THE success of an organisation depends on the skills, competence and commitment of the people that drive its operations. People tend to deliver their best when they are well looked after by their organisation in terms of salary and perks. Vibrant organisations strive to maintain a competitive edge where employees’ compensation is concerned.

Besides fulfilling their key responsibilities, managers are required to develop positive working relations with the employees they supervise. The chain of supervision goes up from the lowest level of unskilled employees to the top where the performance of the CEO is also evaluated.

Ordinarily, supervisors are deemed to be the persons who are only one step above the non-management cadre and supervise the latter’s work performance.

However, in general terms the highest-ranking CEO also has to supervise the general managers and carry out their performance appraisal periodically. Similarly, each general manager has to supervise his department heads, who also have employees to manage.

Annual increments of the unionised staff are guaranteed.

Besides assigning work and ensuring its completion, a supervisor must promote positive relations with his subordinates. The supervisees having families may encounter domestic issues at times, which may adversely impact their performance and behaviour at the workplace. Such a situation demands that the supervisor should act with patience and provide emotional support to the supervisee.

While doing so, the supervisor has to adopt a balanced approach and refrain from arbitration in an employee’s personal affairs. Nevertheless, based upon his personal experience, he may provide some advice or suggest the name of a trusted individual known to him, who may be of help.

A new employee may not be aware of the company culture and work ethics. The supervisor should help him in settling down and assist him in his tasks by assuming the role of mentor. Under the prevailing law, the probationary period of non-management employees is three months and there is no provision for its extension. However, in the case of employees who are not covered by law, the organisations usually fix it at six months.

Whatever be the duration of the probationary period, the supervisor should closely monitor the performance and behaviour of the new employee. The supervisor should decide within the probationary period whether or not to retain him. Requesting the human resources department to extend the probationary period because of the supervisor’s inability to properly assess the employee’s performance during that time signifies weak supervision.

Progressive organisations have a well-established system of employees’ performance appraisal, which is usually done annually. At the beginning of the year, every employee is given six or seven goals to achieve. Whatever ranking a supervisor assigns to the individual being appraised based upon the attainment of goals, must be discussed, and agreed on with the latter. If there is a conflict which is not resolved between them, it is referred for decision to the person to whom the supervisor reports.

As the amount of management employees’ annual increment is dependent upon their performance ratings, supervisors should carry out this exercise objectively, judicially and without any personal bias. However, annual increments of the unionised staff ie the non-management employees, are guaranteed under the collective labour agreement and must be given irrespective of their performance rating.

In case there are gaps in performance, the supervisor must point them out to the employee from time to time instead of giving him a surprise at the end of the year, during discussions about his job performance.

A supervisor is also responsible for the personal and professional development of those under him. The training needs are usually determined by the supervisor and disclosed to the employee at the time of his performance appraisal. To bring improvement in areas where deficiencies have been identified, the supervisor may send the employee on training, normally conducted by an outside institution. As training involves cost to the organisation, the supervisor should avoid sending employees on training based on favouritism or to reward them for personal loyalty. It will constitute dishonesty towards the organisation on the supervisor’s part if he does so.

The supervisors should be fully conversant with the overtime regulations and limits of hours imposed by law on such work. An employee may validly refuse to work on overtime if the number of hours he is being asked to put in are not permitted by law. Such a situation will cause embarrassment to the supervisor besides generating bitterness.

Managing employees effectively and keeping them motivated is an essential skill, which may either be learnt on the job or acquired through formal training or self-development.

The writer is a consultant in human resources at the Aga Khan University Hospital.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2022