Managers Best Practices Manual

Best Practices

This "Best Practices" manual is being compiled, with the hopes of aiding supervisors for an easier transition into our company. Using best practices is an important detail in relation to becoming a successful leader. Our employees are encouraged in providing feedback concerning best practices already in use. The policy of this company, funding permitted, is to allow for staff training. "As higher education has learned over the years, investing money in development yields results such as improved performance, higher morale, and an employee base that is educated on current trends and issues." (Hopkins, & Hampton, 1995)

Not only are superiors encouraged to employ "best practices" we also offer training to all other employees. Implementing best practices have resulted in higher moral and increased productivity from all involved. Leadership's strategy must be clearly understood at all levels of the organization. To be successful with internal communication, there is a necessity for all involved to fully understand his, or her role in achieving success, in addition; to what is expected throughout the process.

While there are constant changes in procedures, our company maintains high goals and standards through empowering our employees. Feel free to offer feedback when done with the reading. We not only encourage all opinions, we appreciate what is learned from all team players.

Best Practices used for Demonstrating Communication Skills:

* "Managers should err on the side of over communicating rather than not communicating enough." (UOP, 2007)

* " Managers should create a culture of openness and encourage subordinates to accept change as an opportunity for improvement, rather than something to be feared." (UOP, 2007)

Communication skills are essential, not only for management but for every employee as well. Details must be known and understood by everyone in the organization, as poor communication skills contribute to failure. "Misperceptions, lack of information, and lack of training, may prevent others from understanding what is to take place." (UOP, 2007) Understanding and asking a question in a clarifying method leads to individuals opening up regarding pertinent issues.

Remaining neutral throughout communication relays one has separated the individual involved from the issue. Lack of communication skills can contribute to a fundamental breakdown in our department's ability to communicate deadline changes. "Communication within an organization is a critical success factor. The fuzzier the goals, the more chaos in an organization; the more clearly goals are communicated the easier it is for employees to decide what needs to be accomplished. If employees are part of the process, they will understand more clearly.

"If employees know there is no employee participation, it does not matter how good the plan, it will not work. (Drucker, P. February 1997) Creating a culture of change is essential to the progress made throughout the 21st century. There has been noticeable consistency in employees having issues concerning not accepting changes in the workforce. Communicating positive culture changes encourage various perspectives which provide numerous ideas.

"In some cases, a culture change was precipitated by the realization of a customer-driven planning process; in other cases, it was the culture change that actually facilitated the accomplishment of the customer-driven planning process. For effective customer-driven strategic planning organizations, the status quo is simply not an alternative." (Drucker, P. February 1997)

Best Practices for Orientation and Training:

* Orientation is used for the purpose of "formally informing the employee's expectations and requirements to be successful." (UOP, 2007)

* The main goal of orientation and training is to have employees who have been

properly trained which will result in "fewer turnovers, higher productivity, more rapid growth, and improved profitability." (UOP, 2007)

During any orientation and training process, individuals are molded into being the best employees one can have representing a company. Larger companies have the advantage of using orienting as a legitimate investment while in smaller companies the money just might not be there. Upon making all information upfront to employees who will be serving the organization, one has a better chance at employees being happy and remaining with the company for years to come. The commonality between large and smaller companies is how staffing is an important detail to having a successful productive team on a grander scale.

"There are five steps in the training process: preparing, telling, showing, doing, and reviewing. The five steps of training prepare each employee to be more productive and to know exactly what to do, resulting in higher levels of job satisfaction and, consequently, fewer turnovers and less training costs." (UOP, 2007) Since training is not an activity which is common in all companies, there is always the possibility our new supervisors will not being familiar with the process. This is the reason our company has made the worthwhile investment of having individuals hired specifically for the training of our employees.

Training is the number one connection in communicating expectations; stimulating growth and lifting individual performance. Without clear expectations for activity and performance, sales improvement efforts hardly ever hit the mark. People change behaviors because they want to, because the importance of change is undeniable, and because this action benefits one drastically as an individual. If ones goal is to change behaviors, actively employ individuals in the solution. An employee who is allowed ownership will ensure the success towards long-lasting change. Improvement is a result of calculated, deliberate procedures over time.

Recruiting and selecting the right talent needed for each position is the single most important skill of management. Training is often considered for new employees only. This organization feels this would be an injustice for current employees as training helps in adjusting to rapidly changing job requirements.

Best Practices for Improving Productivity for Teams:

* Productivity rises when people have a positive attitude towards their work.