Making Managers More Productive

A successful manager finds opportunities, assesses issues and mitigates risks simultaneously. People management is a multifaceted role, serving as the cornerstone of your organisation’s daily productivity and leadership. Managers interact with employees, track productivity, provide insight into improving inefficiency and more. Whether in the field, on the floor, or at a desk, every moment of a manager’s time holds immense value for your organisation. Enabling your managers with the right workforce management solution ensures they feel supported and can help streamline operations and enhance productivity. 

Daily Tasks of a Manager 

Regardless of your company’s size, managers face many responsibilities at work every day. Breaking down manager responsibilities can help your team find ways to optimise the manager’s administrative tasks with the right workforce management software.   

Employee Supervision – Managers oversee the training, supervision and evaluation of dozens to hundreds of employees. They are the driving force behind employee performance, addressing queries and concerns directly. Managers also allocate time to connect with their teams to ensure that employees are still content, productive and engaged in their roles. Employee engagement should be a top priority for managers. With the right employee management software managers can support employees with mobile-optimised communication, better work/life balance and career growth.   

Business Performance – Managers implement effective business strategies, prioritise tasks to ensure high-quality and timely completion and meet the company’s financial goals. It’s their responsibility to maximise productivity by ensuring they have the right people in the right place at the right time. From task assignment and deadline management to quality control, managers strive to create satisfied employees and customers and enhance the bottom line. 

Administrative Duties – Managing daily tasks for the team, creating work rosters, approving annual leave requests and shift changes, overseeing projects, resources and documentation—the list is endless. Though not glamorous, administrative tasks are crucial for ensuring smooth business operations. With so many responsibilities, managers cannot afford to lose time on mundane tasks and unnecessary work.  

Imagine a retail manager on the shop floor during a busy Saturday afternoon—a time of peak foot traffic and high sales potential— must leave the floor and spend hours finding a replacement for a last-minute absence because they don’t have the right employee management software.  

Similarly, a manufacturing manager is strategising for the upcoming work week and is interrupted to review annual leave requests. Should approving annual leave requests take precedence over evaluating today’s production targets? Having a tailored workforce management software can streamline administrative tasks that pull your manager’s valuable time away from focusing on employees and business growth. 

Your Managers Deserve More 

The primary challenge is effective task prioritisation. Managers require a workforce management solution to automate processes, streamline operations and prioritise administrative tasks efficiently. An ideal solution can discern urgency, reinforce positive practices and minimise time wastage, enabling managers to focus on critical matters. 

A workforce management solution takes the burden off managers by automating processes and enabling them to prioritise effectively. It automates roster creation, finds issues such as overtime and rostering gaps and fills empty shifts seamlessly. Additionally, it expedites annual leave approvals and delivers instant task updates, empowering managers to act promptly, even whilst on the go. 

The Manager of Tomorrow Lives in the Moment

Future advancements in workforce management software will enhance manager-employee communication and interactions, enabling managers to be more present and providing employees with more autonomy over their time and engagement with the company. Leveraging artificial intelligence, tomorrow’s managers can benefit from features like roster reminders to prevent escalations and location-based tools for enhanced task visibility.   

You count on your managers—and so do your employees, but it’s a job that can’t be done alone. Establishing a solid foundation to keep managers focused on the present will result in increased workplace satisfaction, heightened productivity and the agility needed to make employees feel valued. 

It’s time to leverage workforce management software to automate managers’ administrative tasks so they can focus on improving employee engagement and meeting the company’s goals.  

Use WorkForce Software’s Essential Guide to Selecting Workforce Management Software to find the best workforce management solution for your organisation’s needs.