Give Managers a Chance! by Susan Binnersley

 

There is no shortage of research and news coverage decrying the capability of managers.  In recent surveys  –

• 28% of workers cited a negative relationship with a manager as a reason for leaving. *1
• 38% of respondents in another survey *2 said they did not have a good manager
• 45% of these team members said they could do the job better themselves.
• Amongst the most cited failures of a bad manager were failure to listen, being unapproachable and shouting at the team.

However, having engaged with literally thousands of managers over the years in my industrial career, both as an HR leader and more latterly as the MD of a business consultancy, I know that most managers are fundamentally good people, with positive intentions and genuine respect for the people they manage. The current landscape is also tough for them with ever increasing demands.

• Over 53% of managers are experiencing overwhelm*3
• They are likely to be involved in more litigation, for example – Tribunal claims for bullying increased by 44% *4; claims for flexible working increased 52% *5 and menopause related claims have increased by 44% *6
• The demands on line managers are ever increasing with changing employment practices and legislation. More recent additions include:
  • Remote and hybrid working arrangements
  • Flexible working practices
  • Creating a psychologically safe and inclusive work environment
• There is also a trend for spans of control to be increasing so they have many more direct reports to manage and therefore more demands on their time.

So what’s going wrong?

‘Accidental Managers’– The CMI research uses the phrase ‘accidental managers’ , i.e. people who have not been trained for the role.  In h2h we have also met many managers who did not necessarily make an assertive choice to become a manager. Often they have been very well respected for their technical / professional skills and then they may have either just evolved into being a manager, accepted a promotion as it was the only way to progress and often did not have a full understanding of what a ‘day in the life of a line manager’ might actually be like.

None or inadequate management training – The above research cites that up to 82% of new managers have no formal training despite the fact that the first line management population often directly manage at least 80% of the workforce.  Even where managers are well trained the sheer volume of what they need to know is huge and ever increasing.  They are often expected to be able to:

• Know, support and manage employees through the whole HR lifecycle that includes attraction, recruitment, onboarding, development, retention and separation.
• Manage individual and overall team performance to deliver challenging key performance indicators
• Have strong leadership skills to build a highly enabled and engaged team.
• Complete their own workload – often for first line managers they are still expected to complete tasks for maybe up to 50% of their time.

In h2h we are shifting the narrative and will deepen this research in a forthcoming customer conference.  Specifically, we believe the answer lies in the following:

• Management and leadership development that enables mastery with minimal core underpinning behaviours and ready access to bitesize needs driven learning at the point of need.
• Ensure leaders operate in a transformational space, ensuring transactional activities are done where they should be.
• An organisation design philosophy that is more creative, fluid and responsive. This can in turn ensure that all parts of a business can enjoy the benefits of flexible and hybrid working and avoid the pitfalls of a two tier workforce.
• Through insightful organisation development create an empowering culture where individual employees can genuinely take more responsibility for their own performance growth.

Where this works, the organisation will thrive and employee experience is positive for all, remembering that managers are employees too.

If you’d like to see how this approach can help your business, please reach out to us and join in our drive for change.

 

h2h Resources Ltd

New Leaf House, 5 Alan Farnaby Way, Sheriff Hutton, York YO60 6PG

+44 1347 879 056 | enquiries@h2h.uk.com | www.h2h.uk.com

Sources

1.  The Guardian (Bad management has prompted one in three workers to quit…) & CMI Research
2.  https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1755785/two-five-employees-quit-bad-manager-study-finds
3. https://hbr.org/2023/05/more-than-50-of-managers-feel-burned-out#:
4.  https://www.foxlawyers.com/fox-research-on-44-increase-in-bullying-claims-covered-by-the-times-bloomberg-personnel-today-the-daily-telegraph-and-hr-magazine/
5. https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/flexible-working-requests-behind-growing-number-of-tribunal-cases/#:~:text=Flexible%20working%20requests%20behind%20growing%20number%20of%20tribunal%20cases,-by%20Adam%20McCulloch&text=The%20number%20of%20employment%20tribunal,employment%20law%20firm%20GQ%7CLittler. https://www.ashfords.co.uk/insights/articles/menopause-increase-in-employment-tribunal-claims
6. https://www.ashfords.co.uk/insights/articles/menopause-increase-in-employment-tribunal-claims