With new technology bringing in continuous, disruptive changes, managers in the organizations are being given a lot more freedom and hence their tasks are getting broader. For managers to be successful, they need the support of their teams and hence it is extremely important that they take care of the team’s engagement, learning, motivation and career development. In that sense, every manager is an HR manager.
Managers require good people management skills for the smooth functioning of their respective departments. While it might sound like these are the responsibilities of the HR manager, line managers are also responsible to recruit the right talent, lead, facilitate, motivate and develop them. They are the ones responsible for the performance of the team and must hence be involved in all these processes. Getting the work done is primarily a line managers duty and they must possess adequate team management skills to be able to motivate the team and help them achieve maximum productivity.
With line managers becoming good people managers, some people might argue that it would make HR Managers redundant. However, line managers and HR managers need to work in sync to be able to function optimally. Line managers have important functional tasks to perform and managing people cannot become their primary duty, even though it is one of the most crucial parts of their responsibilities. Thus, HR managers have to be there to handle the HR processes and act as an advisor to line managers to help them with their people management goals.
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However, this is not an ideal situation always. Not all line managers have the required HR management skills. Even today, most managers assess interviewees on their abilities and only go as far as training the team members to develop technical competence to perform their job. When employees fail to perform, managers make action plan for them without assessing if they are motivated enough to perform in the first place.
It is often said that “People don’t leave jobs, they leave managers.” For a typical company, attrition costs 125% of the employee’s salary. To ensure that the teams are motivated and they get the right opportunities to grow, line managers need to demonstrate better team management skills.
In case of performance issues, only line managers can identify whether it is due to employee’s lack of ability or lack of motivation. They can do so by listening to the employee’s concerns and help them with more resources. A line manager can also identify the skill gaps in the team and find ways to fill them. Putting the team members through focused learning rather than general training programs can really help motivate the employees and make the team more functional. These demonstrate good people management skills and is almost indispensable for high growth teams and organizations.
While the HR leaders play a very crucial role in the well- being of employees, managers also need to take a lead to ensure that their team is motivated and their career progression is taken care of. It is the task of a manager to facilitate the performance of their team and help them develop not just functional but also leadership skills. A manager cannot get a job done if the team is not motivated enough. Thus, every manager is an HR manager first.
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