A managing partner of Gallup today told a conference having a good manager results in more productivity at the workplace and ensures better health for the employees.
“Who your manager is, is far more important for your health than who your doctor is,” Peter Flade, who is tasked to oversee the European region, said. “A bad manager is likely to cause you a heart attack.”
It takes five days for employees who do not feel part of the project to finish a task which is meant to be done in five days, but those who are engaged at work take four days instead of five, Mr Flade said.
America-based Gallup provides data-driven news based on US and world polls, daily tracking and public opinion research. Mr Flade works closely with client leadership teams to improve organic growth and productivity through a better understanding of employee and customer needs.
Addressing a packed hall at the Foundation for Human Resources Development annual conference held at the Radisson Blu Resort & Spa Golden Sands, Mr Flade said: “A company needs to have a good HR function, who can coach, teach and hold all managers accountable but it is the managers who have to ensure their employees are engaged at work.
“The only thing you can control is the engagement at work of your employees since one cannot control market trends, which constantly change,” he explained.
He also gave an example of a person who joins a company but starts to find out that it is not what he/she signed up for.
“This employee starts his/her work full of energy but suddenly realises that it is not what he/she was expecting. S/he either leaves the job or s/he hangs on but starts to pull back as the employee feels the working hours are not too bad and the job is secure. But what happens next is that the employee’s ambition starts to fade away and the company’s efforts to get productivity going drift away also.
“If Malta is doing its utmost to improve productivity, it cannot afford to have too many bad company managers running the show,” he said. “You cannot fix a bad manager.”
He asked HR managers present at the conference how long it takes them to discover that a manager they appointed in a section of a company is not up to it and how long it takes them to do something about the situation.
He said that the probability is that HR people can tell that a manager they appointed is not fit for the job within hours or within a week but it can take them as long as two years before they take action.
“It is therefore important for HR people to think hard before they appoint a manager since if a bad manager is left to run the show it will be destructive,” he said. “Get bad mangers out of tragic management as soon as you see that they are not fit for the managerial job.”
The Malta Independent is a partner of the FHRD conference.
Photos Michael Camilleri