Being a manager in the ever-evolving business world today comes with many challenges. Managers today are the leaders of change; they inspire the teams to accomplish the goals and objectives while guiding them and directing them through the process. And while leading the rest of the team and helping its members achieve individual and collective goals is often rewarding, the challenges of managers’ responsibilities may keep many up at night and cause them to lose sleep.
There are many issues that could occupy a manager’s mind; however, overcoming these are the top challenges managers often face on a daily basis.
Retaining the best talent
Human capital is the most valuable asset a modern company has today. The success of any company directly depends on its employees’ happiness and satisfaction, and employee loyalty should be at the core of any manager’s goals.
According to a study by McKinsey, only 7 percent of companies that believe they recruit valuable talent think they can keep it. The issue with employee retention is clearly recognized by a lot of managers: only 77 percent of managers and senior executives active on talent-related topics believe their current retention strategies won’t work.
What employees seek in their workspace is not just compensation; it’s a competitive but nurturing environment, trust and recognition from the manager, and exciting work that allows for personal and professional growth.
Amidst the work frenzy of a fast-paced day in the life of a manager, it’s hard to hold on to employees, especially the best ones. For this reason, managers should allocate time to show interest and involvement in their employees’ success and progress and motivate them to stay long term.
Managing remote employees
According to predictions by IDC, 72.3% of the total U.S. workforce will be considered remote. In times when co-workers are geographically dispersed across the globe and work in different time zones, it’s hard for managers to keep everything under control, let alone work with each employee individually.
Ironically, while lack of information and timeliness have been among the most widespread issues that remote workers have been dealing with, managers don’t always recognize the problem; 71% of managers believe they are well informed about company-wide news, while only 40% of employees think so — which shows a clear disconnect between the managers and their employees.
With the managers always on the go and traveling as well, lack of communication and clarity becomes an inherent problem despite all the technological tools that are meant to facilitate human interaction. So facilitating communication between team members, ensuring clarity and timeliness of shared information despite the logistical obstacles are major responsibilities of a manager today.
Conflicts within teams
Managers often find themselves amidst conflicts between their employees, and effectively resolving them and ensuring an uninterrupted workflow within teams and achievement of collective and individual goals. When conflicts are openly talked about and voiced, managers often happen to be in the difficult position of a “judge” in the situation, and the outcome of the dispute relies on their discretion and considerate decision-making.
However, there are also cases when the conflicts aren’t that obvious, but still take a toll on the productivity of the team’s work and the relationships between teammates. These “latent” conflicts, sensed by everyone but not openly spoken about, can have consequences as serious as decrease in revenue and even loss of a client.
One way around this issue is maintaining clear communication with the employees at all times, regardless of other responsibilities a manager might have. Managers must make employees feel comfortable and motivated to openly share their feelings and thoughts before they turn into conflicts, so that the team can avoid potential problems instead of dealing with their consequences after they surface.
Employee burnout
Just like in soccer, managers strategically allocate team members to different projects, effectively maneuvering and juggling different tasks at once. Besides efficiently attaining personal and company goals for different projects, managers are the ones responsible for matching each employee’s skill set with the requirements of a given assignment; however, there is so much more to a manager’s job than simply understanding the employees’ strengths and areas of expertise. It’s also about being perceptive enough to notice when employees work themselves out and need a change of responsibilities for excitement.
According to the study in the Employee Engagement Series conducted by Kronos Incorporated and Future Workplace, 95 percent of human resource leaders say that employee burnout has a negative influence on their workforce. The study included over 600 Chief Human Resource Officers, VPs of HR, HR directors, and HR managers from various companies; the results showed that nearly half of HR leaders ascribe up to half of employee turnover in their respective companies to employee burnout.
It’s important to make sure that the employee has the necessary skills to execute a project well; but it’s more important to also keep the team members motivated and excited by switching up their usual responsibilities, allowing them to strengthen their best skills and develop new ones in a new and unfamiliar environment — all with the help of a manager’s help and guidance.
Meaningful feedback
One-on-one communication with each and every employee is the key to success for any manager and, consequently, any company. The employees value constant feedback from their employees simply because it makes them feel valued and recognized — and gives them a chance to grow within their company.
As with the majority of other core issues, the lack of meaningful feedback from the manager’s side is rooted in the clarity and frequency of communication between managers and employees. Having chats with them regularly, openly discussing their successes and failures, and offering help with work and personal life show that managers care for the employees; and employees who feel like their managers care remain loyal and as a sign of thankfulness.
