Underestimating the Role of Managers is Undermining Retention

Originally published in Meatingplace

It’s time for a frank conversation about managers and communication. And we can’t set it up without rewinding back to the times of COVID and the Great Resignation, when human resource teams and leaders struggled to keep employees — and keep them happy. They wanted more money and bigger titles. And we desperately needed our essential workforce to stay in meat production, even as the world around us was shutting down.

So, we threw money at the problem. We even called them managers. We gave them direct reports or teams to lead. In doing so, we neglected some pragmatic considerations:

• Not everyone is management material
• Managing people is very different than being a highly skilled front-line worker
• Management roles require continuous training
• Good managers must be taught to be good communicators

The negative evidence of these oversights is clear. A Gallup poll found that in the top five predictors of turnover, the relationship with the employee’s immediate manager was as impactful as pay, benefits, culture and coworkers. A Udemy survey found that 50% of workers would quit their job because of a bad manager.

While a bad manager may disrupt your team, strong managers can bring tremendous outcomes:

• Employees whose managers consistently acknowledge them for good work have 31% less turnover
• Highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave
• Those working for their best boss are 2.5x more likely to be fully engaged than those working for their worst boss.
• Workers with great managers are 12x more likely to cooperate with co-workers

Investing in Managers as Communicators

When meat companies recognize the critical role of managers and supervisors in keeping teams happy and creating a positive workplace, great things can happen. But this requires intentional work to grow managers and invest in their success — and that starts with increasing your bench strength in internal communications.

The Predictive Index in 2021 cited a lack of communication as the No. 1 criticism employees have about their manager. That’s an issue, as the same study also found that communication is the second-most desired skill in a manager, after confidence.

Employee surveys are essential. You can’t fix problems in your organization if you do not know they exist. Surveys illuminate gaps in communication and poor leadership.

Companies must act on survey insights. Nothing is worse for culture and communication than feedback not taken. Benchmark surveys over time so you can understand where positive change has occurred, and where work still needs to be done.

Surveys of frontline workers consistently say most employees say they want to hear news about their company and updates to programs and processes not from HR or the c-suite, but from their immediate supervisor or manager. That means managers and supervisors are a powerful internal communications tool, when leveraged and resourced correctly.

Survey your managers as well, especially those working with production workers on the plant floor each day. Are they comfortable leading and mentoring others? A recent Gartner study reported 54% of managers are suffering from work-induced stress and fatigue, and 44% are struggling to provide personalized support to their direct reports. It also found half of managers are predicted to fail – and the ripple effect of that failure is vast. Embracing those who are successful and reassigning those who are unhappy is a difficult, but necessary, step in the process.

Train them consistently. Growing as managers is not a one-and-done. Consider ongoing leadership and communications programming, and incorporate role play and interactive elements to allow them to practice their roles in a safe space. Make sure training covers a range of communications skills and strategies for employee engagement, including:

• Communicating critical information
• Having hard conversations
• Giving constructive feedback
• Offering praise
• Managing conflict in the workplace
• Deescalating difficult situations

There are ways meat production leaders can position managers to be better communicators, including:

• Give them tools to support their direct communications to their employees – topline talking points, frequently asked questions, relevant timing, etc. Let them know where to send questions they cannot answer.
• Managers should be well positioned to manage expectations – and to articulate the “what’s in it for me” for their team members.
• Arm them with information they need to share your story. Use them as ambassadors for change management within your organization. Trust in your managers is key. That means they must be “read in” to company news, at least at a high level. If you can’t trust your managers as messengers – there’s a greater issue to address.
• When a company is in crisis or has difficult news to share, managers become critical communicators to drive understanding and confidence across your teams.

Messages of reassurance can be the difference-maker in getting through an issue with minimal disruption to your workforce. Meat companies that are deliberate in recognizing potentially great managers, and reassigning those who have not performed successfully in manager or supervisor roles, can begin to see workforce improvements and better retention metrics. Much of the typical manager role relies on being a strong communicator, and intentionality in upskilling communications within the management ranks will deliver positive results.