Around the New Year, many of us start to consider what we could do better in the coming year. We consider things like joining a gym and eating more vegetables. It’s also a good time to think about how we could improve our work performance.
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Resolutions for everyone
We often think of making resolutions for ourselves. Here’s a list of resolutions that you’d want your frontline supervisors to make. Some of them also may apply directly to upper-level management, but all of them are aimed at the folks in the trenches supervising employees.
Your task is to enable your supervisors to make these resolutions and reach these goals. Provide them with training, whether in the form of formal classes or in a mentoring relationship. Give them time to work on improving their performance, and reward them if they succeed. You need to motivate your supervisory staff to give their all: In doing so, they will produce more for you and will make you and your company more effective.
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Deal with issues when they happen. You know how easy it is to notice a problem and then file it away, figuring you’ll deal with it later. It’s especially easy when it comes to nagging small employee issues — it’s no big deal, and you can always wait and deal with it at review time, right? Here are a few reasons to resolve to take a new, proactive approach:
- It isn’t fair to the employee. Your job is to give constructive criticism that will allow her to improve. If you don’t say anything about it, maybe she’ll never know she’s doing something wrong.
- It may be a small problem now, but who’s to say it will stay that way?
- If you ignore it and say something months later, your employee may not accept belated criticism easily. Can’t you hear it now: “You didn’t say anything when I was coming in late for months, so why is it a problem now? Is it because I hurt my back at work yesterday?”
Write it down! Lawyers like to say that if it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen. If you’re dealing with a recurring issue or doing something like an investigation of a harassment complaint, you need to write down what you do, see, and hear. Otherwise, when your investigation becomes the crux of a lawsuit, you’ll have to try to prove what you did — without the documentation to support you. Some tips on making documenting work:
- You don’t have to write a novel or even in complete sentences. Jot a note to yourself, and you’ll have a ready reminder to follow up. You also might consider e-mailing yourself a reminder or leaving a voice mail for yourself.
- In their ultimate form, your notes should be complete enough for someone else to decipher.
- Don’t keep multiple drafts. Once you complete the documentation in final form, throw that jotted note away.
- Remember that for every writer, there’s a reader. Your notes ultimately will be read by an employee who requests her personnel records or by the other side in a lawsuit. Don’t use profanity, call your employees names, or embellish.
- Speaking of writing, that includes criticism: We often hear supervisors say that they’ll just “counsel” an employee or give him a “verbal warning.” That’s great, but make sure you write those down! A verbal warning is a written warning; it’s just at a lower level of your progressive discipline policy.
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Pay attention to employee evaluations. Supervisors often put these low on their list of priorities, doing them late or doing the bare minimum to get the form filled out. Evaluations are critical pieces of evidence if you ever have to fire an employee, or have to justify an employment decision in court. Some pointers:
- Go by the numbers. Lots of supervisors routinely give employees who are just doing their jobs the highest numerical rating available. Doing your job, though, is what’s expected, not the best possible performance. If the top of the scale becomes “average,” how do you reward the employee who truly excels? And how do you explain that an employee who looks like a “10” on paper is really an average employee?
- Use the comment space. It’s been a year — you must have seen something that merits a word or two in writing!
- Be honest. Now isn’t the time to sugarcoat things. Yes, you need to be constructive, and you should definitely point out what your employees are doing right. But you also can’t be afraid to be straightforward in your critiques of their weaker spots. Remember, if you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen. A lack of honesty could hurt your company later if it has to justify a discharge for cause when the employee’s evaluations are glowing at worst and silent at best.
Make it a matter of policy. Supervisors don’t write policy, but they’re the ones who have to enforce those policies on a daily basis. It’ll be easier if they:
- Know your policies. You can’t enforce them if you don’t know them. If your employees come to you with a question about a policy, you should know the answer or at least be able to find it quickly.
- Enforce your policies evenhandedly. You don’t want to create the appearance of favoritism or, worse, discrimination. If you do decide to make an exception, make sure it’s justified on nondiscriminatory grounds.
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Know how to give and receive information. You’ve probably heard supervisory employees complaining that they can’t do their work because they always have to talk with employees. Well, that’s a big part of their job, and if they approach the conversation openly, it can provide them with important tools for making their workplace and their employees better. Supervisors should be instructed to:
- Give feedback promptly. That applies to the good and the bad. With constructive criticism, again, you want to give it at a time when it really is constructive. A quiet word at the time is much more helpful to the employee than a reference in a review to a barely remembered project. You also should try to hand out praise promptly and liberally. Your thanks and congratulations at the time of a job well done means more than words in a review down the road. Really — you’d be surprised at how much hearing “thank you” can mean to your employees.
- Take what they’re giving you. Being an effective supervisor requires you to be a good listener. Sometimes, it’s easier to tune out your employees’ complaints, but when you do so, you’re doing them — and you — a disservice. Employees need you to hear them and trust that you have taken in their message. You need to hear your employees because they can provide you with critical insight on what’s happening in your workplace and a critique on your effectiveness as a supervisor.
- Keep it to yourself. Information you have as a supervisor about your employees should be treated confidentially because:
- statutes may require you to protect confidentiality; and
- you need your employees to trust and respect you as a supervisor, which means making sure the information in their personnel files doesn’t become lunchtime gossip.
- Know when to make an exception. Never promise confidentiality when you can’t follow through, such as when an employee makes a harassment complaint.
Set a good example. That’s the catch-all, key, do-unto-others resolution. You can’t expect to earn the respect of others if you “talk the talk” but don’t “walk the walk.” In other words, if your employees see your management-level directives as contrary to your actions, they won’t respect the directives or you. You need to follow your policies, work a full day, and never call in sick if you aren’t sick. Be the ideal employee so your charges can have a positive example.
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Bottom line
Being a supervisor isn’t easy, and sometimes letting the more unpleasant, less time-sensitive tasks slide makes it easier to get through the day. You need to inspire your supervisors to take the initiative. Resolve now to take steps to make next year easier by teaching your supervisors — and yourself — to drop those old habits and renew their efforts.