Alert of the Month
Many companies have challenges getting their experienced employees to move up into supervisor roles. These employees have the people skills and technical knowledge to make great supervisors but they don’t take the next step to become a leader in the company.
Why might this be happening?
There are a lot of responsibilities and potential liability with being a supervisor. An employee weighs the pros and cons of moving into this position and decides the negatives outweigh the positives.
Have a look at the following tips that will help supervisors deal with the responsibilities and requirements of their role.
How to Support Supervisors in Your Company:
- Time and resources are often scarce.
Provide supervisors with enough time to complete their critical tasks such as planning of work activities and conducting one–on–one meetings with workers to assess their work, have a meaningful conversation about how the job is going and discuss what can be done to improve operations.
- It’s common to have working supervisors in logging companies. In other words, having supervisors who have another job (like operating equipment) in addition to their supervisor responsibilities. It is very important that these working supervisors are able to schedule time to complete their supervisory work and not feel like it is something done as a secondary or lower priority job.
- Provide ongoing mentorship and training to new supervisors. Pair an inexperienced supervisor with a veteran supervisor so they can learn on the job. Schedule regular training for all supervisors so they can continually improve their skills.
- Due diligence is an important responsibility of supervisors. Supervisors must be able to demonstrate due diligence – that everything reasonable was done under the circumstances to ensure the safety of the people on the site. Good documentation of the steps taken to show due diligence should be done through the completion of a written daily journal.
- Supervisors need a good support system around them to be successful. A good support system includes a well trained workforce who understands company policies and procedures. Support from administrative staff may also be necessary to help with the essential documentation.
- Every successful supervisor needs a manager or company owner to provide them with positive support and mentorship. Good communication between managers and their supervisors is essential for business success.
Resources:
- Due Diligence Information for Supervisors
https://www.worksafebc.com/en/health-safety/create-manage/enhancing-culture-performance/due-diligence
- BCFSC Supervisor Training
/training/supervisors.html
- WorkSafeBC Online Supervisor Training
http://www.supervisingforsafety.com/
- Print Version of this alert
/node/2898
