Managers are integral to the success of any organization, as they are on the front lines of noticing the performance (and burnout) trends that affect retention and attrition. However, especially with today’s trimmed-down corporate structures, management is increasingly being crushed between executive requirements, employee needs, and customer expectations. This article will explore the importance of documentation to help them navigate these issues.
How important are managers? A 2021 study by Arlington Research and Axonify revealed that 81 percent of employees who stay with their jobs are happy with their direct managers. As companies navigate the challenges of maintaining, developing, and recruiting talent, they need to provide knowledge, training, and support to the managers tasked with attracting and retaining talent.
Skills Gap Comes into Play
In the last several years, corporations have dealt with unprecedented resignation and hiring challenges – and are often relegated to hiring people based on urgent operational needs, not their proven ability to be a leader. While these hires may have proficiency and knowledge, they often do not possess the capability or necessary training to effectively support, engage and inspire a team.
For their part, these often-inexperienced managers have been expected to lead their teams through continual disruption and change, be it remote work structures or digital transformation – all while protecting the bottom line and adapting to changing customer behavior. Given how much stress a manager may experience from all directions, the organization must support their roles proactively.
What is Required
Today’s managers struggle to find the time to address the everyday needs of their team and the KPIs set forth by the company.
To successfully reach their goals and KPIs, seasoned managers cultivate a combination of technical skills and human/communication skills. But a manager must perform too many administrative duties while navigating a rapidly changing workplace. They often aren’t given the time or opportunity to concentrate on the human side of their job. Operational leadership must therefore find ways to help managers to navigate their time and capacity, whether through automation or delegation.
Leadership must also ensure that their managers are accountable for the right KPIs. If managers are only praised or reprimanded based on operational results (revenue), they will inevitably gravitate away from the human aspects of their job (motivation and education.)
Why Knowledge Documentation is Vital
While there are many solutions that a company can adopt for long-term management development and training, the fact remains that today’s managers need help.
Whether tracking down needed forms, addressing customer concerns or relaying the proper procedure for a task, managers need information – and they need it quickly. A corporate knowledge base accessible to all levels of the organization can significantly enhance problem resolution and team member questions.
Here are some ways that creating a company knowledge portal can help your managers at all levels to be more productive:
- By documenting FAQs, training videos, and policy manuals and making them accessible to employees, leadership can lift much of the administrative burden off of their managers.
- By aggregating a comprehensive knowledge base for reference, managers can be given more decision-making authority – allowing them to provide answers and move on.
- By providing online access to messaging forums, team members can help each other without the need to track down a manager, improving efficiency and building rapport.
- By developing a portal for feedback, suggestions, and recognition, employees can remain engaged and motivated even if working remotely.
- By offering online educational opportunities and career development, managers can learn the skills they need at their convenience and on their own schedule.
The KLONE Organizer is a system that enables more efficient daily workflows, delivers on-demand training, and provides a comprehensive knowledge library to engage, motivate, and support managers – and their teams.
KLONE enables you to:
- implement and align the workforce on new change priorities, new business initiatives, strategic plans, new programs
- automate and share the knowledge documentation and information needed to reinforce these initiatives and programs
- gather feedback from the workforce on implementation progress
Call KLONE today if you are ready to learn more about this powerful solution to support your employees’ development and productivity as you continue to pursue your growth objectives and achieve your business outcomes.