You may well at this point be asking yourselves what we mean by an accidental manager. Well in layman's terms, it's someone who has been promoted through the ranks because they are great at their particular specialism, eg, fab in IT, amazing at finance or an absolute bobby dazzler when it comes to payroll but where do they stand on people management?
It's very easy to make the assumption that because they are fantastic in any of the above areas, that they could be amazing in people management, but it's like a fine wine, it needs cultivating and takes time to fine tune.
If your area of expertise isn't around people management, how do you know how to manage a new employee coming onboard? How do you know that they need a contract of employment as a Day 1 right?
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the impact of an accidental manager, by unwittingly adopting poor people management practices, is costing employers £84 billion per annum.
So let's dig a little deeper.
What other issues can arise as a result of an accidental manager?
- Low Employee Morale - If employees aren't being managed effectively, it will be difficult for them to remain motivated and to deliver the results that you expect of them. Good people management practices involve praise where praise is due and the ability and confidence to give constructive feedback if employees aren't performing to the standard that is required of them.
- Voting with their Feet - Demotivated employees will more than likely leave your organisation, and as a result, this is going to incur a lot of unnecessary cost in having to train, develop and get the new recruit skilled up and this is going to cause delays in your service provision/production targets.
- High Sickness Levels - If poorly managed, this will impact on your employees' health and well being and may ultimately lead to work related stress. One study states that 77% of employees experienced physical symptoms of stress as a result of a bad manager. This can be avoided.
So what can you do about it?
The simple answer is to invest in resources which will provide your people managers with 'best in class' resources so that they can manage their teams with confidence.
We hope that you have found this information useful.
Our brilliant Cloud based HR software solution https://hrpulse.co.uk/home provides simple to use tools to help managers to manage their teams with confidence and reducing their stress levels!
For a helpful and informative demo, please email us at hello@hrpulse.co.uk