Supervisor training considerations

Conducting interviews

Interviewing employees requires knowledge of relevant laws, as well as skills in communication and speaking, but it also requires experience. Supervisors may benefit from attending interviews conducted by HR professionals. Even as they become more comfortable leading an interview, they may need guidance with tricky situations such as applicants who voluntarily offer information regarding religion or other protected status.

Each interview is unique, and applicants may raise questions or topics that are outside the supervisor's experience. Supervisors should have some guidance before they handle interviews on their own.

Providing guidance

Part of a supervisor's job is developing employees. This may require the supervisor to offer training, guidance, feedback, encouragement, or correction. Employers might assume that an experienced supervisor knows how to handle these things, but the supervisor may not be doing so as expected.

Most individuals learn the basics of positive and negative feedback while growing up, but the lessons learned may not translate to the workplace, and each employee may require a unique approach. For example, high-performing employees might feel that constant praise (even if deserved) is suffocating or disingenuous.

Whether the guidance provided is supportive or corrective, supervisors must know how to handle a variety of possible responses. When correcting an employee's error, the employee will hopefully accept the feedback. However, some employees may respond with anger (“We've always done it my way!”) or may break down in tears (“I can't do anything right!”). The supervisor must be prepared to address such responses.

Obviously, the employee's response will also depend on the manner in which the feedback is given. A demanding approach may generate resentment, even if the employee doesn't voice this feeling and becomes increasingly frustrated with the supervisor. Conversely, an overly gentle approach may come across as a mere suggestion that could be ignored.

Even giving positive feedback or encouragement may require training. Every supervisor knows how to simply say, “Great job on that project.” However, if valued employees have not received more encouragement than an occasional “good job” for several months, the lack of feedback may start to affect their morale. Training supervisors on ideas for giving feedback might include offering suggestions such as:

• Writing a positive letter, showing it to the employee, and placing it in his or her personnel file;
• Providing a small reward in recognition of an accomplishment, such a movie tickets or a gift card;
• Pointing out accomplishments and contributions during staff meetings; or
• Mentioning an employee's value to his or her coworkers, knowing that they will probably inform the employee about those remarks.

Even an experienced supervisor may benefit from new ideas on how to offer feedback, encouragement, and guidance.

Documenting performance

Documenting performance is one of the most important duties a supervisor performs. Doing so improperly can not only increase potential liability for the company, but can negatively affect employee morale, productivity, and turnover — all of which can cost the company. Training on how to document performance should involve more than showing the supervisor how to fill out an annual performance evaluation.

Many employers have experienced problems involving a supervisor's failure to properly document problems, and have even lost legal challenges for lack of documentation. Less easy to measure is the adverse impact on morale and productivity from failing to give timely and positive feedback for accomplishments, or failing to correct problems in a timely manner. For instance, ignoring conflict between coworkers might allow the problem to grow until discipline is needed, while an earlier intervention might have avoided the need for discipline.

Whether positive or negative, performance evaluations should not be delayed until the annual review. Just like giving feedback should be an ongoing process, documenting that feedback should also be an ongoing process. Supervisors must be aware of the potential implications of failing to create good documentation.

If documentation of praise consists of a few notes scrawled on a scrap of paper, it won't make a very favorable impression on the employee. Similarly, if those scribbles were used to document problems, they won't make a very good impression on a lawyer or enforcement agency representative when the company is attempting to offer a non-discriminatory motive for action taken against the employee.

Employers may want to reinforce the importance of creating proper documentation by evaluating those files during the supervisor's own performance evaluation.

Justifying a termination

If supervisors are diligent in providing feedback and documenting their efforts, a termination should be easy to justify because the necessary documentation already exists. Unfortunately, many supervisors are less than diligent about this, or may feel that there will be time to handle it later. These delays may actually increase the potential for liability.

Supervisors need to understand that even though the at-will employment concept may not require meeting a specific level of justification, a jury will assume that an employee was terminated for a reason. Unless the company can show a legitimate business reason, the jury may assume that the employer had a discriminatory or other unlawful motive.