Middle Managers Need To Be Empowered: Experts

Research from Hay Group shows that an employees' immediate manager shapes 70 percent of their experience of work. Therefore, senior human resource personals say the management should focus on middle-managers and provide them with all the help and support they need.  

But why is that? Explains Pallavi Tyagi, CHRO, Capgemini India: “A manager's leadership style has more meaning to employees than company benefits, peer relationships, project work, and even CXOs. Thus, the best thing we can do is to focus on the middle-managers and give them the support they need. This will help enhance the employee experience and thus employee engagement levels within the organization.” 

Agrees Kaushik Chakraborty, Director- Human Resources, Savills. He said empowering the mid-level managers may be the best way for companies to navigate the current crisis. It will also make the companies “future-ready”. Take the example of coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the morale of rank and file across companies. “Most organizations felt the impact of pandemic thereby affecting the morale as well as productivity of employees,” says Chakraborty. So, what did companies do? “This made organisations constantly motivate the first or mid-level managers to empower them while constantly sowing the seeds of positivity within the employee base. It is the best way for companies to navigate the current crisis and be more future-ready,” he added.  

So, what are some of the more realistic ways of empowering the middle-management and the employees? BW Businessworld reached out to some HR Experts to find out their take. Here are some of the findings:  

Heart to Heart Connect: The new age leaders finds potential in heart to heart (H2H) approach. Logic-driven head-to-head connect (H2H) has been replaced by emotion-driven heart space. Future leaders are the ones who take decisions from the heart and not from head anymore. 

Being compassionate: Leaders who will be successful in the future are the ones who display more compassion in this new normal. Its compassion will drive organizations to earn long-term loyalty from their employees. 

Maintaining Flexibility: In these uncertain times, managers and leaders cannot display any form of rigidity in their actions or while making any decisions. Flexibility will be the key trigger for success in the post-pandemic era. 

People First: In order to take a step towards a successful and progressive new normal in which people are given the tools and resources they need to be healthy, creative, and safe; we have to start with the basics: put people first. 

Recognition of efforts: As we know, the best work can be done when humans feel included, safe to learn, contribute to their organization. Hence, it is of paramount importance to recognize everyone.

Experts agree that the process of empowering your employees can never be fixed and left on the automatic setting. “Leaders have a long way to go, the need is to study to understand the culture of the organisation better and the behavior of individuals deeply to attain a certain level,” said another CHRO.