Establishing Positive Supervision Starts with Onboarding

Regardless of what position they are entering, when any new employee is hired, they receive onboarding and training. Onboarding and training often include basic organizational information, benefit enrollment, and basic position guidance. New employees do not typically receive onboarding and training related to how they will be supervised. Therefore, when the time comes for evaluation, they are often taken by surprise. When bringing a new employee into your organization ensure time is allocated for an employee to learn how you supervise, how you evaluate them, and how you expect them to engage in the supervisory process.

The most successful organizations adopt a standardized technique for immediate supervision (typically one-on-ones) as well as a more thorough review cycle (usually an annual process). Standardization improves an employee’s understanding of the techniques used. It also allows for easier transition to new supervisors as employees change roles over the course of a career.

Although supervisors will always utilize a personalized approach to the application of an organizational supervision method, the uniformity of techniques and standardized language will decrease the challenges associated with an employee taking on a new role. Standardization means establishing the language and concepts used throughout the organization. If your organization does not have standardized language or a defined supervision approach you need to establish your own and successfully roll it out to all members of your team.

Your standardized approach should include the following:

• A rhythm to review and address performance: Do you have structured meetings daily, weekly, monthly or is supervision typically an on-the-spot approach? Do you have a system and structure to complete formal performance reviews?
• Expectations: Provide a clear definition of deliverable expectations and if possible, connect those expectations to organizational goals and strategy.
• Your evaluation method: An employee needs to know how you plan to judge success; how are you keeping score? Are you looking at daily, weekly, and monthly production numbers? Are you evaluating project deadline adherence? Are you monitoring professional appearance, and demeanor? Any data you use to judge performance needs to be shared with the employee. Employees need to know where you are getting the data to evaluate them. The more specific you can be, the easier it will be for them to meet performance expectations.
• Impact and integration: Explain interactions with other members of the team or company. When people know how their work impacts or interacts with the work of others, they will further recognize the importance of their role.
• Policies and Procedures: Provide clear guidance on the policies and procedures that guide their production. Let employees know where they can find organizational policies and procedure documents.

In short tell people the game they are playing, the rules of the game, the way you are keeping score, and your team’s ultimate goal or target.

Our approach to supervision is called The Question Method™. The foundation of the method is a series of questions that address the basic things an employee needs to be successful. The Questions address expectations, evaluation methods, authority and resources, capabilities to perform, recognition, and employee career goals. Once an employee is familiar with the questions, and understands why they are being asked, performance conversations become more effective and meaningful for both the employee and the supervisor

When an employee is new to the organization, you can expect your interactions to take longer and feel less effective. However, as people gain comfort with your supervision approach, learn their role, and understand how their performance is evaluated ,your interactions will be more productive and nimbler. As employees learn the questions you are asking and their role in the organizaiton, they will begin to initiate requests. You will know you have been successful when the employee begins to drive the conversation, initiating questions and requesting support/information related to their targets, objectives, and goals.

When onboarding a new employee to your supervision technique speak about your style directly. Outline how you prefer to have interactions and what you want their role to be. It may take a full review cycle for an employee to really understand the approach, therefore when an employee is new, it is recommended that you hold a formal review near the 90-day mark. Be patient with the process. If you establish a strong supervisory relationship, you will see increased retention, improved individual performance, and higher achievement of organizational goals. Supervision is not simply a role or a task you perform, it is a process that needs to be taught, practiced, and mastered by both the supervisor and the employee.