Managers, the new poor relation?

Gil’s business has been going for 6 years. It’s grown steadily year on year, and Gil built a really great team to support him and bring in the additional skills that he needed to professionalise his operations.

In the last year his team grew from a nimble 30 to over 100 staff. Far from being that answer to their fulfilment issues, product quality and customer service quality declined, while staff turnover increased.

At first the decline in quality was put down to poor hires, but when the problems continued, and a couple of grievances were received from staff, it became apparent that there was a deeper issue.

The rapid growth of the business meant that high performing staff were promoted to management positions, and given responsibilities for recruitment, staff development, budgets and production, with little or no management training or previous experience.

It was assumed that those promoted would be excellent managers, but no actual training or support was given. This led to inconsistencies in way staff were managed, which led to division and resentment within teams, and certain behaviours going unchecked. For example: when Donna asked her manager to work from home 2 days a week, it was approved informally. However when Amira asked her manager for the same, it was refused with the reason that it was bad for team morale. Likewise sickness hasn’t been treated the same, with managers interpreting the policy differently.

The newly promoted managers were also struggling to get their day job done and deal with staff, so were getting burnt out and still failing to reach their numbers.

We often find that great staff are promoted because they are amazing at one thing, but as business owners we know that a management role comes with lots of plates to keep spinning.

We helped Gil’s team support their managers with a bespoke Management Development Programme to ensure that any skills gaps were addressed, all managers had a clear understanding of their responsibilities and were provided coaching and mentoring support.

Are your Managers the poor relations?

January is a great time to review the skills of you and your managers. If you need some help, get in touch to discuss how we can help you.