The role of a line manager can be challenging. These professionals play a critical role in today’s complex and rapidly changing modern workplace, and face significant challenges on a daily basis.
They must possess remarkable adaptability, transitioning seamlessly from being a peer to becoming a manager, deftly handling the complexities of hybrid and remote team members, and effectively addressing a wide range of employee relations challenges. And all of this, while managing the demands of their own workload.
Clearly, this role requires a significant degree of self-motivation and the certainty to provide support to employees grappling any issues they might encounter.
However, given the radical transformations in work dynamics in recent years, many organisations have struggled to provide the necessary support needed to uphold a line manager’s confidence in their leadership abilities and juggle the myriad of people matters that come their way.
Over the past few months, we’ve been analysing the results of our specially-commissioned research among more than 700 line managers and over 500 HR professionals spanning 11 different industries, and have revealed our findings in our latest whitepaper, Middle Managers Matter: Why Investing in Your Line Managers is Critical to Effective Employee Relations.
Where do managers most lack confidence?
Our findings unearthed some intriguing insights regarding the correlation between line manager demographics and the ability to engage in difficult or sensitive conversations, and provide support to employees navigating through challenging life events.
Some of the key workplace issues where managers most lack confidence include:
- Redundancy: Almost 1 in 3 (28%) line managers lack confidence in being able to support a redundancy process. Similarly, 23% of HR professionals agree that managers lack confidence in this area.
- Neurodiversity: 1 in 4 HR professionals (25%) aren’t confident that their line managers have the ability to support their team with issues related to neurodiversity. 15% of line managers aren’t confident in their own capability.
- Mental Health: Over 1 in 5 HR professionals (22%) aren’t confident that their line managers have the capability to support their team with mental health issues. Among line managers themselves, 14% lack confidence.
- Absenteeism: 16% of HR professionals doubt their line managers’ ability to manage absenteeism in their teams. For line managers, 14% are not confident in managing employee absence.
- Presenteeism: More than 1 in 5 (22%) HR professionals lack confidence in their line managers’ ability to tackle presenteeism in their teams. Meanwhile, 11% of line managers admit to lacking confidence in managing presenteeism.
Does confidence diminish with seniority?
Addressing the confidence problem among line managers is far from a linear process. Our research found that older line managers, and those in more senior roles, generally have less confidence in their capabilities than their junior counterparts.
This could potentially be attributed to the broader responsibilities often shouldered by more senior managers which may demand their attention, such as strategic planning and decision making, consequently leaving them with less time and focus for day-to-day employee relations matters.
Senior managers may also have gained their experience before significant changes in employment law or best practice, potentially leading to a perception of being less up-to-date in these areas than their junior peers.
Additionally, our research indicates that senior managers may feel the weight of legal risks associated with mishandling employee relations issues due to their elevated positions within the organisational hierarchy. This heightened awareness of potential legal consequences might lead to greater caution and apprehension when addressing employee relations issues.
These insights represent only a fraction of the comprehensive analysis presented within our Middle Managers Matter report, which you can download here.
For those seeking a deeper dive into the themes, we hosted a webinar recently in conjunction with HR Grapevine, during which a panel of ER industry experts discussed the findings and explored how HR teams can bolster their line managers’ confidence. You can watch the webinar on-demand here.
