Don’t Leave Your Managers Out to Dry

Picture this: You’re a manager of a team of five employees. Your list of responsibilities seems to grow every day, but you find yourself spending more time in meetings and juggling requests from your team than you do checking off your own to dos. To top it off, Joe, the employee you’ve always counted to meet deadlines and produce quality work, is showing up late nearly every day. He also seems more engaged with his cell phone that he does with his own work. Another member on your team has started to complain that Joe’s inability to finish projects on time has placed a burden on the rest of his colleagues. Now, not only are you dealing with a distracted employee but also a team that feels overworked and annoyed.

Everyone knows managing people can be tough. It requires skills that can take time to develop—communication, problem-solving, motivating, listening—and comes with a whole new list of priorities. And now more than ever, the responsibility of employee engagement is falling on the shoulders of managers and supervisors and not on human resource departments. Gallup finds that “managers account for at least 70% of variance in employee engagement.”

Couple this with high demands for employee productivity, managers are left with their backs against the wall when they encounter issues like distracted employees. Who do managers turn to when they don’t have the experience to handle these difficult situations?

HR departments have the opportunity to support their managers and supervisors when they are struggling to find solutions to issues like distracted working and low productivity. In addition to serving as mentors, HR can encourage their organizations to invest in programs that keep employees engaged and focused while at work.

WorkLife Partnership is uniquely positioned to support workers when they encounter real-life issues that keep them from being their best at work. Our expert Navigators often engage with workers at some of the most difficult times of their lives: impending evictions, utility shut-offs, and inability to afford food for themselves and their families. A partnership with WorkLife gives managers someone to turn to when they’re noticing signs of distracted working—which may often be a result of issues that are out of a manager’s control.

Learn the signs of distracted working.

HR departments: Don’t leave your managers out to dry. By making investments in your workforce through programs like WorkLife, you’re giving managers the resources they need to keep their employees engaged and productive.

Interested in learning more about a partnership with WorkLife? Contact us today.