The top-3 reasons driving dissatisfaction with direct supervisors
How often have you heard the phrase “you don’t quit your job, you quit your boss?” Well, in the Finance & Insurance industry, it seems like people sure are looking to quit their bosses.
When we asked employees to rate the performance of their supervisors, less than 50% reported being truly satisfied with the caliber of their manager.
The question, of course, is why? What factors lead to general dissatisfaction with direct supervisors? Employees offered candid responses to their ratings, resulting in three clear factors rising to the top:
1) Poor communication style
2) Doesn’t allocate time to their employees and teams
3) Doesn’t allocate time to their employees’ personal development
What skills do you want your managers and leaders to have? When promoting from within, take that question to heart and assess candidates on the variety of characteristics that make supervisors truly effective:
- Ability to be a mentor: As future managers, you’ll want any prospect to have the ability to lead their team. Consider moments where an individual has mentored others or perhaps helped fellow colleagues learn a new tool or program. All of these are examples of an individual open to becoming the guide that younger employees expect.
- Ability to handle conflict with grace: Working across functional teams, geographies, and seniority levels can be tough. An individual that manages such situations with ease is likely someone that can also handle the additional stresses of managing a team.
- Ability to communicate well: Employees want clear goals and expectations, and senior leaders want a clear understanding of the challenges facing their business. Seek out individuals that are able to connect with colleagues effectively and openly.
- Ability to get the job done: While this should go without saying, favoritism has no place in the workplace. No matter how much an employee is liked, it is critical that they are ready, willing, and able to work hard and meet their objectives.
2. Assess If Existing Managers Are Meeting Employee Needs
How good are your leaders at managing others? Do you know? Do you even have a way of finding out? If you aren’t using employee engagement surveys to gauge employee satisfaction with supervisors, it’s time to start.
Consider some of these questions found in TINYpulse. With easy scale or yes/no questions, you can quickly assess at a glance how your managers are performing.
TINYPULSE QUESTIONS TO ASSESS MANAGERIAL STRENGTHS
• “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the performance of your direct supervisor?” You’ll want a topline view of managers and their general performance. You can always probe deeper with subsequent questions, but setting a general benchmark lets you know what to optimize against.
• “Has a supervisor given you any recognition in the past two weeks?” As we already discussed, workplace recognition and appreciation are crucial for employee satisfaction. Managers that fail to understand this will fail their employees overall.
• “Do you feel comfortable providing upward feedback to your supervisor?” Healthy relationships require back-andforth conversations, and the manager-subordinate one is no exception. You’ll want to gauge how comfortable employees really are with their supervisors.
• “Do you feel that your manager has clearly defined your roles and responsibilities and how they contribute to the success of the organization?” Workplace satisfaction also comes from meeting and achieving objectives. If managers fail to set clear goals for their employees, their team will never know what to work towards.
Just keep in mind, negative scores don’t mean it’s time to fire people. Rather, they can serve as a foundation to know where issues exist and where additional attention is needed to improve workplace interactions.
