My best HR management idea: Unique manager training

When HR VP Spencer Kupferman took on the job of making sure new managers got trained properly, he followed all the traditional steps: standard leadership courses, a run-through of organization structure and goals, and ample experience. Something was missing, however, because too many managers were failing — until Kupferman found the missing link.
His story:
Two questions we always asked when we promoted someone to a supervisory job:
1. Can we get them to understand the big picture and how the supervisor fits into it?
2. Will they be able to relate that to the people they supervise?
Being honest with ourselves, we realized we couldn’t always answer yes to both. No matter how well we trained people in the traditional ways, some people got it, and some didn’t.
We needed to make sure everyone got it – and wanted to accomplish the task without paying big money to outside trainers.
What’s important
To solve the riddle, we asked ourselves. What do managers need to understand best to succeed in the job? The answer came when we also asked: What do we as a company need to understand best to succeed?
The answer to both was the same: customers’ thinking. If you don’t understand what customers think and want, you’re doomed.
So, with that in mind, we added a step to our new-supervisor training: customer support.
That’s right. We put new managers in the trenches, training our customers and responding to their questions and complaints.
That way, the new supervisor finds out right away what’s important to the people who are most important for our business – the consumers. The managers also get to hear face-to-face complaints and suggestions they can act on back at the job.
Providing them with that background has given them the tools they need to be effective, enthusiastic supervisors. And since we started that part of the training program, our success rates with new managers has skyrocketed.
(Spencer Kupferman, HR VP, Raleigh, NC)