Canadian HR Reporter, 3/28/11
Bob Kelleher, author of Louder than Words, 10 Practical Employee Engagement Steps that Drive Results shares his thought leadership on the importance of an employees relationship with their first line manager. First line managers are a key ingredient to employee engagement because they help to communicate the company’s goals, performance and vision . If they are not in alignment with the company’s engagement goals, chances of cultivating employee engagement is slim at best. Common mistakes that some organizations make include:
- Assuming individual contributors will make effective managers
- Not making employee engagement a job requirement
- Not budgeting for employee engagement and training for first line leaders
- Assigning manager position for the wrong reasons (tenure, education, skills)
Practical steps to build engagement with your first line leaders include:
- Treat first line managers as part of the leadership team
- Make sure your managers receive critical, company information so they can learn it, ask questions, have time to process and plan how they are going to roll it out to their team
- Explain to your managers (who have responsibility for leading people) that they forfeit the right to vocalize cynicism
- Identify your “rock stars” within your organization and list their shared behaviors and traits-this will help your organization define your culture and what traits you should be hiring for
