An employee’s relationship with their line manager is critical to building and sustaining loyalty, satisfaction and engagement throughout your workforce. Just as a strong relationship between employee and line manager can drive success for both, a negative relationship can be hugely damaging at an individual, team and business-wide level.
Recent data shared by People Management identified that almost one-third of employees don’t feel comfortable approaching their manager to discuss problems they are experiencing at work, and 40% felt that their line manager doesn’t help to foster morale throughout their team.
Employees who don’t feel supported, have been shown to be more likely to disengage, under-perform and ultimately leave. Those who feel unable to approach their line manager often share problems with peers, exacerbating any morale issues that might previously exist.
It’s therefore crucial that businesses take proactive steps to buck these trends. This means placing a real focus on three key areas:
Line Manager Development
Some businesses have had success in introducing tailored Line Manager Training programmes, aimed at boosting the managerial and leadership skills of their managers.
This particularly applies to first-time managers – it’s not uncommon for technically strong employees who are promoted to supervisor roles to struggle.
Employees need to be able to trust their managers and believe in their capability.
Seeking employee feedback
Firms must be proactive in seeking feedback from employees.
Not everyone will be comfortable sharing feedback in the same way and so offering multiple forums for workers to provide their views is critical.
Group sessions, skip-level meetings, one-to-ones and confidential suggestion boxes are all simple but effective ways of gathering feedback, and making your employees’ voice feel valued.
Developing an Engagement Strategy
A company’s approach to engagement is now a key differentiator when it comes to selling to clients and recruiting the best talent.
More and more firms are running engagement surveys and implementing engagement strategies to ensure a consistent and positive approach to supporting, developing and above all, listening to their workforce.
Any such strategy should include key deliverable tied to feedback provided by employees; transparency when it comes to the feedback, and outcomes will help build trust among employees.
If you are looking to improve training for your line managers, or for support in implementing an effective Engagement Strategy for your business, then email Energise Consulting for a free consultation at info@energise-consulting.co.uk
