7 Pillars of Effective People Management

It’s no secret that the performance of your company will depend on the performance of your people. But the challenge for many businesses is how to manage their people so that they are focused, productive and committed to the cause.

People management is our passion at Avenue Scotland and we have spent thousands of pounds in research and man hours to understand how highly successful companies manage their teams.

Unfortunately there is not one way that works for all companies – after all, it is people that we are working with.But we have developed Avenue Scotland’s 7 pillars to effective people management. And to help you on your way we have outlined each pillar and given you a few things to consider.

1. Reward & Recognition

When was the last time you looked at how you are rewarding your staff, not just in their salary but in terms of providing career opportunities, developing their skills, providing emotional support, or recognising their performance?

2. Communications Strategy

How do you communicate with your entire team – daily briefings, weekly news sheets, performance charts on the noticeboard? What do you communicate – only their performance or the performance of the entire company? Do they know what your customers are up to? How often do you communicate? Have you asked your team what they would like to be told and how often? How often do you listen to your team?

3. Management Style

How do you think your company’s management style impacts on the performance of your team. Do you inspire, motivate and act as a strong leader that encourages people to strive for better results. If not, you have to re-evaluate your approach.

4. Productivity Analysis

Does your team know how you measure their productivity? If not, how can they know whether they have done well. How much of your time do you spend reviewing during a project and after completion? By taking a step back to measure past performance you are armed with the lessons learned to help you manage more effectively any potential weaknesses going forward.

5. Team Building

How strong is the team morale? How well do individuals in each of your teams work together? How well do teams produce results? When was the last time you got them all together to explore how they could work even better?

6. Training

The current climate has seen training budgets slashed but investing in learning and training not only helps to keep standards high but it empowers people by developing their knowledge and confidence. What kind of training programme do you have in place? Could you implement an internal training programme where people show others their job and how other factors influence their performance?

7. Recruitment

But once that is said and done, getting the foundations right is critical. If you are continually employing the wrong people, how can you ever hope to succeed? How good is your recruitment process? Could approaching the interview and selection stage differently help you capture a higher calibre of employee?

The key to effective people management is knowing how strong you are in each of these 7 areas. Why not take a moment and rate your own company on each of the pillars between 1 and 10. Then start focusing on each one of the pillars and make improvements.

For more information contact Alan Campbell by calling 01383 622233.