Line managers have responsibility for directly managing individual employees or teams. In turn, they are managed by a higher-level manager on the performance of those employees or teams.

The term ‘front-line manager’ or ‘first-line manager’ normally refers to those who supervise and manage employees with no supervisory responsibilities, but some will have management responsibilities even if their job title does not have ‘manager’ in it.

Typically, management responsibilities include:

• Day-to-day people management.
• Managing operational costs.
• Providing technical expertise.
• Allocating work and rotas.
• Monitoring and quality assuring work.
• Measuring operational performance.
• Developing people.
• Recruiting and inducting new people to the team.

Managers are also responsible for supporting the wellbeing of their teams. Working conditions can greatly affect people's health and it's the manager's responsibility to, monitor workloads and ways of working, and seek support from occupational health services to deal with cases of poor physical or mental health. Our Health and wellbeing survey found that, although the number of sick days recorded by employers has dropped, ‘presenteeism’, where employees feel the need to work when unwell, and ‘leaveism’, where employees work while on holiday, are widespread. These attitudes are informed by the organisation’s and team’s culture and line managers can play a key role in shaping them.

People management processes are usually designed by HR, L&D or OD specialists within the organisation, but cannot be delivered by them directly without line managers’ support. Examples of such processes include: performance management and recognition, employee engagement, creating and maintaining a learning culture, and supporting employee to achieve work-life balance. Our report Professionalising Learning and Development showed that nearly 80% of L&D professionals feel that traditional views of line managers are a blocker to implementing better ways to improve organisational performance.

Relationship between HR and line managers

The relationship between the HR function and line managers has evolved in recent years. Adjustments in HR delivery have shifted responsibility for many core activities, such as recruitment or objective setting, away from HR teams. The trend towards individualisation of the employment relationship has also placed new burdens and opportunities in the hands of line managers. An obvious example is in pay rises - with collective pay-setting provisions giving way to individual performance-related pay awards in many organisations, the role of line managers has become increasingly influential in determining individual pay increases.

The move to outsourcing transactional HR activities by many organisations has also resulted in more devolved responsibility to line managers to maintain records, input data and manage routine HR activities such as staffing requests, booking training or submitting payroll information. When outsourcing is working well, and managers have appropriate resources, they can access better and more timely information and support to manage their staff more effectively. But where managers’ workloads don’t allow them time to collect relevant information, or the systems used to keep records are cumbersome or inaccessible, there’s a risk that the organisation won’t have an accurate grasp on its people data.

Relationship between L&D and line managers

The relationship between L&D and line managers has also seen a shift. Previously, with L&D working mainly as course providers, managers had no role within learning, even though managers always needed to support the embedding of learning in work practices. Managers are now expected to support their team’s development through coaching and learning on the job. L&D’s role in this relationship is to facilitate the ‘upskilling’ of the line managers so that they can develop their teams. Our research with Towards Maturity on the link between learning and performance highlights the important relationship between L&D professionals and line managers. See also our factsheet on a range of learning solutions to fit individuals’ and teams' needs.

Line managers can make a significant difference in:

• Enabling HR, OD and L&D policies and practices and 'bringing them to life'.
• Identifying learning needs and embedding learning in the workflow.
• Controlling the workflow by directing and guiding the work of others.
• Collaborating with the people profession to support change.

Line managers and individual performance

Research carried out for us by a team at Bath University found that front-line managers play a pivotal role in implementing and enacting HR policies and practices. Where employees feel positive about their relationship with their line managers, they’re more likely to have higher levels of job satisfaction, commitment and loyalty – which are in turn associated with higher levels of performance or ‘discretionary’ behaviour (behaviour that goes beyond the requirements of the job). Our subsequent work with Bath University explores the role that line managers play in two key areas: reward and learning and development.

Our review of evidence on effective performance management approaches also points at line managers’ critical role in assessing and recognising performance through setting specific and challenging goals, monitoring progress and providing feedback, and assessing performance on a regular basis.

Line managers and employee engagement

The increasing focus on employee engagement in the workplace shows that line managers can be especially influential in this area. Our report on the relationship between line management and employee engagement and well-being highlights line managers’ crucial role in balancing the levels of challenge at work – which motivate and engage employees, with the right levels of support – which can reduce stress and increase wellbeing. It’s therefore important to provide line managers with the skills, tools and support they need to make sure they can, in turn, support their own team. The CIPD has developed a series of practical tools to help line managers support employee engagement, health and wellbeing.

To manage people effectively, line managers themselves need to be managed effectively and supported in developing people skills, as well as self-confidence and an understanding of their own role in the organisation. This further emphasises the need for appropriate training and development for newly-appointed managers and ongoing development and support for managers. If managers are the ’face’ of the people profession to employees, the people profession must be part of ensuring this support is in place.

Developing line managers

A general overview on all aspects of management development can be found in our factsheet. A specific example of an effective training programme for line managers to support employee mental health in the financial sector in the UK is presented in our report A new approach to line manager mental well-being training in banks. The COVID-19 pandemic and, often sudden and enforced, remote working have also presented new challenges. Although we are now over the height of the pandemic, many organisations have retained some forms of hybrid working and the lessons learned should be built upon going forward. Our podcast ‘Managing the wellbeing of remote workers’ offers suggestions for line managers on how to approach what could be a challenging situation. 

Many of the qualities and skills associated with higher quality line management focus on the behaviours of the line managers themselves. However, organisations must also ensure they’re developing the environment and culture in which line managers are actively encouraged to show positive behaviours. Our Leadership: easier said than done report outlines the key barriers to management and leadership within the organisational environment. L&D professionals are increasingly seeing their work move into this cultural impact area as they move away from simply booking courses.

In our Good Work Index survey, we regularly track employee satisfaction with the different aspects of line management which provides information on areas where management quality may be falling behind. Our report Real-life leaders: closing the knowing-doing gap provides further information on the gaps in line managers’ skills from the point of view of managers themselves, as well as HR and L&D practitioners.

The role of business partnering

There's a growing emphasis in both HR and L&D teams on business partnering, where people professionals are closely involved in supporting business strategy. This has enhanced the people management aspects of the line manager’s role. Line managers can develop responses and solutions to HR issues together with their HR business partner with more immediacy and alignment to business strategy. For L&D, the business partner’s ability to respond readily to line manager needs for their team creates a much closer and relevant role.

This enables both people and business issues to be considered as part of a wider range of decisions that impact organisational effectiveness. Because the relationship is ongoing, both sides build a better understanding and develop long-term strategies and solutions rather than the HR and L&D functions being brought in to manage issues as they arise. This proactive rather than reactive approach offers better support to operations and impact on the bottom line.

Leading line managers

Well-managed line managers are more likely to lead high-performing teams. Senior management support in developing line managers is critical. The relationships between line managers and their own managers and with senior management tend to make a significant difference to their willingness to display discretionary behaviour in their own management activities, as they reflect the culture of an organisation in their behaviour. For HR and L&D initiatives to be truly successful with line managers, they need to be offered with full senior stakeholder engagement and endorsement.

Generally, line managers are more likely to display the positive behaviours associated with higher levels of performance from those they are managing if they experience:

• Good working relationships with their own managers.
• Good career opportunities 
• A positive work-life balance.
• Participation and involvement in decision-making.
• An open organisational culture that enables them to air a grievance or discuss matters of personal concern.
• A sense of job security.

Contacts

Chartered Management Institute

Books and reports

ACAS. (2016) Managing people. London: Acas.

LOPEZ-COTARELO, J. (2011) HR discretion: understanding line managers' role in human resource management. In: Academy of Management annual meeting, 12th-16th August 2011, San Antonio, Texas.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH AND CLINICAL EXCELLENCE (2016) Workplace health: management practices. London: NICE.

Journal articles

HASSAN, F. (2011) The frontline advantage. Harvard Business Review. Vol 89, No 5, May. pp106-114.

TRULLEN, J., STIRPE, L, BONACHE, J. and VALVERDE, M. (2016) The HR department’s contribution to line managers’ effective implementation of HR practices. Human Resource Management Journal. Vol 26, No 4, October. pp449-470. Reviewed in Bitesize research.

TRUSS, C., SOANE, E. and ALFES, K. (2013) The relationship between line manager behaviour, perceived HRM practices, and individual performance: examining the mediating role of engagement. Human Resource Management. Vol 52, No 6, November/December 2013 pp839-859.

WHITEHOUSE, E. (2019) Will we ever build better line managers? People Management (online). 25 April.

CIPD members can use our online journals to find articles from over 300 journal titles relevant to HR.

Members and People Management subscribers can see articles on the People Management website.