Yesterday’s managers were often referred to as “bosses,” and often had the role of telling people what to do and supervising worker bee employees to ensure that jobs were done correctly.
However, today’s higher skilled workers are more educated than ever, and employee retention requires a much more progressive approach that is based on trust and a team attitude, emphasizing the importance of each employees contributions to the greater company or project goal and mentoring and coaching employees to improve upon their existing skills.
It is very common in many of today’s technology and skilled sectors to have employees that know much more about technology and other aspects of the business than even top management does, and more value is placed upon the contributions of individual employees and teams than telling employees how to perform specific tasks.
With more and more college graduates entering the workforce, today’s employees are educated, skilled, and well-trained. For this reason, management’s emphasis is shifting more towards a team-based approach, and managers now serve more as project coordinators than actual supervisors.
With an increasing number of companies and corporations in today’s business world laying off employees like never before, trust is a key factor in any company/employee relationship. In addition, with more skilled workers in the marketplace, many employees will not hesitate to find another company to work for if they feel that their needs are not being met or their career is unfolding in a different direction.
Because finding and acclimating new employees takes a great deal of effort and expense on the part of corporations and business owners, executing a more progressive management strategy that places value on each individual employee and the set of skills that they bring to the table is a worthwhile investment that can increase employee retention, increase productivity, and reduce costs as well.
In addition, more appreciated and productive employees leads to increased innovation and ideas as well, which can contribute to a much more successful company and vision down the road. For those currently pursuing careers or degrees in management fields, and even those who are already in management, this can mean a complete change in job descriptions and requirements in the future, with increased emphasis on communication skills, planning, coordinating, and organizing, as well as teaching and mentoring.
Managers would still be regarded as leaders, but would have the ability to relate to all kinds of people that may be working within an organization and effectively communicate the goals and needs of the company to teams while utilizing each employees individual skill set.
