CIPD support for people managers: Introduction for people professionals

Extensive research shows that good people management is vital for employee health, wellbeing and engagement. For example, CIPD research found that poor management style is one of the main causes of work-related stress and there is considerable research showing the link between different management/ leadership approaches and employee health, wellbeing and engagement outcomes.

Being a manager is a busy and demanding role, yet managers are often time-poor and receive little people management training, so handling issues can prove challenging. Adopting a positive management approach will save time – by either preventing issues from arising or dealing with those that do arise early and effectively – and will bring many other benefits. 

Ensuring that managers are managing people well has a range of benefits for you and for your organisation.

First, when employees are healthy, engaged and performing, the organisation is likely to achieve better results: this might be in terms of productivity, customer/patient care, sales or financial returns. It may also be about better employee retention, reduced sickness absence or fewer grievances and disciplinaries. Better results and reduced costs are a source of success and satisfaction for the organisation, the employees and for you as a people professional. 

Second, within an organisation, each individual and team interacts with others in a dynamic, complex and adaptive way to create an ever-evolving system and culture. The management style of each manager and the health, wellbeing, engagement and performance of each employee are therefore part of the complex range of feedback loops and influences that make up the organisational system. Those who are managing people well can therefore create a positive series of feedback loops that support a positive organisational culture and a thriving organisation.

Third, when managers are managing in positive, healthy ways they can prevent people management issues from arising, so neither the people manager nor the HR team has to give time and energy to dealing with them. For example:

•    When a manager’s approach creates support and collaboration by building and sustaining relationships conflict between team members is less likely and people are likely to help one another out if needed. 
•    When managers provide people with clarity about tasks, expectations and how they are doing, the members of their team are less likely to focus on the wrong task, do things that are not wanted/intended, or get into a poor performance spiral. 
•    When managers’ behaviour is appreciative, positive, consistent, and kind, and they remain calm under pressure, team members are less likely to get stressed. 
•    When managers treat people fairly, openly and with respect, grievances and complaints are less likely to occur.
•    When people managers support people’s development, they are less likely to leave unexpectedly and leave you struggling to recruit in a hurry.

When people trust their manager, they are more likely to tell them about any work or with non-work challenges as soon as they start happening. Being able to address issues or refer people to appropriate support early on means they are less likely to escalate into major problems. This means that the manager is more likely to be able to handle the issue themselves and either not need input from HR or be able to seek support from HR early in the process. This will save you and them a huge amount of time – the time that gets wasted when dealing with such issues at a later stage when they have become more serious or difficult.

It is important to recognise that this is not just about what people managers are doing, but also the authenticity with which they do it. Whether a people manager’s behaviour is seen as authentic and supportive will depend on their attitudes, mindset, views and values. To be effective, managers need to have an attitude of genuine care, to listen deeply to each individual, to understand our common humanity, and to explore individual needs with respect, compassion and kindness.

Compassion, care and kindness are not about being soft or even liking everyone. You can be a professional manager and care – in fact, the best managers do care. 

To manage the range of people management issues they are likely to face managers need to feel confident to have sensitive, supportive conversations with team members. In addition, they may be managing people remotely and therefore relying largely on technology to build relationships and have supportive conversations. Capability in the key behaviours  outlined in these support materials, underpinned by an attitude of care, respect, compassion, wisdom and kindness, is a vital foundation for this. It will enable managers to take a positive approach, recognise different employee needs and manage in ways that are inclusive.

Managers cannot be expected to develop these capabilities – and the compassion and wisdom described above – purely by being given the title ‘manager’. Indeed, people skills are not always a consideration when someone is promoted into a management role. Managers are often left to learn on the job and may see people management as an added extra rather than core to their role. Instead, they need to be equipped for the role through development, training, coaching and support and enabled to see people management as a crucial part of their role.

CIPD research shows that improving managers’ people management capabilities is seen as increasingly important and is a high priority for organisations, but that too few organisations are providing managers with the development they need. People management training appears to be patchy at best, and often focuses on the legal aspects rather than behavioural people skills.

CIPD research identified a range of key factors that affect the success of management development programmes:

• A programme that unfolds over time (not just a one-off activity).
• Integration of the programme into the organisation’s culture and practices.
• Setting multiple challenging, but achievable, goals for participants.
• Senior leaders and managers being genuinely supportive of the programme.
• Opportunities for participants to apply their learning in their role.
• Participants valuing the learning opportunity.
• Participants being keen to be supportive of their team and acting with integrity.
• Participants being supported to feel confident in their management skills and in their learning from the programme.

Focusing on these factors can help create a supportive context for rolling out the people manager support materials as outlined below.

As a people professional, you can use these support materials to help people managers explore and develop their management capability. Your role will be to:

1. Understand the behaviours that support health, wellbeing and engagement
2. Set the context for management development.
3. Motivate people managers to use the materials.
4. Give people managers access to the support materials.
5. Support people managers on their development journey.

Research (funded by the CIPD and led by Affinity Health at Work) identified five key behavioural areas for people managers to support the health, wellbeing and engagement of those who work for them:

Being open, fair and consistent

This behaviour is about:

• Being positive and appreciative: taking a positive approach in interpersonal interactions, avoiding unhelpful criticism and blame.
• Respect and openness: treating everyone with respect, consulting people and being open to other perspectives.
• Remaining calm under pressure: managing emotions, pressures, deadlines and personal issues in order to stay calm and equanimous.
• Being consistent, fair and kind: managing with fairness, impartiality, kindness, integrity and consistency.

Handling conflict and people management issues

This behaviour is about:

• Conflict management: dealing with employee conflicts early, effectively and in an impartial manner, including following up as appropriate.
• Addressing people management issues: supporting people and addressing more severe issues, such as bullying.
• Appropriate support: seeking support for yourself and the team, using organisational resources.

Providing knowledge, clarity and guidance

This behaviour is about:

• Clarity about roles, expectations and feedback: demonstrating understanding of your own and employees’ roles, clarifying expectations and providing clear feedback.
• Guidance and advice: giving advice and guidance when appropriate and making time for people.
• Reliability: being decisive, following up on action points and taking responsibility for problem solving.

Building and sustaining relationships

This behaviour is about:

• Concern for wellbeing: showing empathy, concern and consideration for employees.
• Interest in individuals: taking an interest in employees as individuals.
• Sociability: interacting with employees in a friendly and sociable way.
• Availability: providing opportunities for employees to speak one-to-one.

Supporting development

This behaviour is about:

• Exploring and actively supporting development: taking time to discuss employees’ career development and actively supporting them to develop.
• Development opportunities: offering opportunities and arranging career progression and development for employees.

The organisational context in which management development takes place has a key impact on outcomes.

Examples of actions you may find helpful to create a supportive organisational context are:

• Exploring how best to integrate the manager behaviours with the organisation’s culture, vision, purpose, strategy and practices.
• Reviewing and/or setting clear standards and expectations of managers and their behaviour; and reviewing managers’ job demands to enable a focus on people management (not just operational tasks).
• Reviewing your organisational culture, structure, policies, processes and work environment to find ways to make them supportive of the key management behaviours and management development.
• Being aware that organisational change (for example, mergers, redundancies and cutbacks) can get in the way of managers being caring and supportive and doing all you can to mitigate the negative effect.

Being a people manager is a busy and demanding role, and managers are often time-poor. It’s important to create motivation and enthusiasm to encourage managers to use these support materials. 

Management development is more likely to be successful when participants are keen to be supportive of their team and value the learning opportunity. This means setting a context in which managers are aware of the benefits of supporting their team to be healthy and engaged, and of the value that developing their management behaviour can bring.

You may want to consider the following:

•    Make a business case for why employee health, wellbeing and engagement is important for performance and organisational success, and for why managers are vital in determining the health, wellbeing and engagement of those who work for them. 
•    Communicate how developing manager capability fits with the vision, purpose, strategy and culture of the organisation.
•    Engage and collaborate with people managers to get their input, ideas and advice on when and how to roll out the development programme, how to maximise buy-in and what support managers will need.
•    Make the whole organisation (not just the people managers) aware of the programme and of what you are aiming to do by developing managers’ capability. This will help build momentum and expectations that can engage and motivate managers.
•    Consider who is best to communicate initial information to the managers you aim to support. It might be helpful if a senior manager champion or someone from the people managers’ business area sends the first communication or gives a verbal introduction.
•    Consider how best to ‘launch’ the development programme. For example, would it be helpful to have a meeting with the people managers? Would an introductory webinar be helpful to take them through what is available?
•    Provide contextual information that situates the development programme within the people managers’ work (for example, particular market pressures, targets or challenges they are facing).

Share the following materials with people managers:

• Introduction for people managers: This outlines the vital role that managers play and how they can take a management approach that supports good health, wellbeing and engagement in their team. You can disseminate this to all people managers in your organisation.
• Behaviour alignment quiz: Share this quiz to help managers identify areas for development.
• Step-by-step guidance: This will help managers develop their management approach through a series of simple steps.
• Questions for reflection/feedback: These questions help managers reflect on their current approach and gather feedback to help plan development.
• Development exercises: These help managers carry out tasks to develop their behaviour across the five behavioural areas. 
• Action plan: This can help managers outline their development plan.  

Familiarise yourself with the materials before sharing them with people managers. You may find it helpful to play an active role in supporting people managers to access the materials, for example, by communicating regularly and directing them to each part of the materials. You could schedule emails, meetings or webinars to highlight each step in the process.

None of the steps in the process should take long. The recommendation is that a people manager plans in short bursts of time over a week or two to read the introduction, reflect and get feedback, identify strengths and development areas, and plan. They can then allow a few months to take the actions planned, before reviewing where they have got to, celebrating success and planning further actions.

As a people professional, you can play a vital role in supporting managers to find the time and maintain momentum. You can help remind and motivate managers to use the materials by providing a series of communications to tie in with the stages of the development process. It may be helpful to make at least some of these communications interactive, for example, individual or group meetings, coaching sessions, webinars or calls, as well as written emails and messages. Through these communications, you help make it clear that management development is a process that unfolds over time, not just a one-off activity.

Management development is more likely to be successful when it includes a range of methods, so you might want to consider:

• Setting up coaching and/or mentoring for managers to get individual support.
• Bringing managers together in action learning groups to enable them to support each other and hold one another to account.
• Exploring if there are any areas to develop and, for those areas, providing additional development input in the form of workshops, webinars or other activity.
• Offering support with anything that managers find challenging or confusing.

Building managers’ confidence in their management skills and in their learning from the programme will also be important, so it may be helpful to engage with the managers’ manager(s) to encourage them to give positive feedback about the progress the managers are making. 

Finally, it may be helpful to think about how you will measure and celebrate success. This might be through organisational metrics or through individual feedback when they achieve their goals. Helping the managers, their managers, their teams and others in the organisation see the beneficial effect of healthy, engaging manager behaviour can create a positive feedback loop that helps sustain usage and build the effectiveness of using the development programme over time.