Role of Line Managers in Performance Management

Line manager is responsible for overseeing and managing employees to fulfill business goals. They are the main point of contact between the management and the staff. They also provide guidance, instruction, motivation and feedback to the employees on a day-to-day basis. The responsibility of implementing strategy rests with the line managers who ensure that strategies designed by senior leadership and the management are implemented in a satisfactory manner. They’re are also in the best place to identify bottlenecks and carry out course correction in the event of deviation. Line managers need to possess leadership qualities including effective communication of tasks, listening strategy, grievances handling, and delegation.

Responsibilities

Line managers are responsible for implementing and designing, through their resources, an organization’s policies pertaining to employees and practices in alignment with business objectives and core values.

The top managers play a lead in the entire process by setting trends for the lower rung and acting as role models for the employees. Their responsibility is to design policies which ensure an efficient management of performance in an organization and to define and act upon the core values relating to performance. Top management plays a vital role in convincing the line managers that performance management can be instrumental in the achievement of business goals and thus ensure that they take this aspect seriously in their work front for maximizing employee satisfaction and productivity.

Top managers are expected to develop a high performance culture in an organization by ensuring the following:

• By communicating an organization’s mission and values to its customers and employees.
• By clearly defining the work expectations and communicating to everyone for ensuring success in the achievement of business goals and facilitating an overall performance improvement.
• By keeping the employees informed about their progress towards the achievement of goals and suggesting corrective actions for non-achievement of performance.
• By establishing a shared belief amongst the employees regarding the importance of continuous improvement in performance.

A remarkable example is Infosys Technology Ltd., an international IT company and a world leader. The chairman Mr. Narayan Murthy was dedicated and committed towards an efficient management of performance of the employees for developing a vast talent pool in the organization. He considered his employees as the most powerful wealth responsible for driving the success and the future of his organization. He introduced the best reward systems in the industry for retaining the existing talent and the attracting the best from the industry. He encouraged an open communication and provided them with an opportunity to interact with the management and share ideas in meetings. He established a Leadership Institute in Mysore for grooming the future leaders for successfully tackling the challenges of the changing markets. Similary, the management of United Parcel Service of America (UPS), selects only those people who fit into their organizational culture for efficiently managing their performance and projecting a positive image before the customers.

Role of Line Managers in Performance Management

The line managers or the front line management play a very crucial role in implementing and enacting the HR policies. Hence, it is very important for the management to ensure that the line managers possess a right attitude towards the performance management approaches and equally possess the right competencies for executing it. The line managers mostly consider the performance management process as a mere bureaucratic chore and hence they consider it as a sheer waste of time. Some managers lack the required skills for reviewing the performance of the employees, providing feedback and identifying objectives along with them. These limitations can be overcome by adopting the following remedies:

• By providing leadership from the top.
• By communicating with the line managers about the importance of performance management in driving successful results and how it is a part of their responsibility.
• By maintaining simplicity in the overall process of performance management.
• By reducing the pressure from the line managers by making the process an ongoing one instead of an annual review.
• By involving the line managers in the design and development of the performance management processes by representing them in pilot studies.
• Recruiting the right talent for the job.
• Training, coaching and mentoring new employees to get them up to speed at work.
• Planning the goals, objectives and tasks of their department and communicating this to employees as needed.
• Effectively communication organizational goals set by the management to the employees.
• Managing the resources within their control (e.g., staff time; finance) to fulfill the objectives set.
• Ensuring compliance with organizational policy and legislation.
• Providing blueprint, guidance and plan to their teams.
• Scheduling regular meetings with staff members to discuss progress and any bottlenecks.
• Measuring performance metrics against set expectations and taking corrective actions where necessary.
• Ensuring quality standards are maintained at expected levels.
• Evaluating employee performance and providing performance appraisals.
• Motivating and engaging the employees in a timely manner so as to ensure productivity.
• Providing reports on performance and goals to higher authorities.