Chris, Co-Founder at Lumien has been privileged enough to run a webinar with Investors in People CEO Paul Devoy.

The webinar is based around the question – Why has the accidental manager problem not been solved and can be viewed here: https://www.investorsinpeople.com/why-has-the-accidental-manager-problem-not-been-solved/

There are many reasons why ‘accidental managers’ aren’t a good thing. The bottom line is still productivity. When you look at the factors that drive productivity, there is only one group of drivers that businesses can influence with ease. Crucially, these are around leadership effectiveness, vision and values, staff engagement, people development and continuous improvement.

The link between bad management and poor productivity is well established. An improvement of just 0.1% in management effectiveness results in a 10% increase in productivity*. It is worth noting that the UK has a persistent problem of low productivity and we continually lag behind other large economies. By 2025, if current rates of productivity improvement continue, we will be 32% less productive as individuals than people in the US and Germany. If that productivity gap could be halved, it would add £254bn a year to the UK economy, generating higher wages for individuals and greater tax revenues to pay for public services. The more productive we can become as a country, the more prosperous and fairer our society can be.

When we talk about accidental managers and managers who are not managing, lack of appropriate management training and skills are often cited as the cause. Therefore, if we are going to successfully tackle poor people management, we need overcome another, fundamental blocker which is frequently overlooked.

Management behaviours we want

• Regular performance and development discussions
• Meaningful conversations
• Clear, relevant goals and expectations that are
• flexed as priorities shift
• Performance issues tackled as they arise
• Personal development actively supported and progressed
• Feedback given regularly, both positive and constructive
• Open and honest relationships

It’s fairly easy to grasp the benefits of using technology for gathering data. In the case of supporting ongoing people management practices, technology designed for this purpose can provide visibility on which managers are and are not having regular conversations with their team and how frequently they are giving feedback. This is essential not only for identifying where interventions are needed but also for creating accountability.

This is an area Lumien can hugely support in, allowing organisations to understand the wellbeing of their staff across different teams, giving them the ability to support where needed.

To see more about how lumien can achieve this, watch the webinar here – https://www.investorsinpeople.com/why-has-the-accidental-manager-problem-not-been-solved/