Poor Supervision

Poor Supervision in a Business Can be Surprisingly Harmful

Supervision is an extremely vital part of a workplace that intends to maximize its success potential.  It naturally follows, then, that poor supervision in a workplace is among the primary obstacles to achieving potential successes by a business.  After all, employees, no matter their task, must have the proper instruction and training to ensure that they are doing their jobs correctly, and with minimal risk of error or injury.

After the initial training has been completed, supervision remains necessary for continuing skill and knowledge development among employees.  It is for this reason that many businesses today refer to their supervisors as coaches.

When a company has poor supervision, there is not enough responsibility for taking action for the prevention of problems, mistakes, accidents, and injuries.  Poor supervision removes a very important part of the employee support process, eliminating the opportunity for reference, learning, and safety. 

Poor supervision also opens the door for unethical behaviors within a company.  With poor supervision, employees commonly feel that their work is not valued by the company, and loyalty is difficult to form – if it forms at all.  Without loyalty, employees are more likely to deviate from acceptable business practices.  Such activities can include theft, decreased employee effort, using equipment without authorization, and falsifying documents, among other things.

Of course, poor supervision doesn’t only mean that there isn’t enough supervision, but can also be the exact opposite, where there is too much supervision.  When employees feel as though they are being too heavily watched and policed, they get the feeling that the company doesn’t trust or respect them.  This increases tension in the workplace and decreases overall employee morale. 

To avoid poor supervision in your business, you should consider supervisors not necessarily to be rule enforcers, but instead, they should be employee support people.  They are the individuals who can assist employees when their work can be improved through different techniques.  They impart safety knowledge and are the people to whom employees can come if they have questions and concerns about their tasks.  A good supervisor should be approachable and a good people-person who knows the different equipment and jobs required by the employees, and is willing to help employees achieve. 

If a supervisor is not present enough, or is too overbearing, then the reaction from employees will only be fear, resentment, and displeasure in their work.  The productivity will not be as good, and the employee turnover will increase.

In a company that intends to maximize its performance and profits, a quality supervisory team should be employed and trained to ensure the very finest results from their individual employee groups. These supervisors should have their own support system, and their importance should be made very clear, to ensure the highest degree of productivity.

Suggest a Company! | Inform a Friend! | Site Feedback.