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Being a new HR Manager in the construction and engineering industry, I am finding people are doing things the hard way. Particularly when it comes to managing people. I guess I have to say I’ve been fortunate to be well managed during my career and have endeavoured to manage well, learning as I go and making small improvements.

So, I think I can be reasonably well qualified to offer some thoughts to those people struggling with getting things right with their teams.

The list isn’t exhaustive but I can almost guarantee an improvement in morale and productivity if these 5 ideas are followed religiously. Ok, let’s see how we go…

1. Plan to acknowledge people - get it into your head now that people like a pat on the back, a thank you, an acknowledgment of some kind on a regular basis. I don’t care what you want. They want it. I have interviewed people who leave our company, I have facilitated sessions on staff development and this comes up time after time. The thing is, you don’t always have to throw money. In fact, you rarely do. So stop. Throwing money is easy but ineffective. It doesn’t connect you with your staff - it actually highlights a certain lack in management ability. People know it, people will respond to it. Pay enough attention to what your team is doing and be quick to let people know you noticed something good about their effort today.

2. Create clear objectives - This may sound easy, maybe it is, but my experience is it is not done often enough. Clear objectives means being specific about what you want the outcome to be. That may mean spending time thinking through exactly what you want in the first place. I was speaking with a manager the other day who rewards performance based on hours spent at work! To me it is obvious you would reward people for what they produce - and you can only measure that by knowing what you want done.

3. Set a Quality Standard - be clear about how you want the work done. It’s not good enough today to “just get it done!” It has to be quality and people have to see the quality. Otherwise it just doesn’t count. Maybe you’re looking at error rates, re-work, presentation, longevity of the product. Whatever it is for your product, specify it with your team. They will work towards the standards set down - if they are clear.

4. Deadlines - all these things combine together to be completed within a set time frame. If it’s not done on time, what slowed it down? Was the time frame reasonable? Was the team member adequately trained? Were other areas responsible for the slow down? You have to know these things as a manager and as a competent leader. People need to know all the parameters of a job. Many times it is really a lack of management ability that causes these problems. And yet the staff are blamed for poor performance.

5 . Pick the Right Person - speaking with a colleague the other day and they were bemoaning how their work was distributed. It was given to junior, inexperienced staff first (supposedly to help them develop) and then to be corrected by senior staff. Sounds okay but the pressure on senior staff became unbearable. Times frames became short, work had to be re-done which wasn’t properly calculated into the job. Longer hours, lower morale - poorer productivity. Get the right people to do the right tasks and develop the others as you go.

Once the job is completed, go back to Step 1.

Take Action

Try these 5 rules for 1 month.

Make your appreciation genuine, work hard on clarity. You will see an improvement in your team. Over time you will also see a reduction in stress and micro managing.

That’s when management really becomes enjoyable.

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