Best Practices Manual for Supervisors
Student
SUPERVISION AND LEADERSHIP
George Reinoehl
July 19, 2008

Contents

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................3

PART ONE: COMMUNICATION SKILLS ..............................................................5

PART TWO: ORIENTATION AND TRAINING .......................................................7

PART THREE: PRODUCTIVITY ............................................................................10

PART FOUR: PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS .....................................................12

PART FIVE: RESOLVING CONFLICTS .................................................................14

PART FOUR: EMPLOYEE RELATIONS ................................................................16

PART FOUR: REFERENCES .................................................................................18

Introduction

“Best Practices” is a term that has spawned in the business world in past recent years that explains what the best processes are and why these processes should be adhered too. Best Practice is defined as “a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has been proven to reliably lead to a desired result.” (Whatis.com, 2008) Within management best practices, there are five important components: Skills, Processes, Solutions, Resources, and Improvement. Dissemination is what allows best practice programs to impact an organization in a positive and productive manner. This ensures that all employees, not just a select few, understand the expectations of the organization.

Best practice tools and measurements seem to pinpoint on the individual more so than the overall group, which is what gives these programs and initiatives such strength. When an overall group receives information that is vast and overviews the group’s responsibilities, the message can sometimes get lost in translation. Best practices focus more on the tasks of individuals which is a more direct approach with a more direct message that targets the root of the organization. This direct approach facilitates immediate feedback for workers and gives the employee a sense of where they are in their performance and exactly what they need to accomplish to improve. Under the responsibilities of management, a foundation for best practice measures is the supervisor’s or manager’s ability to distinguish the difference in average work production versus outstanding work production as well as to set the expectations of the organization and enforce that these expectations are met be all employees. This best practice manual will illustrate best practice measures primarily in six areas:

1. Demonstrating Communication Skills
2. Determining Effective Orientation and Training Methods
3. Improving Productivity for Teams
4. Conducting Performance Appraisals
5. Resolving Conflict
6. Improving Employee Relations

Communication Skills
When you mention communication, you are identifying a skill. With this said, it is an absolute that you understand first and foremost that not everyone possesses this skill and that some employees will have to learn to communicate effectively. This is a crucial asset in the best practice initiatives that can pose some potential hurdles to overcome. The main focus for each department of a business is to be productive and succeed within the business. Poor communication can cripple the output of a department team and strain the overall success of that team, producing negative results and a negative atmosphere for the workers on that team.

Why is improving communication important?
Coworkers need to know where they stand so that they can constantly improve on a daily basis and not become stagnant in their job routines. When the worker knows what is expected of them and know where they fit into the overall scheme of the business, they will have a much better work experience and will tend to achieve higher results since they are positively motivated. This can only add to the work environment for everyone involved and create a positive atmosphere. We all want to be satisfied with our jobs and careers and it is everyone’s responsibility to create this environment. Communication is the foundation for these results.

Communication Practices
1. Hold communication status meetings with your team weekly.
Utilizing status meetings with your team will keep the lines of communication open between you and your subordinates. Having weekly sessions will keep initiatives and responsibilities fresh in the minds of the team and will provide a forum for any questions or concerns of the team. This can be either a team or individual forum. Individual status meetings can be the platform for any exchanges of information or to deliver performance/ behavior concerns. This format will offer direct feedback to the person instead of utilizing email or written performance reviews.

2. Uphold an open door policy for your subordinates and co-workers to foster communication and partnerships.
If employees feel that they can come to you at anytime, for any reason, this will promote the positive feeling that any issue that arises during the day to day process, they can come and express any concerns with you to either reach an answer or compromise, or at the very least, have the ability to be heard and have their concerns considered. This is a very important factor for the job satisfaction for workers. Not everything stays positive during the work day, but listening to the workers concerns can help them to vent any problems they are experiencing and contribute to the balancing of issues and concerns to maintain a positive work environment.
Orientation and Training
When a business hires and employee and welcomes them to the team, orientation is the format that is used to introduce the company to the new employee. Orientation is defined as “an introduction, as to guide one in adjusting to new surroundings, employment, activity, or the like”. (Dictionary.com, 2008) Orientation is, in essence, the business’s first impression on the employee. First impressions are an important phase for the employee’s perspective on the company. It is important for the company to relate their processes and expectations along with company guidelines and initiatives. Basically, the company needs to convey their way of doing business and what they expect of their employees. After the orientation process, it is time to train the employee on how to perform their job accurately and efficiently. Training is the single most important phase for a new employee. If the worker is not trained properly, then the worker simply cannot meet the expectations of the company. Training is defined as the “education, instruction, or discipline of a person”. (Dictionary.com, 2008) Training is a process and does not happen over one setting. It is important to set training schedules for employees that have just joined the company team and to have a trainer specified to assist and document their progress.

Orientation and Training Practices
1. Organize a company orientation for new hires that deliver the company message, initiatives and expectations.
Partner with your Human Resource representative to develop an orientation manual to deliver at every orientation. This will maintain consistency with every orientation and ensure that every new team member receives the same message. The orientation should cover the mission statement of the company, what the company intends to accomplish in the future, and give a brief explanation of the company’s history. This will give the new employee a sense of connection with the company and a better understanding of the company.

2. Facilitate a hands on training experience for the new employee to demonstrate the task that will be performed by the employee.
First, assign the new employee a trainer that will demonstrate and document the progress of the new employees training. “Hands on” training is the absolute best form of training for any new team member. Second, have the new employee shadow their trainer as they perform the job in the working environment. This will give the new worker the ability to see the job being performed and visualize how it should be performed. Third, have the trainer review the job responsibilities with new worker to ensure that the worker fully understands the responsibilities. This will also foster an opportunity for the worker to express any concerns or questions. Last, have the trainer ask questions that require more than just a yes or no answer to further ensure their understanding of the responsibilities.

Productivity
Performance is a big focus for the focus of best practice initiatives. Best practices aim to increase their worker’s performance and the quality of the work from the workers. Productive is defined as “producing readily or abundantly”. (Dictionary.com, 2008) In the business world, productivity means profit. For a business to succeed, it must produce positive results and meet the expectations of demand. If the company has low productivity output, it cannot meet these demands therefore low productivity will strain or diminish profits.

Improving Productivity Practices
1. Hold communication status meetings with your team weekly.
Utilizing status meetings with your team will keep the lines of communication open between you and your subordinates. Having weekly sessions will keep initiatives and responsibilities fresh in the minds of the team and will provide a forum for any questions or concerns of the team. This can be either a team or individual forum. Individual status meetings can be the platform for any exchanges of information or to deliver performance/ behavior concerns. This format will offer direct feedback to the person instead of utilizing email or written performance reviews.

2. Uphold an open door policy for your subordinates and co-workers to foster communication and partnerships.
If employees feel that they can come to you at anytime, for any reason, this will promote the positive feeling that any issues that arise during the day to day process can be dealt with accordingly without becoming a massive issue. This also gives the workers the feeling that they are heard and listened to which will give them the sense of being respected and appreciated which, will in turn; add toward maintaining a positive work center.

Performance Appraisals
Performance is always trying to meet expectations set by the company or business. The supervisors must give both positive and negative feedback to their subordinates to insist that expectations are being met, and in other instances, reward those that exceed expectations. Negative reviews or appraisals are never easy for a supervisor to deliver. This type of situation directly relates to a supervisor’s communication skills and courage to develop their subordinates to the standard that is expected.

Performance Appraisal Practices
1. Develop your skills as a supervisor so that you can acknowledge the differences in work performance; Poor, Average, Excellent, or Outstanding.
Under the responsibilities of management, a foundation for best practice measures is the supervisor’s or manager’s ability to distinguish the difference in average work production versus outstanding work production as well as to set the expectations of the organization and enforce that these expectations are met be all employees. This task should not just be based off of the supervisor’s opinion alone. The supervisor should utilize intelligence based measurements such as company output reports and other related reports to apply statistical facts to their overall calculations of their subordinate’s performance decisions.

2. Deliver performance appraisals in person rather than through alternate measures such as emails, telephone, etc.
One of the toughest positional responsibilities a supervisor must tackle is giving performance reviews to a subordinate that challenge their work performance. These appraisals should always be delivered by the supervisor in person and directly to the subordinate. This practice offers professionalism and credibility. This will also offer the subordinate to ask questions and possibly challenge any appraisals that they feel are not warranted. Two people that are not on the same page cannot achieve the positive performance that is required. So having these simple conversations can help to square up the expectations and any questions the subordinate may have so that when the meeting is over, there are no questions as to what the expectations are.

Further, the tone in which these appraisals are delivered must be professional and unbiased. Supervisor must separate themselves from emotion and deliver the expectations to the subordinate in a non-threatening manner. Tone of voice and language used are key elements to how a message is received by the subordinate and must be acknowledged by the supervisor and become a skill strength.

Resolving Conflict
Conflicts in the workplace offer adverse effects within the operation and productivity of the business. The ability to effectively resolve any conflicts that arise in the workplace is crucial. The simple truth is, not everyone sees eye to eye, every time, on everything. There will always be disagreements and conflicts in the workplace in one form or another. How the situation is resolved will determine how well the workers can recover and return to business as usual.

Resolving Conflict Practices
1. When a conflict presents itself, foster a meeting with the both sides of the conflict and solicit that each side communicate the problem from their prospective. This should be the first step in any conflict situation. This process allows coworkers the options to communicate and get their perspectives out in the open as well as what they would like to see done to resolve the issue. Communication is the strongest tool to rectify conflict of any nature. Sometimes all it takes is a simple conversation and sometimes the situation may require deeper actions. The fact is it all starts with communicating and discussing the problem. Only then can measures be taken to resolve the issue that is problematic.

2. Solicit compromise by holding an open conversation with all of the parties involved and discuss multiple options or solutions, not just one simple solution.
Offering many different options and accepting feedback and ideas from those on both ends of the conflict conveys a since of “team effort” to resolve the issue at hand. This should be the format for every meeting dealing with conflict to position the conversation to produce the best option in a timely manner.

Employee Relations
Employee Relations is defined as the “body of work concerned with maintaining employer-employee relationships that contribute to satisfactory productivity, motivation, and morale”. (Dictionary.com, 2008)
Improving Employee Relations Practices
1. Develop a strong bias for ethics and integrity within your company. Devotion to moral and ethical principles is what makes a company or business great. At the beginning and end of every day, we are all the same and we all have the same rights. With the workplace now my gender integrated than ever, diverse with all types of ethnic backgrounds, ethics must be adhered to within any organization. A business must also set strong ethical regulations to protect their employees from being victimized by such acts as sexual harassment or racial slurs. Integrity must also be in place in any business to uphold confidentiality and build trust with staff and management.

2. Conduct business in such a way that promotes mutual respect no matter of the circumstance.
Nothing good can come from a disrespecting attitude within the work environment. Workers should always show a sense of respect to one another no matter what the circumstance might be. With a strong bias set towards respecting one another in place, this will set a solid foundation to work, communicate, and coexist together in harmony. Respect should be viewed as the fundamental basis for all other aspects in the business world and the working environment.

References

Aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu (2006). Employee Orientation & Training. Retrieved on July 17th from http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/greenhouse/nursery/guides/safety/chapter/chapter4.html
Dictionary.com (2008). The American Heritage. Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved on July 17th from www.dictionary.com
Gerson, V. (2002) Resolving Conflict in the Workplace. Retrieved on July 17th from http://www.nfib.com/object/3455177.html
McGraw-Hill Companies (2004). Rue: Supervision, Eighth Edition. I. Foundations of Supervision. Retrieved on July 18, 2008 from mgt210_week1_reading1[1].pdf
Whatis.com (2008). Best Practice. Retrieved on July 17th from
http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid92_gci498678,00.html