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re you an HR leader grappling with high turnover across your organization? Is this affecting your department’s productivity, or even the companywide bottom line? If so, the turning point may start with digging deep into the employee group that truly holds the keys to long-term success and profitability: middle managers.
Middle (or people) managers are, without a doubt, the secret weapon for retaining top talent. Working with frontline employees every day and embodying company culture through words and actions, empowering this group is a strategic imperative. Often overlooked, investing in middle managers enables companies to take the next step in their growth trajectory or withstand market headwinds.
This article discusses the necessary tools to unlock the potential of your middle managers through talent management, leadership development, and manager training.
Talent Management and Career Pathing
As an HR pro, you recognize and understand the pitfalls of unclear career paths. After all, this is a leading cause of employee disengagement and turnover.
Equipping managers with the tools and confidence to own talent management and career pathing for their direct reports is a more sustainable, long-term approach than having this remain entirely within the purview of the HR department. Managers should be encouraged to foster authentic relationships with their team, allowing them to engage in proactive career development conversations that yield positive results.
But they will need support here, so create guidelines to ensure success for those involved. Provide managers with a toolkit of resources so they feel prepared to lead discussions and oversee follow-up. Comprehensive individual development plans, peer learning programs, and conversation guides on facilitating career growth discussions are excellent considerations.
When managers are empowered to lead and nurture, employee engagement and satisfaction improve. In turn, this leads to increased loyalty and lower turnover. By providing managers with practical tools to show their direct reports a clear vision for the future, you will decrease the likelihood of employees testing the job market and considering new opportunities.
Leadership Development from Within
Equipping managers with the resources they need to thrive as leaders has the additional benefit of positioning them to identify potential future leaders. More than anyone, middle managers are well-suited to identify and cultivate the next wave of leaders. Their daily interaction with frontline workers helps them understand employees on a deeper level. When selecting the next generation of leaders, this nuanced perspective is crucial.
Start by providing a clear understanding of the criteria for identifying potential leaders. This includes traits such as problem-solving skills, demonstrated ownership of work, accountability, and a collaborative mindset. Once managers have identified direct reports who possess those qualities, they can mentor and develop promising candidates. The middle manager is a mentor and coach in many ways, stretching high-potential individuals with challenging assignments and increased visibility within the organization.
Training is Essential
It’s common to promote employees into managerial roles based on technical expertise or tenure. But becoming a manager requires far more, with the “human” side being equally important. This is where HR leaders can set managers up for success.
Core skills – delivering feedback, resolving conflicts, and communicating with empathy – are all essential for middle managers. Working closely with frontline employees requires possessing the right mix of technical and relational skills that are essential in building trust and respect with direct reports.
Middle managers must also be well-versed in the latest company policies. While core skills are important, so is knowing how to handle situations from an HR and compliance perspective. This might include performance management, disciplinary actions, discrimination, and workplace harassment.
As noted above, managers are coaches and mentors as much as technical experts. Empowering middle managers with coaching techniques that encourage employee autonomy is essential. This allows direct reports to become proactive problem solvers, helping them grow beyond needing a manager to tell them what to do in every situation.
Supporting middle managers through talent management, leadership development, and manager training sets them and their direct reports up for long-term success. Investing in this group is critical to your company’s success; you will enhance employee engagement, reduce turnover, and increase productivity and profitability.
Are you ready to take ownership of your manager development programs? Contact us today for a free talent retention consultation.
