Supervisory Skills

Managers at lower level of management are known as ‘first-line managers’ or ‘supervisors’. Generally, the supervisors at this level hold positions in the hierarchy below the middle managers in an organization.

Some of the titles that such lower level managers hold are: Office Manager, Shift Supervisor, Department Manager, Foreperson, Crew Leader, Team Leader and Store Manager.

Supervisors are responsible for the daily management of line workers who actually produce the product or offer the service.

Every work unit in the organization has supervisors or first-line managers. Most employees interact with these supervisors on a daily basis. Hence, it is crucial that these supervisors should be capable of motivating the employees and get them to give their best performance.

Generally, individuals in line positions such as sales executives, production line worker or individuals in clerical jobs are promoted as supervisors. So, usually these people do not have any formal education in management.

Performance Appraisal (PA) is the process that is used to evaluate the personality, performance and potential of the employees of an organization. It is a process supervisors can use for evaluating and communicating to an employee how he or she is performing the job and establishing a plan for improvement.

Through a performance appraisal, supervisors can evaluate an employee’s current and/or past performance relative to certain set performance standards. According to Newstrom, “It is the process of evaluating the performance of employees, sharing that information with them and searching for ways to improve their performance’’.

It is the step where the supervisor finds out how effective he has been at supervising and leading his subordinates. It is recommended that in addition to an annual formal performance appraisal, informal performance appraisals should be conducted by supervisors at least two or three times a year.