Help, no kidding. New supervisors are in for a great ride, but if you don’t train them well—and fast—they’re going to crash and burn. Here are tips and news about a new audio conference especially for new supervisors.
Last issue we posed 9 problem areas for new supervisors and promised that today, we’d offer some help on what to do about them. Here’s what we recommend:
Train, Train, Train
First, schedule training for new supervisors at the earliest possible moment. Experts suggest training in several tiers. For example, the first day spend an hour with a few basics. Then layer more training during the next few weeks, with more detail each time. Tailor the sessions to the new supervisor’s workload. If he or she is responsible for hiring, for example, focus on that.
Delay Action
Emphasize that few questions supervisors face demand immediate answers. It’s perfectly acceptable to say “I’ll check on that,” then go to HR or your boss or mentor for advice.
Poor management is the most often cited reason for turnover. Help your new supervisors do it right with BLR’s March 11 audio conference, Help—They Made Me a Supervisor! 11 Practical Training and Development Tips for Brand-New Frontline Managers. Can’t attend? Pre-order the CD. Click for details
Give Simple Guidelines
Tell them that during this initial period, before you’ve completed training, do not hire, do not fire, do not discipline, don’t approve leave, don’t take any significant personnel action on your own. Come to HR or discuss the case with your boss first.
Focus on the Job
To avoid legal traps such as discrimination in interviewing or treatment once hired, the best advice is to focus on the job. For applicants, that means talking about the job and whether the candidate is prepared to do it, not personal factors. For employees, it means explaining expectations, and how they are doing against them, without personal comments.
Supervisor Boot Camp
Let’s say you’ve just promoted a brand-new frontline supervisor. Once the “Congratulations!” cake has disappeared from the break room, the real work begins because it’s your job to help turn that raw recruit into a functioning manager.
How can you do it? How can you teach new supervisors to give directions, instead of following them? To succeed in coaching, motivating, and even disciplining employees who were once their peers (and still their friends)? To focus on the bigger management picture, rather than simply doing their work and going home at night? What legal mistakes could they make that will cost you big bucks and lots of embarrassment?
Boot Camp for Supervisors. Get your new supervisors in step from day one with BLR’s new March 11 audio conference. Satisfaction is assured. Click for info
Our editors recommend BLR’s new audio conference, specially designed for new supervisors— Help—They Made Me a Supervisor! 11 Practical Training and Development Tips for Brand-New Frontline Managers.
This practical, down-to-earth presentation will get your new supervisors started out on the right foot. In hiring. In coaching, motivating, and solving performance problems. In managing legally to protect your company even as they support their staff.
The date is Tuesday, March 11, 2008. The time: 1:30 pm to 3 pm (Eastern time—adjust for your time zone). As with all BLR audio conferences, one fee trains all the staff you can fit around a conference phone, and your specific phoned-in or e-mailed questions will be answered in the extensive Q&A that follows the presentation. Satisfaction is assured or you get a full refund.
Can’t attend on that date? Pre-order the conference CD. For more information on the conference and the experts presenting it, to register, or to pre-order the CD, click here