New BearingPoint Institute research reveals untapped opportunity for a 20% increase in recurring productivity through active management
Amsterdam / London, February 10, 2015 – New BearingPoint Institute research has identified front-line managers have a key role to play in improving business performance. The study draws its findings from 20 years of productivity improvement programs with over 40 blue chip companies, analysing how over 10,000 front-line managers spent their time and identifying where sustained improvements in performance have been achieved. A single key aspect to transforming organizational performance was identified: turning front-line managers into active managers.
According to the study’s findings, the majority of today’s front-line managers are professionals promoted as a result of high performance in pre-management roles, regardless of what those roles might have been. In this way, the promotion into a front-line management position results in the creation of ‘accidental’ managers who typically are ill equipped to perform successfully in their new role.
Brendan Cahill, author of the study, believes many organizations are missing a significant opportunity to boost their productivity – and their bottom line:
Successful businesses are those that increase productivity. Front-line managers actively managing have the potential to unlock substantial, recurring operational improvements within their teams. In most organizations, it is an opportunity that is largely ignored.
Brendan Cahill, BearingPoint Partner in UK
What then is ‘active’ management? Brendan Cahill determines it to refer to the coaching, guidance, assisting and supporting of staff in the effective performance of their day-to-day roles. BearingPoint found that the average front-line manager actively manages no more than 25% of the time with an alarming 35% of total time going to administration related activities. Ideally, a front-line manager should be spending in excess of 60% of its time actively managing.
According to the study’s findings, the key to transforming managers into effective, active managers is a combination of up front development coupled with ongoing mentoring and coaching for a period of at least 12 weeks. This targeted front-line development and coaching was found to lead to performance gains of up to 30% within their teams in just 12 weeks.
To read the full article, please download the BearingPoint Institute paper “Activate your managers to drive performance” which can be found at Walking the walk: making front-line managers successful.
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