Leader and Manager Overload: What Can Be Done to Counter It?

Employee development is one common challenge for HR leaders. It is becoming commonplace that employees seek a career with advancement opportunities, instead of a job that pays the bills. Not to mention the ever-changing climate that is business today. HR leaders need to remain vigilant in providing development opportunities to employees, and often leaders and managers are overlooked. The expectations put on the company leaders have outgrown the capacity of the position since the pandemic. According to Gartner, 75% of HR leaders have managers who are overwhelmed by the growth of their work-related responsibilities. Along with 73% reporting that their organization’s leaders and managers aren’t equipped to lead change. How can organizations bridge the development gap?

When Training Won’t Help

Organizations are quick to provide their workforce with better skill development programs, better health programs, the newest tools and technology to help with productivity and time management, and even more. Skills development can help build expertise and the skills required to complete the daily tasks of the position. However, leaders and managers today are faced with problems that additional training and skills are not the answer to. As per Gartner, the average manager today has 51% more responsibilities than they can handle effectively. Managers are also suffering from a lack of motivation for the job, with 1 in 5 managers who would prefer to not be people managers if given the choice.

Bridging the Gap

Many organizations are realizing that traditional manager development tools and programs are falling short. The top organizations have started to look at the job itself and are evolving the job by applying the following four critical actions.

• Reset Role Expectations: In the current climate, post-pandemic, the manager role has become more focused on flexibility with the hybrid, global, and remote teams, empathy, and prioritizing the individual well-being of their teams. These new responsibilities of the manager’s role compete directly with the daily operational tasks that they must also manage. One way to reset the role expectations is to empower the organizational leaders with the ability to connect employees with peers or others for coaching and development.
  • Peer Mentoring: It is a supportive relationship between colleagues of similar experience and status. These peer mentoring relationships focus on mutual growth, sharing insights, problem-solving, and providing emotional and professional support. Peer monitoring will aid in building a collaborative workforce and creating a culture of continuous learning within the organization.
• Rebuild Manager Pipeline: Succession planning is becoming increasingly essential to the health of the organization. Organizations can ensure there is a pipeline of future managers by encouraging aspiring managers to utilize self-discovery and exposing them to the hardest parts of being a manager early. By offering rotational assignments, the organization will be able to expose potential managers to a variety of manager functions and challenges faced across the organization.
• Rewire the Habits of Managers: By reshaping how managers interact with their teams, their habits can be rewired, and their workflows become more efficient. Habits can be rewired, but there needs to be intention focused on the changes being made. One way to rewire the habits of managers would be to set up intentional cues, such as reminders and triggers built into the manager’s daily routine. These triggers can be reminders to provide feedback, time scheduled in for team collaboration, and team check-ins. By scheduling these moments, the manager will become accustomed to completing these new tasks and will build trust with their subordinates and in the organization.
• Remove Process Hurdles: Managers are often pulled in many different directions simultaneously. Tasks become pushed to the back burner and some are forgotten about. This creates bad habits, and important tasks are left undone and pushed from day to day. Automating as much as possible, like PTO requests, expense reports, and even the scheduling of common meetings or performance reviews will remove some mundane tasks that are important but can be streamlined.
  • Reducing Policy Complexities: It is another way to remove process hurdles. Managers spend considerable time navigating company policies and may experience decision fatigue when trying to ensure that the policies are being applied appropriately. By offering a user-friendly HRIS the managers can have instant access to resources and even the HR department for more complex issues.

How Can an HRIS Help?

Many HRIS platforms can help streamline and automate the tasks of a manager. Let’s explore how:

• Resetting Role Expectations: HRIS platforms will typically have the ability to set roles and expectations with the system. By leveraging the technology and automation offered by an HRIS, the management role can be clarified, and both HR and the management team can have access to review and align expectations.
• Improving Manager Accountability: An HRIS can track manager’s tasks and goals while providing regular updates to not only the manager but also HR and the organizational leadership. With the collaboration of HR the manager can create actionable insights to ensure they are aligned and performing well in essential areas.
• Setting Up Peer Mentor Programs: HR platforms often come with employee engagement and the ability to set team goals. Managers can utilize the HR platform to begin a Peer Mentor program and will be able to track the progress of their workforce in meeting the goals set with their peer mentors.

Conclusion

Since the pandemic managers have had a considerable amount of responsibilities added to their already full plates. Many managers are finding themselves not able to focus on supporting the organization and moving the company forward strategically. Managers are faced with an entirely new work environment, and the changing landscape is spreading them thin. Unfortunately, the overload felt by managers today cannot be addressed with skills training. It needs to be addressed by restructuring the job of a manager.

A Human Resources Information System (HRIS) can provide the tools, transparency, and structure needed to reset management’s responsibilities. It can equip managers with the necessary resources for success. A manager can leverage an HR platform by simplifying communication, ensuring accountability, and automating tasks that are necessary but can be completed seamlessly by the platform.