Management by exception reporting

I am a newly promoted supervisor who assumed the post after 10 years as a rank-and-file worker in one bank. Tell me, how should I be able to effectively supervise more than 12 workers under my care without necessarily checking their work everyday, which is impossible anyway? -- Bull Strong

Pope John XXIII said the best way is to "see everything, overlook a great deal, and correct a little." You can see everything if there’s a clear job standard and goals for all. Then you can overlook a great deal if they can comply more than the average expectations and correct a little for infraction.

You can do all three through management by exception reporting. You’ll have an opportunity to use and learn this approach by empowering your people in a way that you’ll allow them to work as free as they can be as long as they comply within certain limits of performance.

It’s easy this way because you can see one or all if they step out of the line.

Any control mechanism can be used for this purpose. Among the established tools are the Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard, David Alexander’s Measurement and Accountability, or even the time-tested Gantt Chart.

You can even create your own system of control to approximate the nature of your business and particular situation.

A general rule includes defining what particular jobs, standards and specifications a worker must accomplish at a given time, say not later than the end of each month.

For example, a teller must service a check deposit within one minute the moment it is presented by a client. The client through a simple notice posted in front of the teller’s cage must know this requirement. The teller is allowed only three deviations from this standard.

This is one control area for you. As long as a teller does not exceed the three-deviation rule, then you are considered to be completely in charge.

COUNSELLING IS LISTENING TO THE EMPLOYEE

As a personnel manager of one small company, I’ve done a lot of employee counselling but I still have to find someone who is honest with himself and his faults. Is there a better way for people like these employees? -- Rowdy Color

No one wants counselling -- only corroboration to what people do and say. But tell me. Isn’t that when you do counselling, you must also do active listening?

You must recognize that there are certain rules you wish to follow when you do counselling. First and foremost, you must allow the employee to control the direction of the counselling session.

This may shock you for a while, but let me explain. As I’ve told you earlier, counselling is giving an employee an ear or a crying shoulder. Counselling is giving an employee the opportunity to say something or a mouthful about his or her predicament. It must not be confused with other management action -- like discipline for instance.

A counselling session must be designed to help employees unburden themselves or to get worries off their chest. The nature or cause of an employee problem is not important. What is important is the fact that an employee has confidence in you as a mentor.

Recognize that when you counsel, you must listen. You must listen actively and patiently to what the employee has to say before making any comment. And you must refrain from criticizing or giving advice to the employee. Give it a thought and allow the problem to sink in before giving a professional advice -- preferably during a follow-up session.

Further, never argue with the employee. Clarify the thoughts but not to the point of challenging his or her views or perceptions.

My experience with thousands of employee encounters shows that productive counselling happens only if one is patient with the employees. Maybe it won’t work with all troubled employees, but I’m sure that it will work on most of them, if you only care to listen.