The Truth About Leadership You Need to Know
Investing in your
“First -Line” leaders
is the key to engaging and retaining employees. “First-line” leaders are the first level of leadership in an organization hierarchy and their time is spent managing the day-to-day operations and being accountable for results, serving as the Company representative on most business matters, and leading/developing the workforce.
They are one of the most important people in their employee's life!
Training them on how to build trust, deal with drama, and conducting a “stay interview” with their direct reports not only sets them up for success as leaders but also directly impacts your bottom-line through employee retention.
Investing in your leaders with this type of training has far-reaching benefits for your staff and business.
WHY IS TRAINING LEADERSHIP IMPORTANT
FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
There is overwhelming evidence that the first line leader is critical to business success not only because of their technical expertise but because they drive 80% of their employee’s commitment to the organization.
In many companies, his/her role is generally to direct the work of a limited number of direct reports, often with an unreasonable span of control. First-line leaders are expected to monitor production, enforce plans and policies, report operational results, and quickly escalate issues or problems.
Studies have shown that such leaders often spend 30 to 60 percent of their time on administrative work and meetings, and 10 to 50 percent on non-managerial tasks (traveling, participating in training, filling out paperwork, solving ad hoc problems, or managing customer service issues themselves). They spend only 10 to 30 percent actually managing frontline employees rather than coaching and developing them.
That 10 to 30 percent of time spent managing employees is extremely valuable to your leaders and business. It’s exactly why investing in training is a good idea.
If you want to read more about turnover, start with part one in our three-part series about the biggest problem small businesses face. (Hint, it’s turnover!) Start the series here.
BENEFITS OF TRAINING YOUR
FIRST-LINE LEADERS
One of our past clients had an employee base of more than 150, and a turnover rate of nearly 50% annually. After two years of working with us in a variety of areas including leadership training, we reduced the turnover to 23%. That equals a savings of approximately $170 thousand dollars per year.
If your business is expecting unwanted turnover or difficulty in hiring and developing high performing teams, it’s likely also feeling the strain of those things financially.
The biggest benefits of investing in this kind of training we offer are:
1. Equipping your leaders to do their job at a higher level
2. Reducing turnover through training that engages employees
3. Recovering financial loss from high turnover
If these sound like solutions you’ve been looking for, then training your leaders is the answer. Getting help from First Line HR is the first step to turning things around in your business.
Want to dig a little deeper into hiring and keeping the right person for the job? Take a look at our free guide that includes action steps and tips!
Click the button to download your copy.
HOW FIRST LINE HR HELPS YOU
With over 30 years of coaching and training over 1,000 leaders, First Line HR is equipped to help your business reduce turnover, equip your leaders, and re-engage your employees.
If there’s one thing we have noticed over the years it's that the future of staffing is facing major headwinds. Business owners will continue to be challenged in hiring and retaining high-performing teams. Our goal is to prepare your business to adapt to those challenges.
When first-line leaders apply our simple techniques, they improve the commitment of their employees. Businesses with engaged/committed employees experience lower absenteeism, less turnover, fewer safety incidents, less shrinkage, and higher sales.
GET STARTED WITH FIRST LINE HR
Whether or not you are convinced training your leaders is the way to go, it never hurts to get your foot in the door with an HR consultant. At the very least, we can help steer you in the right direction for your business.