CIPD support for people managers: Introduction for managers

Research shows that good people management is key to employee health, wellbeing and engagement. For example, CIPD research found that poor management style is one of the main causes of work-related stress.

Your management approach is vital because:

• You influence your team’s exposure to organisational sources of stress or wellbeing: you act as the ‘gatekeeper’ to determine how your team sees your employer. 
• You have a key role in identifying and tackling people management issues, for example, you are central to managing employee sickness absence and return to work; your support is essential to help employees manage mental and physical health problems at work; your capacity to manage conflict is vital; and by giving people clarity, guidance and advice, you can prevent and manage poor performance. 

Your management style can make all the difference to whether your team feel healthy, positive and engaged. This is not only a ‘good thing’ in itself, it also influences how people perform. If those who work for you are feeling healthy and engaged, their performance is more likely to be good, they are less likely to go on sick leave, they will feel more motivated to do a good job, and they will be in a better position to deal with problems that arise. 

Each of the five key behavioural areas covered by the CIPD’s people manager support materials contribute to creating a healthy and engaged team. 

Being open, fair and consistent

This behaviour is about:

• Being positive and appreciative: taking a positive approach in interpersonal interactions, avoiding unhelpful criticism and blame.
• Respect and openness: treating everyone with respect, consulting people and being open to other perspectives.
• Remaining calm under pressure: managing emotions, pressures, deadlines and personal issues in order to stay calm and equanimous.
• Being consistent, fair and kind: managing with fairness, impartiality, kindness, integrity and consistency.

Handling conflict and people management issues

This behaviour is about:

• Conflict management: dealing with employee conflicts early, effectively and in an impartial manner, including following up as appropriate.
• Addressing people management issues: supporting people and addressing more severe issues, such as bullying.
• Appropriate support: seeking support for yourself and the team, using organisational resources.

Providing knowledge, clarity and guidance

This behaviour is about:

• Clarity about roles, expectations and feedback: demonstrating understanding of your own and employees’ roles, clarifying expectations and providing clear feedback.
• Guidance and advice: giving advice and guidance when appropriate and making time for people.
• Reliability: being decisive, following up on action points and taking responsibility for problem solving.

Building and sustaining relationships

This behaviour is about:

• Concern for wellbeing: showing empathy, concern and consideration for employees.
• Interest in individuals: taking an interest in employees as individuals.
• Sociability: interacting with employees in a friendly and sociable way.
• Availability: providing opportunities for employees to speak one-to-one.

Supporting development

This behaviour is about:

• Exploring and actively supporting development: taking time to discuss employees’ career development and actively supporting them to develop.
• Development opportunities: offering opportunities and arranging career progression and development for employees.

The CIPD’s people manager support materials will help you to quickly and effectively develop these key behavioural areas so that you can manage your team in a way that promotes their health, wellbeing and engagement.

Managing people well has a range of benefits for you and to your organisation.

First, when a team is healthy, engaged and performing, you are likely to get better results: this might be in terms of productivity, customer/patient care, sales or financial returns; it may also be about better employee retention, reduced sickness absence or fewer grievances and disciplinaries, saving time for you in not having to deal with these issues. Better results and reduced costs are a source of success and satisfaction for the organisation, the team and for you as the manager.

Second, managing in positive, healthy ways, as shown in the behavioural areas covered here, can prevent people management issues from arising, so you don’t have to give time and energy to dealing with them. For example:

• When your management approach creates support and collaboration, for example by building and sustaining relationships, conflict between team members is less likely and people will help one another out if needed.
• When you provide people with clarity about tasks, expectations and how they are doing, you are less likely to find them focusing on the wrong task or getting into a poor performance spiral.
• When your behaviour is appreciative, positive, consistent, and kind, and you remain calm under pressure yourself, team members are less likely to get stressed.
• When you treat people fairly, openly and with respect, grievances and complaints are less likely to occur.
• When you support people’s development, they are less likely to leave unexpectedly.

Finally, if problems do emerge in your team, you are more likely to know about them at an early stage. If you know your team well and have built good relationships with them, you will be more able to spot conflict, mental health problems, people struggling with their work or with non-work challenges. When people trust you, they are more likely to tell you about these things as soon as they start happening. Being in a position to address issues or refer people to appropriate support early on means they are less likely to escalate into major problems and will save you a huge amount of time.

Of course, this is not just about your team members, it is also about caring for your own health, wellbeing and engagement. If you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t be able to take care of those who work for you. To manage in this world of uncertainty, you need to find a sense of stability for yourself. This is particularly true when it comes to having the capacity to listen, and allow space for employees’ emotions, and to manage the complexity of human relationships. Sometimes ‘giving someone a good listening to’ is the best thing you can do for their wellbeing – even if there is nothing you can do to resolve the issues they are raising.

As mentioned above, having healthy, engaged, high performing employees is part of looking after yourself because you will get better results and be able to address problems that arise before they become crises. Good trusting relationships with your team can also mean that the team is there to support you with challenges that arise in your work and life: you can delegate tasks to them, draw on their ideas and expertise, and gain a sense of meaning from the team’s achievements and appreciation. So, caring for your team is part of caring for yourself and vice versa.

Importantly, being a caring, positive, supportive manager will be easier if you can take a caring, positive, supportive approach to yourself. Compassion and self-compassion are closely inter-linked and both draw on a sense of common humanity. When we recognise that struggles, emotional and physical pain, and personal inadequacy are all part of our shared human experience – that they are experiences that we all go through, rather than something that happens to ‘me’ alone – we are much better able to be kind to ourselves and to others. 

Using the step-by-step guidance you can begin to develop your management approach through a series of simple steps:

• Reflecting and getting feedback
• Identifying strengths and areas to develop
• Planning the action you will take
• Taking action
• Reviewing, celebrating and taking further action.

Short exercises covering the various behavioural areas and an action plan are provided to support you with these steps. All of these resources can be downloaded and saved so that you can use them in your own time. You can also take the behaviour alignment quiz to help you identify where to start.

This will be a worthwhile investment of your time as it will help you adopt a management approach that supports good health, wellbeing and engagement in your team. Your behaviour and the culture you create in your team is the biggest influence on team members’ work experience. The key behavioural areas covered in the guidance and exercises can help you manage your team in a way that saves time and gets better results – all of which is good for your own wellbeing as well as that of your team.