Managing and Leading a Team.
Managing people is about encouraging them to do their best work. It’s about being a good listener, an effective communicator, providing structure, and promoting learning and a healthy exchange of ideas. Managers’ success is measured not merely by individual contributions, but by effectively managing others. Managers train, mentor, inspire, lead, and motivate the team towards accomplishing the goals of the unit and organization as a whole.
Effective leaders need more than a good attitude; good management skills are also necessary. Effective leaders are not just expected to react and respond, but rather to take the initiative and generate action, ensuring the job gets done. Great leaders can inspire confidence in others.
Delegating
Delegation is a way to appropriately and consistently provide direction to staff. By delegating properly, managers enable employees to gain new skills and expertise to become more productive and self-confident, improving morale and motivation. Managers must assess the staff’s abilities and their potential to take on delegated assignments. Managers must be able to plan and coordinate properly and have the ability to monitor progress. Delegation relies heavily on a combination of management skills, including organization and planning, coordination, communication, motivation, and leading.
Communication and Feedback
Managers drive performance and hold employees accountable by helping them understand what is expected of them while gaining commitment to achieving those goals. When effective managers set goals and expectations, employees feel motivated to perform well because they can directly see how their efforts make a difference.
Performance Management
As detailed in Section IV, performance management is a year-round process, which results in an annual performance evaluation. Supervisors meet with their employees regularly throughout the year to review specific accomplishments, establish goals and objectives, and adjust goals based on workload or other changes in priorities.
There are three key components to performance management:
- Performance Planning – Establish goals and objectives
- Performance Coaching – Provide regular feedback on performance throughout the year, and assist staff in modifying performance where necessary
- Performance Evaluation – End-of-year formal documented performance review
Staff Awards and Recognition
As detailed in Section V.1, there are a number of ways to recognize staff for their contributions to the School. Managers are encouraged to recognize outstanding service throughout the year.
Promotions
A promotion recognizes an employee’s exemplary and sustained contributions to their role. Promotions may be appropriate when an employee advances to a position that has significantly changed in content and requires a higher level of responsibility and when the employee demonstrates the competency, skill, and knowledge needed to move up to the next level in their career path or job family. A salary increase is typically appropriate at the time of promotion, based upon an evaluation of relevant experience, performance, internal equity, and external competitiveness.
All promotions must be approved by the Associate Dean for Administration. When requesting a promotion, hiring managers must:
- Reach out to the Associate Dean for Administration and Finance to set up a meeting to discuss the potential promotion.
- Clearly define any new essential functions and a higher level of responsibility providing an updated job description and/or title.
- Upon concurrence by the Associate Dean for Administration and Finance, submit a position evaluation request through HR Compensation.
- Upon receipt of position grading/relevant compensation, effectuate the transaction in SAP and once all approvals are finalized in SAP, generate a promotion letter to the impacted staff member. (For available samples, please reach out to the Director of People Services.)
Please note that HR Compensation takes roughly two weeks to review the information submitted and make appropriate recommendations. Should you experience any delays beyond this time frame, please reach out to the Associate Dean for Finance and Administration.
Corrective Action
Corrective Action is a response by the employer to problems with employee performance or conduct. It may come in the form of a verbal or written reprimand or the loss of employee privileges. The purpose of corrective action is to turn around poor performance, lack of dependability, and poor conduct by continuing to identify problems, causes, and solutions.
The Associate Dean for Administration is available to assist managers in any instances where corrective action may be appropriate, liaising as appropriate with the University’s HR business partner.
All corrective actions must be kept confidential by the manager, the Associate Dean for Administration, and any other parties involved.
In carrying out corrective action:
- Make sure corrective action is the appropriate tool. Would coaching or performance appraisal be sufficient to get the employee’s attention?
- Make a careful assessment of the problem to determine whether corrective action is appropriate
- Provide specific examples of performance discrepancies or SPH policy violations, so the employee fully understands what needs correction
- Allow the employee ample opportunity to explain so that you have all the facts
- When taking corrective action, ensure it is commensurate with the violation
- Help the employee improve performance by providing specific recommendations and requirements, leading to measurable results
- Communicate clearly, so the employee understands the consequences of failure to improve performance or conduct
As a general rule, the corrective action should be just enough to get the employee’s attention. If there is no improvement or if repeat occurrences follow, the manager should consult the Associate Dean for Administration to determine if progressively more severe actions are appropriate.
Step 1: Verbal Counseling(s) Verbal counseling is generally the first step of corrective action. It is intended as a way for the manager/supervisor to notify an employee that their performance or conduct needs improvement.
The manager should meet privately with the employee to discuss the issue and determine if the employee was aware of the issue. The employee should be given ample time to explain their role and actions. Managers should guide the employee to use any available resources to resolve the issue.
The manager should maintain written documentation regarding the issue, the date on which the issue occurred, and the corrective action requested. This documentation should be emailed to the employee following the verbal conversation as confirmation of the discussion and any ensuing agreements.
In many cases, a verbal warning is sufficient for correcting an action.
Step 2: Written Warning(s) A written warning is generally the second step of progressive correction. A written warning provides notice to an employee regarding continued work performance issues or inappropriate workplace behavior that remain unresolved, despite the employee receiving verbal counseling.
The written warning should include information regarding the specific issue, the date on which the issue occurred, and the performance or behavior expected from the employee. Managers should work with the Human Resources Business Partner toward developing a written warning, including the Associate Dean for Administration, throughout such communications.
The manager should meet privately with the employee to discuss the issue and to provide a written warning to the employee. As appropriate, the manager should guide the employee to use available resources that may assist them in resolving the issue. The employee may also be referred to the Faculty/Staff Assistance Office or the Office of the Ombuds.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the employee should be asked to sign the written warning, indicating that they have read and understood the warning. The manager should explain to the employee that their signature does not constitute their agreement to the facts outlined in the warning letter, but rather their acknowledgment that the warning letter was discussed and presented to the employee on the referenced date. If the employee refuses to sign the written warning, the manager should indicate so on the written warning letter, appropriately dating and initialing. The written warning should be placed in the employee’s Personnel File, providing a copy to the employee via email with a carbon copy to the Human Resources Business Partner and the Associate Dean for Administration.
Step 3: Final Written Warning. The Final Written warning should be carried out in close consultation with Human Resources and the Associate Dean for Administration. The final warning letter should identify the issue in the employee’s performance, conduct or combination thereof, support the articulated gravity of such issue and clearly outline the resulting action to be undertaken by SPH Administration and University Human Resources.