Do you appreciate your managers enough?

Do you ever consider the value of your managers? Those unsung heroes in your organisation whose day to day activities are helping to get your business ahead of the competition. Or are they? Research from 2012 showed that 43% of staff rated their managers as ineffective, which suggests a huge opportunity for improvement. In fact, according to the research conducted by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, UK businesses are losing a staggering 19 billion pound per year of working hours due to poor management.

Most of us are familiar with the outputs of a highly engaged workforce, like increased productivity & profitability and less risk of talent drain, as well as the many other benefits that could give your business a competitive edge over your less engaged competition. We know that you have countless opportunities to measure employee engagement, but the real challenge is figuring out how you can drive it up.

When you analyse the research about engagement, certain themes come up over and over again. We have summarised these into 7 key drivers below:

1. Feeling that you are in a job that fits your skills
2. Understanding how your job and objectives align with the company direction
3. Having clear expectations and regular review of progress
4. Having opportunities for learning and career progress including access to development and training
5. A quality relationship with your line manager where you feel personally understood
6. Timely recognition and feedback on performance
7. Visible and inspirational senior managers who lead by example

After reading that list, ask yourself: who is the custodian of these activities? Is it HR? Is it the executive board or the individual?

The reality is that the one person who can really enforce these drivers is the line manager. Victor Lipman argued that an employee’s relationship with his or her direct manager is the most important single factor in employee engagement. This is further supported by the Gallup research showing that 70% of the variation in employee engagement is down to the line manager.

So our thought for this blog is: let’s value our managers and the skill of management. By supporting managers we can help them support their staff and increase employee engagement.

For more information on people management, download our FREE white paper on the 7 habits of highly effective people managers below.