(Read my other articles in http://santhiprinting.blogspot.in/)

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INTRODUCTION

It is said by many a thousand times, 'your people are your greatest asset, and you need to develop them'. The immediate question will be how to develop them? Though many ways are available to develop personalities, yet in the industry, the career development programs are the best to develop a person which unfortunately remain untapped by senior executives due to deadlines on production activities and budget constraints in mind.

There is a saying -'as you sow, so you reap'. Instead of allowing the employees to move on with fixed mindset like a saddled horse, one can mould the employees career with development programs so that their mindset will broaden thus indirectly increasing their efficiency level which in turn will bring better results in the end results in your organization.

Few years back the now defunct Security Printing Services, a consultancy firm in Bangalore headed by me worked out a Career Development Program to provide guidance to certain set of cadres working in the industries, especially the Supervisory group who are the vital link between the Management and the Workmen chain as many supervisors are not aware of their vital role.

Many Supervisors do not know how to work in an industry to increase productivity, how to create quality added services, do not know the behavioral pattern either of their own or that of the workmen working under them or how to reactivate the duds. They lack

communication skill, do not know how to report the matters both technical and on humans, how to be self disciplined and how to motivate the subordinates to create and maintain a serene working atmosphere which will have long bearing in improving the work culture in the work areas. Those supervisors working in the Organizations have to first understand what they can do and what they cannot.

The excellence of any organization depends on the willingness of their employees providing quality added services as well as maintain workable culture. Human resource development and training are intimately inter linked. One should remember that the entire career development program of the organization need to be re-engineered in tune to the changing environment in the upcoming industries. The revamped career development program would improve the human resources in the organization and help lower the attrition rate. Keeping all those factors in mind, Security Printing Services shaped the program in such a manner that the Supervisors and the Senior level workers understand their responsibilities for self improvement to meet the end goals of the Organization or the targets.

In every industry by way of methodical working, the workers or supervisors may have developed skills in a particular work culture beyond which they may not know and in the monotonous work culture they fail to notice the fast developing changes in the work culture taking shape in other industries where manual labor is gradually modified to increase productivity with different work culture using more machineries and equipments. Therefore at some point of time they have to be made to realize that they too need to swim in that direction for survival. Therefore the program specially developed by SPS, highlighted the importance of working in fear free, tension free and anxiety free atmosphere and understand their limitations in working sphere. They must know how to control wastage, how to be self disciplined by controlling their mind etc.

From the 'Career development and mind re orientation (Cadmop)' program file of Security Printing Services, I have reproduced below briefs on the role and responsibilities of Supervisors and Supervision for the benefit of those who desire to learn and understand Supervision.

Supervision and Leadership

Supervisor means a person who monitor the activities that goes on in his section or an area in an Organization. He is the first vital link in the chain of Management and other workers.

Considering various acts of Supervisors, one can safely conclude that the following factors contribute to good supervision:

Good supervision paves way to achieve desired end results smoothly and contribute to good working environment. Good supervision is based on clearly defining and understanding the role of supervisors.

A strong supervisory team contribute to positive work environment.

Every Supervisor perform dual role

Every Supervisor's role has inherent competencies such as managing both production processes and those people working under them. The dual role which they have to perform include :

to function as group leader in urgent need put in their own physical energy ( like that of a worker) to

complete the cycle of process he is engaged in. Every Supervisor's role is dual because portion of supervisor's time is spent on

supervisory activities such as managing workers under them, guiding them, admonishing and correcting them wherever necessary and activate them towards better efficiency for higher productive activities .

The other small percentage of their time is spent on performing technical activities along with co workers to achieve intended results.

Once crucial question that arise before us is, instead of simply guiding the workers who are required to perform certain functions during process activities, is it necessary for a Supervisor to engage himself in the same technical activities in person along with the worker? Will it be viewed as good supervision? Will the act then not lower their status? These notions are orthodox views. The changed environment in work culture around global industries view it differently.

Always it is not necessary for the Supervisor to perform the activities in person. Working alongside with the worker at time of extreme need when the worker is unable to perform the correct function will enhance their stature and give them respect. Such an act will also instill fear in their mind when they realise that the person supervising them is practical, is capable of carrying out his work in their absence and therefore they cannot fool him.

The Supervisor however will not perform the work of a worker continuously. It will be done on rare occasions. In many of the organizations the expertise of employees being supervised is very low as they have been trained to do only a particular job in a methodological fashion and any deviation will confuse them. Therefore on such occasions the Supervisor acts as a practical teacher guiding the worker for completing the process activity. Such occasions arise when a new worker join an organization or the existing workers are required to perform function in a different area or machines. The other situation which may call for the effective intervention of the Supervisor is when greater complexity of the goals and responsibilities within the function are required to complete the task in time.

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Principles and Objectives of supervision

Every Supervisor should have few objectives in mind while working .

His objective should be not only to build a successful career for himself, but also successfully implement the objectives of the organization.

To guide the workers for the achievement of a specific task and ensure that the employee so assigned the task work towards the organizational target goal.

To serve in the organization as efficiently as possible competing with others so as to survive in every changed environment.

To have good reputation amongst the staff working around him and earn the name 'the best Supervisor'.

To compete with others showing more and more efficiency in each and every task that he undertakes.

At periodical intervals conduct self analysis to assess whether he has completed the tasks assigned to him fairly well than the previous periods so that the shortcomings if any noticed can be eliminated in future.

Enhancing his supervisory competencies. Creating opportunities to improve quality added services by improving work

procedures wherever necessary. Making safety the top priority in the unit work site.

Functions of the Supervisor

The general functions of the Supervisor include following activities such as:

Planning in the work unit and Scheduling the work:- Work unit planning and scheduling of various tasks involve establishing target goals for the work unit being supervised to meet the requirement of the organization. The planning should ensure that the work unit under his supervision contributes to the achievement of Organizational goal in the best manner.

Carve out priorities of the task/work assigned :- As a efficient supervisor one need to first identify level of satisfaction of employees being supervised and when lack of positive energy surfaces, then take qualitative measures to meet the targets, and attempt to reduce cost of services in some ways so as to offset the loss on product sale.

Identifying the weaknesses:- One of the basic functions of the Supervisor is to identify the weak areas which may cause production upsets, in consultation with his trusted team members from the employees to determine appropriate corrective activities. The supervisor is responsible for executing the tasks without interruption and therefore he has to oversee the activities at the level of

individual employees as well as managing the set tasks at the work unit level also.

Developing the work team and assigning work : Since the supervisor determines the skills, knowledge and capabilities of the employees working under him he has to assign task to the most appropriate individual. When assigning work to employees, for each activities the supervisor needs to consider not only what each employee is capable of doing, but also what assignments will provide greater challenges and development to them which will be beneficial to the organization in the long run.

Implementing the work process : Achieving the target goals and objectives involve tracking the progress of work and assignments given to the individual employees. The tracking process should truly reflect the work cycles within the work. Supervisors should develop their own method for tracking the progress that provides them with enough information to identify impediments detrimental to the task in hand and resolve them at the right time without overly burdensome to either themselves or to their employees. The impediments could arise in the form lack of skills and lack of knowledge of the workers to understand the task, or short time available to complete tasks, or even extraneous factors such as lack of coordination issues with other work units etc. Once everything is identified and settled the supervisor implement the program to achieve its goals and objectives.

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......................functions of the Supervisor

Do not be a task master, always be a guide : - The role of a Supervisor is not that of the authoritarian taskmaster. Supervisors are expected to guide their employees and not to micro-manage every movement of him or his activities or tasks while accomplishing the task entrusted to him. Guidance means providing direction, moral support and encouragement as required to carry out the assigned activities and tasks. Additionally, as a guide, Supervisors need to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of employees and suitably tap their strengths to improve weak areas instead of finding fault in each and every step they make. Even if some mistake is committed it should be politely pointed out in the beginning and one should be hard only to uncorrectable employee.

performance of the employees in a suitable manner for smooth functioning in the organization and their progress be evaluated in periodical intervals for achieving the end results. Monitoring does not mean shadowing the performance activities of the employees or to come to some conclusion instantly on his limited

performance. The behavioral pattern of employees working under him will be watched and suitably monitored to higher authorities at a suitable time when the supervisor finds it difficult to handle.

Disciplinary actions :- The first action on the erring employees will be initiated by the Supervisors when all attempts to improve his performance fails. Supervisors are required to carry out disciplinary actions with employees as and when required to ensure positive work environment. In most of the organizations Supervisors are required to review the yearly performance of all of their employees.

Monitor performance :- Time to time the Supervisors should monitor the Motivating the employees:- Supervisors are not only responsible for taking disciplinary actions alone, but will have to ensure that work unit under him successfully achieve the targeted goals of the Organization. In this direction the most useful tool available with them is motivating the employees working under them keeping in mind that their growth depends on the growth of the organization and the Supervisor himself. How do they motivate the employees since they have almost nil scope in offering some sort of incentive to employees?

Motivation does not mean extracting more work by offering inducements or making one to show higher performance for giving cash incentive, promotion etc. Supervisors can use a number of motivational techniques some of which are:

1. Providing positive feedback to the higher management on the achievements of individuals which should also be made known to the employee themselves.

2. Persuading unwilling workers to work hard for achieving targeted goal and resort to adverse reporting only when all efforts to bring the employee on track failed to yield the desired result. This should also be done in full knowledge of the employee who may correct himself on knowing the facts fearing administrative action.

3. Never rush to the higher ups reporting petty matters and instead sort out issues at unit level to infuse confidence in the minds of employees working under him.

4. Assigning challenging task to individuals within unit work level for testing their skill and then proper reporting to higher authorities on the performance of those really skilled employees in full knowledge of the employee himself who may feel that some one above him is helping him in his career development.

5. Providing guidance, support and parting with the techniques which they have learnt by (supervisors) experience over the years for better yield .

6. Keep consulting trusted lots in hour of crisis and when positive result is achieved out of the discussion, give credit to the employees whose valuable suggestions contributed to the cause and ensure that the fact is made known to the higher authorities in full knowledge of the employee to infuse more confidence on him.

Leading the team:- What leadership qualities are required for the Supervisor to lead the team for creating better working atmosphere ? :-

Not an yes man always to either Management or the Worker. The facts are to be conveyed to higher Management and as disciplined soldier but their advice be followed unless otherwise such advise according to the Supervisor may bring in negative result. The duty of the Supervisor is to express the true opinion, but remain a committed soldier.

Displaying total commitment to the work. Strict in work, but humane in other aspects. Interacting effectively between higher management and the subordinates to sort

out misgivings. Displaying true values and belief in life to the best extent possible. Remain neither too close with workmen nor far away from them too. Communication only on work to work basis avoiding loose talks and gossiping in

work area but at the same time give impression that they are one amongst them. Never allow others to divert their true actions or attention in work.

Never look everything with suspicion as many ignorant slips in performance may have genuine reasons.

Always differentiate the relationship between himself and the management on one side and himself and the workers on the other side.

In the event of an unfortunate incident the supervisor first open up the dialogue with the errant workers either directly or through his trusted friends to convince them that what they are doing is wrong. Till the mission to convince them failed one should not aggravate the situation to go out of hand.

Communication

Communication is a key competency issue for supervisors. Communication means conveying some message either verbally or in writing. The Supervisors are responsible for communicating with everyone within the organization in the manner understandable by them. One of the most important part of communication is reporting on technical issues and the other on employees' behavior. Communication also covers conveying the messages from higher ups to the employees or vice verse at times of dispute or some program being envisaged for better productivity.

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To communicate the messages in the most appropriate and clear manner certain amount of practice will be necessary. Therefore every Supervisor will have to develop their own skill in communication unless otherwise the official mode of communication has established standard within the organization. The back door communication in unofficial manner is different if the Supervisor and the higher officials are in secret agreement to keep in knowledge whatever is happening in the work units so that at the time of crisis such information may be helpful. This is mostly practiced by every industry.

However there may be established formats in which the technical issues like breakdown of machineries and equipments or technical snags affecting productivity are reported, while reporting the indiscipline, insubordination or quarrel amongst workers affecting productivity will be different and there can not be established formats as each case will be different versions. The reporting on such matters should be clear in all senses instead of loading them with unwanted narration like that of story writing. To develop the art of clear communication,

the Supervisors are therefore advised to read in their leisure time the earlier written reports available in their units and learn from them.

These two types of communication are very important in an organization and the manner in which such communication is made will automatically reflect the efficiency of the Supervisor. Sometimes the communication may remain verbal followed by written one on the same subject at later stage. In such cases the Supervisor may have to be cautious a in maintaining the same true content, lest changes in tone and tenure may fire back on them. Therefore it would be safe for the Supervisors to diaries such events and expressed views for future references. In respect of productive activities, the Supervisors are responsible for evaluating the preliminary results achieved against the targets and communicating the results to their manager as and when asked. Before submitting the results the draft for communication is prepared detailing the reasons for failure in meeting the targets along with his own expert opinion conveying how best such gaps could be addressed in future. Let us now briefly see how the reporting is done.

Reporting on Technical matters

In the case of technical problems or breakdown of the machineries or equipments the Supervisor's note should give a brief account of the problem covering technical aspects- whether such a problem was noticed earlier, their causes and how they were addressed earlier without narrating like story telling. Generally the short but pointed technical notes are submitted to take quick decisions and interim funding wherever needed. One can follow a system of their own manner in reporting, which however should match with past reports on similar problem so that when compared they will reveal uniformity before taking appropriate decisions.

This is why the best Supervisors always keep a personalized diary recording day to day events and technical problems noticed in the day to day work which may have surfaced time and again and how they were addressed. Such dairying will come very handy while reporting technical issues in the most appropriate manner.

Every Supervisor may make it a practice to timely communicate the technical problem that affected productivity on its first occurrence itself to proper authorities concerned like maintenance department. Always ensure that the details of the technical problem is fully documented with due date and time of their occurrence and all such documents are carefully kept in file. The details in such documents may contain the following:

1. The type of problem that occurred. 2. How frequently the problem recurred. 3. The details may include date, day and time. 4. Nature of problem - whether the machine itself malfunctioned or malfunction

occurred due to wrong operational technique of the employee. If so the details. 5. Changes in setting, parts replaced if any to correct the problem. 6. The names of personnel who attended the problem. 7. The total time taken to set right the problem or improvement made. 8. Whether it was operational error, or mischief by some one or machineries and

equipments malfunctioned. 9. How did the mishandling occur.

5 Reporting on employees

Reporting on employees is different from reporting technical problems. Whenever a problem connected to workmen occurred, the Supervisor will have to first determine the seriousness of the situation and the appropriate response required before rushing in to report. The first reaction over such incidents is to take stock of situation in cool and composed manner unless the incident involved fist fights leading to bloodshed or accidents which of course are serious enough to prima facie report without second thoughts.

While reporting any incident involving employees, accidents or expressing his opinion on any issues involving employee problems, the Supervisor needs to be cautious and act in fair manner without prejudice in mind towards any particular group of employees. This is where maintaining personalized diary with day to day recording of even minor matters will prove helpful at some stage. If the situation involving incidents of employee or employees is not alarming, then the Supervisor should first show positive approach to discipline the employees by exercising his personal wisdom, discuss pros and cons of the incident to lead the employees to the path of good behavior in future. This will pave way to implement progressive discipline in the work units and therefore the Supervisor needs to consider appropriate time and place for the disciplinary actions to correct the uncorrectable employees.

Unless corrective actions taken with his own wisdom failed and patient approaches exhausted, one should not rush to reporting which should be final but forceful to instill fear in the minds of subordinates that the Supervisor above them is humane, but at the same time when limit of patience is crossed he will fire with gun (act). Once reported it is expected that the disciplinary process happen reasonably in short time without causing undue delay lest next process of indiscipline will surface. At each stage in the correction process the supervisor should meet the employee in private and discuss the issues by explaining issues with reason. If need be a confidant employee is also associated to be witness to such process. Progressive discipline is a patient process involving mind conversion of employees misbehaving in the workplace. This process will be slow, but should be steady to give scope to the employee to improve himself as every act of misconduct by him may not

have been done intentionally and their sudden burst out may have been borne out of anger or emotion. However, if some of the rogue employees fail to make use of the good gesture from the Supervisor the end result of a progressive discipline process should be severe penalty if necessary even termination from service. Remember that the ultimate reporting suggesting harder actions should happen only after giving reasonably long rope and all avenues of progressive discipline failed to yield the result. In any case no indiscipline that affect productivity improvement should be allowed and nipped in bud itself.

Quality added services- Various other approaches

Ego is the worst enemy of an individual. Everyone in the industry, irrespective of their status, expect that they be respected and recognized whether they have admirably carried out the duty or otherwise. They long for recognition in some way or the other. This is an inseparable nature of a human. In view of this fact, the employees working under a Supervisor should be handled psychologically by exploiting such sentiments to ensure serene working atmosphere. Many of the Japanese industries have been practicing a technique by which they are able to not only improve the quality of the products produced by them, but also improve the behavior and efficiency of the employees. Some of the general practices adapted by them is reported to be the following:

There is no harm in saying simple 'hello' when you first meet them at the start of the day and say 'goodbye the end of the day. This does not mean that you are very close to them. It only conveys the symbol of respect on others.

Spending few minutes of chatting with the employees can keep lines of communication intact and set positive tone for future communications.

Say 'thank you' for even an unimportant or small job done. Be specific while thanking for the task done by saying something like ' wonderful job done, keep it up. Thank you' or 'But for your effort, may be this job would not have been completed in time. Thank you'. The word 'thank you' is only symbol of good gesture.

Even though one need not interact as personal friend or maintain family friendship with co employees, personal touch like inquiry on their health on telephone, sending messages through someone or personal visit especially when employee fall seriously ill or some calamity occurred in their houses, greet them on their birthdays, wedding days etc will help create pleasant relationship which lay platform for effective communication in future when necessary.

Conveying to the employees about positive comments that the Supervisor got from others about them and simultaneously appreciate them from his side too.

Whenever called in Official meetings, the Supervisor should not fail to acknowledge the efforts or skills of the work team whenever they have successfully achieved the targeted results. The compliments of higher authorities along with what he conveyed in the meeting in respect of the target achieved

should be briefly made known to the employees. This can be source of inspiration for others.

Another important aspect that gives soothing effect in the minds of everyone working in the work area is cleanliness as everything starts from cleanliness and serene atmosphere in work place. Therefore the Supervisors may ensure that the work area under him is maintained neat and clean.

Systematically sort out workable and non workable items in the work place and keep them well arranged and organized for use or for disposal in future. With self discipline, the behavioral pattern of every one around the Supervisor will also drastically change.

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Useful tips for better Supervision

Analyze with cool mind the important task given to you. First thoroughly understand what needs to be done to achieve the targeted goal and then you may workout deadlines for completing such activities and assign duties accordingly to complete the process.

To achieve the targets you may have to pick up the right group, even if it means consulting your higher official. You have to ensure that a highly motivated and skilled employees who are expert in such tasks are picked up.

Assign the task to the said group with clear instructions on how you desire to achieve the targeted goal. The instruction must include the deadline specified for each step to accomplish the target.

Once you assign the task to other you must carefully monitor the progress and issue instruction only if you find the deadlines for each steps are not met and the cushion given for it also exceeded.

Avoid showering favoritism to any particular person in the group. Give due respect in dealing with the employee working under you is older than

you. You can be strict to them but use language which is not offensive wounding their respect.

You can praise the abilities of a worker in front of others, but do not compare him with another worker who is not efficient, and continued to be present in the group.

While admonishing someone be cautious that it is not done in front of others, particularly if the employee happens to be aged person.

Avoid frequent use of promoting 'I' in every work done. Whenever you hear of a new product which will help boosting productivity,

diarize them with addresses if possible. They can come handy whenever modernization takes place and you can offer suggestion from your side.

In every industry there will always be objectionists who will discourage every move. It should not therefore prevent you from holding group discussions in hour of need. Ignore comments of objectionists and go with majority views, sometimes accepting even their views with reservation as the views according to the Supervisor may need to be modified. Doesn't matter. Take the majority views as guidance for better. In industries where quality circle exist, such meetings are common.

CONCLUDED