Are Weak Managerial Skills Driving High Attrition in Manufacturing? Let's Discuss!

Hi All,

I would like to discuss regarding managerial abilities as one of the factors for high attrition.

I have observed that profiles received in the recruitment process for managerial levels have some similarities. I have observed that candidates work for a reasonable time period in junior positions, i.e., 4.5 years in Chemist / Officer levels in each employment. But when they opt for a change with a rise in position, i.e., Executive, their span decreases to 2.7 years. And when, by virtue of their experience (number of years), they demand Asst. Manager and above positions as department in charge. Now here the average tenure gets less than 2 years (1.8 or so).

The above observations I have made in the Manufacturing sector. During interactions with line managers, I found that lack of managerial capabilities like priority setting, work distribution for shifts, and inability to follow up the pending work make things difficult for them. Since the position (dept. head) carries with it a lot of responsibilities, they feel pressure and look for a change. And since the employment market is having too many vacancies, they get absorbed somehow.

Further, they find it easy to opt for a change rather than upgrading themselves in managerial abilities.

The above is based on my observations and interpretations. Do you feel the same or would like to share something else?

How can we contribute to improving the situation?

Has someone done something on such aspects? Can he/she share experiences?

Regards,

- Hiten

Hello Hiten,

Very good observations, but then again, I agree with you. The problem arises when employers select the wrong people for their managerial positions for the wrong reasons.

> How can we contribute to improve the situation?

Hire competent employees who have adequate or better talent for their jobs. It is the lack of adequate talent that causes most managers to fail. There is little an employer can do to increase an employee's job talent, so talent must be hired.

Bob Gately
gately@csi.com

Hi Hiten,

It's interesting to read your email and the maturity of the observation. I have been in manufacturing and engineering setups for the past 12 years. I do agree with you on the genuine need to update and improve the behavioral values of an individual from a purely professional point of view to manage the "inner" change instead of "outer" materialistic change.

Often, employers are in a rush to find someone who meets 10 to 20% of their expectations in the interview panel that only lasts for an hour or so. I have interviewed many people and have developed a methodology of situation-based questionnaires on topics like decision-making, planning and organization, technical skills, leadership, communication, diversity, etc. These aspects carry a weightage of close to 50%, along with real core experience of 50%, to select a candidate based on a consensus.

Thanks,
Kannan

Hi!

I could find two ways to address the situation:

1. To check for managerial abilities during the selection procedure.
2. Develop the managerial abilities after joining.

For the first option, I tried Psychometric Tests and Tests for Emotional Intelligence. Here, the issues encountered were below-average understanding of English and a lack of knowledge of terminologies used in Psychology. Furthermore, the candidates tend to give answers which they believe they should give in order to 'look nice/good'. Consequently, they provide answers that do not accurately reflect themselves. The concept of self-assessment is lost here, as there is not a high level of clarity about psychological terminologies among line functionaries.

While the second option can be attempted, it requires time for training and is challenging to address the needs of multiple managers simultaneously. Typically, managers do not open up in the presence of their peers, making group sessions less effective in improving soft skills. Additionally, with the average tenure in managerial positions being around 2 years, it becomes even more challenging to develop managerial abilities in a short period.

You might think that I am only sharing problems and challenges. Despite the difficulties in developing managerial abilities, I have continued working on it, although I have given up on the first option.

I would appreciate hearing your opinions on this matter and would be obliged if you could share some details of your questionnaire.

Thanks!

- Hiten

Dear Sir,
give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for life.
Thanks for the link provided. It has got very good material. I am fed for the day. But one problem I encountered is that in the page through link was supposed to be followed by three more pages. After going through the first page, when I clicked on page 2, it opened in to the larger (unscreened for manageral skills) bank which had more than 20 pages. How to access the screened bank?
Further, earlier I tried to type the topic in "type search query" and I got the list of posts but not the such type of bank of ppts. Please teach me to fish.
Also I wanted to discuss and have views and experience of others. So I put the post for discussion.
Thanks again !
- Hiten