To Retain Your Best Employees, Invest in Your Best Managers

This is a plausible idea. The famous Gallup study of 2013 confirmed it, and although much time has passed since that, the premise remains: Employees do not leave companies but bad managers.

During these last two years, human resources departments have had to face the challenge of including “human resources” in the hybrid world, and part of this process had a lot to do with the ability of managers to manage talent and guide them at each stage of adaptation to the new style of work.

After the Great Resignation, the challenge was more significant because the talent was scarce simultaneously; employees were leaving their positions en masse while others sought guidance and support from their bosses and supervisors.

Everything was changing; employees used to consider senior executives the most important source of information. Suddenly, they became the closest resource for support, insight into the company’s movements, and mitigating the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. This is why the role of managers has become so crucial in employee retention. According to a 2021 study by GoodHire, 82% of employees surveyed said they would quit a job if they felt their superior was a lousy manager.

Managers who need to be better trained, overworked, and exhausted while leading their teams may fail to achieve the goal. So, to retain your managers and the team that reports to you as a boss, you must invest in your development, and these are the steps to follow:

Elevate the role of the manager.

Managers must be trained in a company’s four core values: Winning together, continuously innovating, promoting belonging, and doing the right thing all the time. They must recognize if they are doing well applying each of these and fully complying with them.

All this will make you connect positively with your team, avoid continuous staff turnover, and increase staff engagement.

 

Enable skill development.

How often have we seen employees promoted in their positions for being good at their daily work and not necessarily because they have the skills?

Employees must be given the tools or training to develop those skills.

For example, smaller companies can approach a problem and establish a clear process for managers to get on board and intervene in the solution using the values as a guide, thus generating a result of belonging to the organization.

Peer support.

Even the highest and best-trained managers will have work to do. Ongoing support is essential as they keep up with constant change.

A monthly manager meeting where they can share information, especially now that there are remote workers, is a great way to drive engagement and build a much-needed mutual bond after they’ve been through so many changes.

Peer support, as opposed to top-down feedback, offers several benefits, including “knowledge of diverse perspectives,” “opportunities to practice new skills in a safe space,” and a “lasting support network.” Having managers practice their skills together is also another opportunity for professional development.

It’s time for companies to invest in their managers by giving them the skills and support they need to connect with their teams.

With information from: hbr.org