day of work without the help of others. There are three major points to organizational productivity. They are the efficiency of the technology, the efficiency of work, and the effectiveness of the administration or management. Best Practice #1: Give the employees what they need in order to get the job done. This can be tools or training. Even though many have common sense to get them through the tasks, there are many valuable tools which are available in order to get the tasks done quicker. Best Practice #2: Motivation is needed in order to get the employees in the mood to get the tasks at hand accomplished in a timely manner. Motivation can be given form their peers, management or supervisors, even self-motivation is helpful in making employees more effective and productive teams. Motivation from the employee’s peers and management can also raise the level of attitude instilled in each employee. A positive attitude will give an employee the motivation they need to get the tasks accomplished. When employees work together as a team, they are able to succeed in getting their assigned tasks done as long as the management has given them the power to help them along with the processes. Teams will make solving problems and overcoming challenges a small hurdle to overcome. Conducting Performance Appraisals Performance appraisals are usually done annually. An exception would be if an employee received an appraisal of below standards which would then require a re-evaluation after 30 days to see if an improvement has been made. Preparing and conducting performance appraisals is the most complex and yet significant part of a supervisor’s job. It is done to communicate to the employee on a personal basis how well they are or are not doing. It is also the time to set a plan of action to improve on the employee’s behalf. It encourages good behavior and work ethic and discourages poor performance. A performance appraisal should include the following three factors: effort, ability and direction. Effort is how much the employee will put forth in order to get the job done on a day to day basis. Ability is the employee’s capability to get the job done, if they have the capability to get it done. Finally, direction is included as a factor because you need to see if the employee is able to follow direction given by the supervisors. All three of these factors should weigh in on how well the employee performed overall. Best Practice #1: Keep track of your employees and their performances from appraisal to appraisal. It is best to keep a file for each employee and take note every time they have done something above and beyond, a customer has had a good experience with the employee, or even if there has been something wrong among peers and co-workers reported. You should also keep note if the employee has been given a note or instruction and has failed, through their own fault, to get the note or task accomplished. Best Practice #2: Be completely honest; do not hold back for fear of hurting their feelings or getting them an unsatisfactory appraisal when they deserve it. Being open gives the employee a chance to discuss the problems at hand and will make it easier for them to seek help to finding solutions if they need help. Performance appraisals are useful in helping to identify any opportunities an employee may need to work at in the future. They help prepare the employee for any future openings that may come up later in the company. It also provides a record of performance for the employees that can be referred to later if management is looking to promote or demote that employee. Resolving Conflict Conflict between employees will have an effect on productivity, teamwork, and getting tasks done in a timely manner. Conflict can be started from many different positions. It has both negative and positive effects. It can cause change in some employees. It can also energize other employees and motivate them to do better than their peers. Conflict also provides employees an outlet to vent all those emotions they have been keeping locked away inside of them. When supervised, conflict can result in employees working better and being stronger. Best Practice #1: Do not take the words of other employees very seriously as much of it could simply be gossip. Take note of the reports but it is best to hear it from the employees involved personally. Best Practice #2: Communicate with your employee to see where the problem lies. Get all sides of the story to see where the conflict is. There are five strategies for handling interpersonal conflict. Withdraw one or more of those who are involved in the conflict. Smooth over the conflict, acting as if it does not exist. Negotiate with the parties involved to end the conflict. Force to a conclusion by a third party if the conflict continues. Finally, confront all parties to eliminate the source of the conflict. Improving Employee Relations As a supervisor, one will cross the paths of many employees who feel something is unfair or wrong. One employee will get the attention of other employees when they are upset about something. Then soon, by the word of mouth, morale is lowered and you have many unhappy employees. Improving employee relation will bring the morale of the employees higher. The article titled, The Effects of Diversity on Business Performance: Report of the Diversity Research Network (2003) summarizes the studies and research done to understand the relationships between diversity and performance in the business world. The Diversity Research Network watched and studied four large companies and determined that there were a small number of positive or negative effects of diversity on work performance. The research found that gender diversity had positive effects while racial diversity had negative effects (Kochan, Bezrukova, Ely, Jackson, Joshi, Jehn, Leonard, Levine, & Thomas, 2003). Many factors were considered during these studies. Performance, bonuses, customer satisfaction, revenue, referrals, and sales are all factors in these studies. We can all get along, no matter gender or race. Supervisors can use this information from this article to make their workplaces have better productivity, better morale, and happier employees. Best Practice #1: Become familiar with the procedures, policies and guidelines regarding employees. By familiarizing yourself with these, you have the knowledge to follow everything by the book. When it comes time to discipline, appraise or terminate an employee, you will know the proper procedures to get this done. Best Practice #2: Be consistent with everyone. Do not play favorites. Your employees notice these small instances and will easily bring the morale down if the word gets around. Your employees can easily help you to become a successful supervisor. Their motivation to perform at their best will show if you only help guide them. References Rue, L. W., & Byars, L. L. (2004). Supervision: Key link to productivity (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Kochan, T., Bezrukova, K., Ely, R., Jackson, S., Joshi, A., Jehn, K., & ... Thomas, D. (2003). THE EFFECTS OF DIVERSITY ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE: REPORT OF THE DIVERSITY RESEARCH NETWORK. Human Resource Management, 42(1), 3-21. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Carroll, N. (2010), THE COMMUNICATION PROBLEM SOLVER. Business Book Summaries, Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Weinclaw, Ph.D, R.(2010), PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL.EBSCO Research Starters, Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Mohanta, G., K.P., T. (2010), PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT: KNOWLEDGE WORKERS. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, Retrieved from EBSCOhost.