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Staff Management for a better performance (View Comments)
Priya C Nair
Posted On Friday, December 28, 2007 at 06:35:00 PM
“A human resource team monitor or mentor or counsel for employees, is not sufficient to fill in the gaps. Today smart companies are devising smarter ways to ‘catch the pulse’ of employees and hence some of them are resorting to concepts like Staff Management or Employee Mentoring,” opines Archana Prakash, Director, PeopleTree HR Services Private Limited.
What is Staff Management?
“Staff management is a concept which helps staff to have a single point of contact in the organisation to manage all issues impacting or influencing them. It is also considered as an advanced form of mentoring. Every staff member has a staff manager – a friend, philosopher and guide throughout the employee’s journey with the company,” explains Sushil Tayal, HR Director, LogicaCMG.
Staff management is a network of managers whose task is to look after the human side of the talent management. They are trained managers who also discharge the normal duties as business leaders or managers. All staff managers are highly networked and interact constantly to ensure that every staff member has uniform experience.
All staff managers are trained in mentoring and in handling various issues and situations. Staff management is practiced on a day-to-day basis in the company and though line managers may change, staff managers will always be aware of the employee’s journey in the company irrespective of project/ role changes.
Staff members are assigned staff managers from the day they join the company to the day employment comes to an end. The objective of a staff manager is to understand, communicate and align business and individual needs and capabilities in order to promote both business growth and personal and career development.
"Staff managers are expected to provide career guidance, clarity on company process and policies, inputs for performance reviews, help maximise utilisation, maximise motivation and retention. Staff managers are encouraged to meet and speak to their consultees as often as possible – especially if they are working onsite. There are also informal outings that provide forums for exchange of views and information,” says Tayal.
To increase transparency to the entire system, the activity can be drawn up between departments, with the mentor not necessarily being from the same team or the employee’s own supervisor or reporting manager. “The companies that adopt these concepts need to have their HR teams drive the activity to ensure that it is actually practiced and not just theoretically preached,” cautions Prakash.
The Benefits
The concept of staff management helps to ensure that employees feel a part of the organisation and that their needs are taken care of. This helps in close bonding with the company and keeps attrition under control.
“Employees at all levels who participate in the mentoring process gain mutual understanding and a bond that transcends day-to-day deliverables and stresses. Mentors are given room to step back and reflect on their own approaches, and invariably use the time to reflect on whether or not they are ‘practicing what they preach’. Employers benefit by having a greater level of trust between rungs of the organisation, as by the spillover effect of having a more open, communicative work culture,” says Robin Lloyd, VP and GM, Lionbridge
“The process results in a complete win-win situation in which the employee learns his strengths, weaknesses and areas for development along with the most important factor that his employer ‘cares’. The ‘mentor’ develops upon his people management skills which groom him/her to become a better manager and in the process help himself arrive at mature conclusions on his own performance, aspirations and opportunities,” adds Prakash.
Making the employees feel that they are part of the organisation is the most important thing. With lesser number of dissatisfied employees around, firms can easily get into higher productivity and retention. As Tayal puts it, “Staff management is our way of proactively ensuring that employees feel a part of the organisation and that their needs are taken care of. This results in a close bonding with the company and helps keep attrition under control. Our experience so far has been that effective staff managers generate higher engagement which results into higher productivity and retention”.
(Please send in your comments/queries to priyac.nair@timesgroup.com)
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