Case Study
Management Training
Situation
We were called in by a mid-sized company seeking to standardize its management practices. The company had several offices and there was little consistency from branch to branch how managers evaluated employees. The same level of performance could be rated as “excellent” from one manager, and “poor” from another. Managers stated that there was little connection between accomplishing objectives and who received raises and/or bonuses. The executive team stated that these problems were costing the company a significant amount of lost sales each year.
Intervention
After meeting with senior management to understand the standards that they wished to put in place, we then observed the behavior of managers and employees at several branch offices. Based on this information, we constructed a series of workshops to train managers to work with employees to jointly identify critical goals and objectives and to help managers maintain employee motivation. We developed metrics for evaluating employees. We also provided several weeks of follow-up coaching, both immediately and after six months.
Results
Employee evaluation was standardized across branch offices. Managers and employees were able to better understand, track, and meet objectives. Managers developed better motivational skills, enabling them to help employees stay on task and meet more challenging objectives than before. The company saw a striking increase in sales.