Middle managers often fear powerful employees who are ready to bring the company forward. This message is for the executive who has to deal with them. These destructive managers hurt themselves more than anything else-- but can be prevented if they understand the benefit of helping employees be more successful.
Invest in strength assessments for both employees and managers. Some people aren't cut out for management, or even to be in your company doing what you expect them to do. Help people match their strengths to positions that best fit their interests. People doing what they like to do are more productive.
Encourage managers to surround themselves with teams better than them. How can a manager do a superior job if everyone on his team is always below him? Help managers with their self-esteem, encourage them to bring people on their team who can help them achieve their objectives even if it requires skills beyond their own function.
Regularly document the required skills to be a top performer in certain job roles. Learn to model you best performers and share those best practices with other employees. How often do top sales people work with new hires? Meet as a company and as individual job roles to discuss what is working and advancing company objectives.
Utilize internal mentoring programs that indoctrinate new employees. Formalize the age old practice of apprenticeship and mentoring. Match new employees with more senior ones to pass down best practice. Learn to work together gathering the best from each experience level for the common objectives of the organization. This also gives employees someone to turn to when they have questions that can save time and reduce frustration.
Reward managers for hiring the right people and helping them excel. Depending on your organizations objectives, consider rewarding managers for employees that stay, or special efforts on the part of a team. This doesn't mean financial awards, but do support positive efforts of managers to improve their staff.
Upgrade the skills of employees across all levels. Help managers improve with employees, establish a training program that provides both hard and soft skills. Useful areas that help managers appreciate better employees, include interpersonal communications, project management, resource planning, time management, and active listening.
Encourage a tiered training environment that shares teaching roles. Invest in outside training programs for a few team members on the condition they provide a workshop summarizing a key area of the program when they return. This translates outside knowledge to internal staff without the extra expense of training. Use brown bag luncheons, after work programs, and internal resources to share this new knowledge.
Budget workforce enhancements as you would capital upgrades. Just as you set aside funding for upgrading equipment, take the same effort in upgrades to the skills of your employees. Make available both corporate funds and departmental funds for training. Focus training efforts business objectives, but don't limit individuals only to training topics directly related to their current position.
By investing in your own employees you improve their productivity, increase their loyalty, and reduce your costs overtime. It is possible to lose this investment if they leave, but this is more cost effective than training new employees or functioning with less than adequate ones that don't regularly have their skills upgraded.
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