Investing in Your Frontline Managers is Just Good Business

Within your company’s hierarchy, they’re your boots on the ground. Your peacemakers. Your interpreters. Your motivators. They’re your direct managers. 

Take a moment to think about how many frontline managers you employ, and how many team members they supervise. Most likely, the percentage will surprise you. An article in the Harvard Business Review reports that over 80% of a company’s employees are supervised by direct managers, who make up 50-60% of the overall managing staff within an organization. 

These often-underutilized team members can be transformed into the secret weapons of your company. In this blog post, we’ll look at four reasons why providing leadership training and development for your frontline managers is a sound business practice for any organization looking for growth, longevity, and financial success. 

Supportive Frontline Managers Retain Their Workers  

Recent findings from a Workday, Inc. survey spotlighted the critical role that direct managers play in the retention of their team members: nearly 80% of workers who felt understood and supported by their frontline supervisors reported that they planned to stay with their current employer. Leadership training can strengthen the emotional intelligence and communication skills of your direct supervisors, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars saved in recruiting and onboarding costs.

Informed Direct Managers Facilitate Innovation 

Direct managers possess a bird’s eye view of the customer experience, and they witness firsthand whether an organization’s processes and systems are performing as well as they appear on paper. When frontline managers are trained to analyze, problem-solve, and adapt, they can better negotiate their team’s roles while troubleshooting and providing valuable feedback regarding your company’s gaps, weaknesses, and blind spots.

Satisfied Frontline Managers Engage Their Employees 

When direct supervisors feel valued and respected by an organization they become company ambassadors, modeling loyalty and buy-in to their teams. Targeted leadership coaching provides actionable learning, giving direct supervisors increased job confidence and valuable additions to their career toolkits. Knowing that their company believes in them, frontline managers have more energy and initiative to boost the morale of their own teams. 

Skilled Direct Managers Manage More Effectively 

While a coaching management style may come naturally to some frontline managers, others may struggle with negative leadership traits that bog down productivity. When a direct supervisor knows how to instruct, listen, mediate, pitch new initiatives, and offer praise, their employees are freed up to fully focus on their jobs. Developing the management skills of your direct supervisors helps them create harmony within their teams, providing a positive atmosphere and setting an example that their workers can follow when interacting with their customers, and one another.

Despite their significant role, direct supervisors are often overlooked when it’s time to schedule development activities such as leadership training. This hardworking group of employees directly affects your company’s top and bottom lines, influencing retention, innovation, engagement, and morale. The potential of this large and crucial group of employees is great. Rather than considering whether or not to invest in leadership development for your frontline managers, it may be time to decide when.

Are your direct managers getting the leadership training and development they need? Contact us to book a discovery session today, and transform your direct managers into frontline leaders.