The Hindu Business Line : Managing the ‘supervisor’ workmen

Conspicuous by their presence in any modern organisation, these workmen stand out for certain characteristics, absent in their peers: An insatiable desire to learn concepts, the ability and the willingness to take on additional responsibilities, contribute to team work and team-building and always talk optimistically. Of course, they also stand out for another simple reason — they work far beyond their shift hours and interact willingly with supervisors. Over a pe riod of time, they literally do what supervisors — mostly front-line supervisors — do. They possess far better skills than regular workmen. It, thus, becomes important to manage and develop these ‘supervisor’ workmen.

Every organisation should develop a clear strategy for this. Guided by the professional expertise of HR consultants, some firms have gone in for what are called “self-managed work teams”. They are autonomous groups, guided by a leader chosen from the team. This model has two phases: Enablement and empowerment. The workmen are first trained in all aspects of shop-floor management — production, enhancement of productivity, safety, use of simple statistical techniques, continuous improvement, and the like. Once fully trained, they are empowered to take decisions in the particular team and contribute to organisational goals. From among the workmen, who have multiple skills, the leaders are chosen by rotation, usually for two years.

Even if many organisations cannot go in for this model in the short-term they can perhaps sponsor such workmen for special courses Since such workmen lack skills in written and spoken English, they can be trained in language skills Regular supervisors should be firmly instructed to deal with these workmen well and not kill their enthusiasm.

‘Supervisor’ workmen can be made opinion leaders in organisational environments that have had a history of troubled industrial relations. Simple pep-talk, personal enquires, sanction of special loans for education of children, and so on, can go a long way in enabling these workmen connect more meaningfully to managerial work and organisational objectives. The CEO should also take special care to talk to such workmen periodically.

‘Supervisor’ workmen can be made important members of cross-functional teams, with clearly-defined responsibilities. . However, any methodology followed in motivating ‘supervisor’ workmen should not demotivate the others, who may not possess all qualities of the former, but are above-average performers.

There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach; the exact methodology of motivating and developing the workmen will vary in each organisation and depend on many situational variables such as readiness, the growth needs of individual employees, the short- and long-term objectives of the organisation, and so on.

If ‘supervisor’ workmen are not properly moulded and motivated, there is the danger of their moving to competitor organisations at higher salaries and perks. Since employee attrition — even at the workmen level — is very high today, neglecting ‘supervisor’ workmen is something that no management can afford.

(The author is with Brakes India Limited, Sholinghur.)

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