Think Twice Before You Mess with Success
No matter how many times manufacturing leaders are warned against promoting their best shopfloor people to management positions — considered by many to be one of the cardinal sins in manufacturing— it remains an extremely common practise. Rapidly growing companies are particularly guilty. In an industry where it’s increasingly challenging to find qualified candidates, the temptation of moving up the best line worker or technician in the business to fill a new or vacant management role is simply too appealing to resist, especially considering how well the shopfloor employee probably already knows the business, processes, and people.
Companies end up justifying these moves by reasoning that the promotion is the best way to recognise and reward the excellent work and loyalty the person has shown over the years. After all, a step up is always the best next move, right?
Wrong.
Beware of the consequences of hasty promotions
While an increase in pay is aways welcome, an increase in responsibility often isn’t, especially if the employee being promoted does not have the right skill set and/or mind set to succeed in the new managerial job. Despite best intentions, these situations often play out poorly, with an extremely successful employee going from a place of accomplishment and productivity to feeling frustrated, incompetent, and ineffective — feelings no one wants to feel, even if they come with extra dollars in the paycheck. What’s more, suddenly being in charge of the people a person has worked side-by-side with for years can be an uncomfortable dynamic for everyone.
Not only does all this set the stage for subpar, ineffective management, but productivity typically suffers, too. With negative impacts showing up in the KPIs as well as workplace morale, the employee you wanted to reward ends up feeling like he’s being punished instead, and the entire team along with him.
Promote with a plan
Obviously, manufacturing operations can avoid this fallout by looking outside of the organisation and bringing in talent with established managerial skills. A fresh perspective is often a good thing for the organisation and experienced managers will have ideas and skills that will benefit a growing organisation. However, finding, recruiting, hiring, and onboarding good people for all levels of the business remains much easier said than done.
Fortunately, successfully promoting from within the organisation is entirely possible. But it does take the right plan and an accompanying investment in people. If you want to avoid the all-to-common pitfalls, be intentional about your human capital plan and take these five steps to set your up your entire team for success.
- Be willing to make a significant investment in your most valuable assets. All companies claim that their human capital is critical to success. But the actual investment in people doesn’t always align with this sentiment. Sometimes companies worry they will finance training programmes only to have employees take their new skill somewhere else. While this is a legitimate concern, the much bigger risk lies in keeping untrained and unqualified people onboard indefinitely.
Ideally, companies will make an appropriate investment in the right types of training –options include online and hands-on training, workshops, mentoring and coaching –to ensure highly trained people at all levels of the organisation. When every member of the team is familiar with best practises and engaged in continuously developing skills and knowledge, it makes it much easier to move a great line supervisor into a management role because the line will remain staffed with people who are already positioned to succeed. - Establish career paths. Be proactive about potential future promotions by identifying people who are interested in and motivated to move into management, as well as those who are not and who are happiest staying on the front lines. This process includes helping each employee clarify short- and long-term aspirations and allows people to identify skills and skill gaps needed to succeed in both current and future roles. The goal is to create an individualised plan for each employee that sets the right expectations for how a team member’s career will develop over time. Be sure to regularly review progress and make updates to the plan at least annually.
- Tie training and reviews to effective management practises. Effective management practises, or what TBM calls Operational Processes Control Practises or OPCs, should be closely aligned with any human capital training and development programme. OPCs include the use of management systems at all levels and clearly established and monitored KPIs, which can be used to help measure performance and compliance of teams and individual employees.
When these management practises are linked to Short Interval Control—where everyone on the team is expected to participate in reviewing performance and supervisors are engaged in formalised, structured communication or review meetings—then the move from line supervisor to management becomes less of a large leap. It feels more like the next right step in the right direction. - Create a transition timeline that incorporates additional training. Even when line supervisors are well versed in OPCs and have a career path in place, going from shopfloor to management should not happen overnight. Plan out the transition well in advance and communicate it clearly with the entire team so everyone knows what to expect.
Use the time to provide additional focused managerial training that will set up the new manager for success—remember, there will be new skills every line worker needs to develop and practise to become an effective manager. For example, the TBM University offers both a supervisor academy and a manager tract. Both multidimensional programmes include workshops to teach and nurture essential skills. The management programme also includes time spent training and coaching in real life, on the job at the point of execution. - Be willing to backtrack if needed. Regardless of how well you have planned and prepared for the transition, when you do make the move, if it ends up being the wrong move for the manager, the organisation, or both, do not let it go on indefinitely. Rather, keep tabs on the situation and ask for feedback from the new manager as well as the team. If it’s not a good fit, the quicker you make a change, the better. It’s always smarter to move employees back to the shopfloor where they can be successful then leave them in roles where they are not performing as expected.
Position all your best people for long-term success.
While it’s been proven over and over again that the best line supervisor is rarely the best manager, this doesn’t mean that this person can’t or shouldn’t succeed in a new or different role. Success simply takes careful planning, training, and time. Because talent really is a manufacturer’s most valuable asset, prioritising investing in people at all levels, planning their career paths in advance, and providing what they need to make the most of their skills are always some of the best human capital moves you can make.
