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Are you taking the leap from staff member to manager?
Managers earn higher salaries and may even receive additional benefits at work. However, managers are tasked with different responsibilities than team members.
Pretend you’re managing a retail store.
While subordinates are responsible for their individual roles and teamwork efforts, you’re expected to delegate duties, prepare deposits, maintain vendor relationships, and implement corporate policies.
Another primary role of your job is managing employees effectively, and assigning duties is just the beginning.
Learn how to manage employees and increase productivity in this must-have guide for new managers!
Scheduling Your Employees
Scheduling may seem like a simple task on its surface, but it does take planning.
Let’s go back to the retail store example.
It’s perfectly normal for some days to be busier than others. Suppose your store’s most active day is Saturday, while Monday may be the slowest day. These patterns are also common in the restaurant industry.
Since Saturdays are busy and Mondays are slow, which day requires the most staff? You’d be surprised by how often managers over and under schedule employees.
Okay, so you overstaffed the store on Monday. What’s the big deal? The store still made money, right?
Yes and no.
Yes, the store may have generated some sales, but those sales were not enough to cover the day’s payroll.
What if you under schedule Saturday, the busiest day? How bad would that be?
While customers flocked to the store on Saturday, you still lost quite a bit of money.
Many customers left because there weren’t enough employees to help them. Since the lines were so long, your staff didn’t have enough time to upsell or deliver personalized customer service.
How to Manage Employees and Schedules
Several other issues can arise from poor scheduling practices, like changing an employee’s schedule without telling them. Bad communication will throw any schedule off-track.
There are different ways to approach scheduling; however, size plays a crucial role.
If you have a small staff, you could get away with traditional paper schedules, but don’t schedule without looking at sales reports first. As you learned earlier, you need enough staff to drive sales on busy days.
Traditional pen and paper scheduling may work for five or fewer employees, but digital alternatives are more manageable. Even five is too much to handle without some type of software.
Use Employee Management Software
As a manager, you have a lot on your plate. You’re only human, and details quickly slip through the cracks. Fortunately, there are software solutions that catch and manage details for you.
There’s employee management software for nearly every niche, from medical to SaaS. While different software products reflect the needs of respective industries, there are some general similarities between products.
For example, like EAP software, most employee management programs come with built-in timesheets and contractor billing; these features are essential for scheduling and payroll.
Some management software comes with customer relationship management (CRM) features. These features generate, interpret, and apply customer data for maximum sales. Sharing this data with employees helps them achieve sales targets quicker.
For example, suppose customer data shows that the majority of your customers are parents of young children. This revelation is an excellent sales opportunity! Come July, run a summer sale and instruct employees to upsell customers on back-to-school items.
Hiring and onboarding new employees is another crucial role of a manager. Luckily, employee management software has you covered. Simply generate, print, and process as many employee forms as you need, including W2 documents, legal forms, food safety forms, employee handbooks, and more.
Suppose you’re a project manager or department manager at a tech company. Consistent communication is essential for tech product development; thus, managers should take full advantage of SMS notifications, meeting booking, email alerts, and more software features.
Finding Talent
Most managers are responsible for onboarding talent, while HR professionals or recruiters find talent. However, managers at small businesses are often tasked with finding new employees, as well.
Managers don’t recruit employees like professional recruiting agencies. Instead, you would write a job ad and post it on popular job-seeking sites, like Indeed, Monster, or even Craigslist. Job-seekers email their resumes, generating a large pool of applicants.
The next phase is the interview process. Select the best resumes and contact applicants for interviews. Ask questions that reveal their problem-solving skills, emotional intelligence, teamwork abilities, experience, and innovation.
Hiring the best employees takes time. Unless you have a small staff, consider outsourcing this task to an experienced recruiter. HR pros can also manage these tasks.
Motivating Employees
Productivity is crucial for any business, whether you’re selling directly to businesses or consumers. You need a motivated sales team that lands new accounts and a production staff that keeps the gears rolling.
Sluggish productivity is a red flag; it could mean that your employees are unmotivated, distracted, frustrated, or even unhealthy. Managers must spot and address red flags before production gets worse.
Fortunately, you can supercharge productivity in several ways!
Implement attractive incentives that encourage employees to work harder, produce more, and improve quality.
You could reward sales teams for hitting targets or provide holiday bonuses for mega Black Friday sales. Test out different rewards, like gift certificates, bonuses, team lunches, and electronics.
Employee wellness is another factor to consider.
Fatigue, poor nutrition, dehydration, and exhaustion all contribute to productivity problems. These issues weaken immune systems, leading to more viruses and sick days.
Combat wellness woes with the following ideas:
- Seasonal employee retreats
- Weekly wellness emails
- Corporate wellness programs
- Outdoor lunch areas
- Healthy on-site snacks
- Break rooms
- Motivational quotes
- Water coolers
Encourage employees to bring healthy lunches and take walks to improve blood circulation, too.
Interpersonal issues can also damage morale, which impacts mental health.
Thankfully, improving wellness and incentives cuts down on employee conflicts. However, toxic employees should be dealt with accordingly to preserve a healthy work environment.
Flex Those Management Skills
You can’t learn how to manage employees perfectly overnight, but you can give yourself an excellent headstart.
Remember these tips and tricks as you improve your management skills, and check out the blog for more indispensable lifehacks!
