The people strategy has to be part of the business strategy and needs to be well embedded into the organisation’s culture, driven top-down and clearly communicated to line managers. Senior leadership needs to recognise the crucial role of line managers in delivering the people agenda and how they impact on the business through employee engagement, retention, talent management, employee performance and productivity. Line managers’ KPIs and performance objectives must reflect their influence on employees in a way that measures their positive impact on employee engagement and organisational productivity.

With regards to leadership support for line managers, the 2018 CIPD HR practices in Ireland survey found that close to half of respondents believed that there is lack of development and support for line managers. HR has to devolve suitable people policies and practices to line managers as they are the real implementers. 

But the question is, how do you implement policies or practices you do not have knowledge of? For line managers to effectively carry out this responsibility, it is important that they develop the necessary skills and behaviours. However, this is linked to another issue raised in CIPD’s research as over one quarter of respondents mentioned a lack of senior management commitment to learning and development. While 82% agreed that individual learning objectives are discussed with staff, only 54% agreed that managers engaged with informal feedback on learning. 

Thus, the question is, why leaders do not support line managers to enable them deliver on the people management agenda of the organisation? If senior leaders believe and value people as their greatest asset and believe that line managers are the key connection to employees, then line managers’ role as people managers has to be a recognised strategic part of the business.

Previous CIPD research has shown that positive business performance has a correlation with line managers’ ability to improve people performance. It is beneficial for the organisation and employees when line managers are supported to develop the necessary skills in people management and have quality standards to deal with people through adequate training and development. This will help to promote a culture that can drive team performance, employee engagement and productivity. In a fast changing world, an organisation’s success is to a large extent being measured by the level of employee engagement and performance. It is important to ensure employees are engaged to reduce any negative impact on a team’s performance.

In selecting line managers, a thorough process that will ensure the right people are selected for the right job is required. Organisations need to critically assess roles and clearly design jobs and ensure adequate behaviour and skills in people management are embedded as a critical requirement for every line manager role.

In conclusion, organisations need to invest in training and developing their line management in people management skills and behaviour. This needs to be well-articulated in the business strategy, internalised and embedded into the organisational culture to guarantee its sustainability. A clear articulation of roles, responsibilities and performance objectives is important to ensure there is sufficient monitoring, feedback and reviews. Most importantly, it needs to be linked with key metrics and performance indicators that measure the impact on the culture and performance of the business. Also, the leadership needs to acknowledge that in view of the fast paced business environment, line managers’ people responsibilities are complex and therefore they require support and development to make them more effective in their dynamic role as people managers.

According to Peter Cheese, CEO CIPD, ‘Success goes beyond HR, to the development of business leaders who have a good understanding of the human side of business such as culture, team performance, team dynamics, etc'.