SHRM 11
Role of a Line Manager
• A line manager is responsible for overseeing and managing employees to fulfill business goals.
• They are the main point of contact between the management and the staff. They also provide guidance,
instruction, motivation and feedback to the employees on a day-to-day basis.
• The responsibility of implementing strategy rests with the line managers who ensure that strategies
designed by senior leadership and the management are implemented in a satisfactory manner.
• They’re are also in the best place to identify bottlenecks and carry out course correction in the event of
deviation.
• Line managers need to possess leadership qualities including effective communication of tasks, listening
strategy, grievances handling, and delegation.
• Line managers directly influence employee satisfaction and engagement and, as a result, organizational
productivity.
Role of Line Manager
• While top level management is responsible for formulating organizational strategies, the task of
implementing the strategy happens at the grass root levels of an organization.
• Line managers assigned with making sure that strategies are implemented at lower levels are in the best
place to measure performance, identify bottlenecks with the strategy execution programs and resolve issues
to meet goals in a timely manner.
• Research has also shown that employee engagement is higher when responsibility for sustaining it is spread
throughout an organization.
• When companies take proactive steps to help line managers recognize employees, they are more likely to
reap rewards in the form of better employee productivity, improved customer service, revenue growth and
return on working capital
HR role of Line Managers/ People Managers
• One of the biggest shocks that new line managers face is the amount of HR the role involves.
• A line manager has direct responsibility for everyone in their team.
• This part of the role of a line manager is often the steepest learning curve for new line managers.
• They will be involved whenever HR gets involved with one of their team. This could be an individual-specific
issue, or when HR are rolling out a new policy or procedure, that needs communicating to everyone in the
business.
• Line managers know their team better than anyone else and so are best placed to work with HR to reach the
best outcome.
• Knowing this effective line managers build good relationships with their HR department.
• They know that they will need to work closely with HR day-to-day across a number of areas. In addition, they
know that if they have issues with an employee, HR will be able to offer valuable help and advice in sorting
the problem out.
6 Areas Line Managers Get Involved in HR
• Recruitment – Attract and Engage Talent
• Identifying training needs
• Appraisals – Provide feedback for growth
• Salary recommendations
• Relaying corporate news – Effective Communication
• Supporting well-being -Create successful working relationships
• Line managers are responsible for ensuring the well-being of their team.
• This responsibility ranges from small tasks like rearranging an employee’s workload if they are struggling, to
more important tasks like ensuring that employees have the appropriate safety equipment.
• If an employee has a severe well-being issue (for example suffering from stress caused by an excessive
workload), then the matter would need to be reported to HR so that you can find a combined solution.
• The ability to listen clearly to team members to understand what is going on is another skill that new line
managers need to learn
Line and HR
• What line managers can do
• Prioritise people management
• Collaborate with HR regularly
• What HR can do
• Equip line managers with the right tools and skills
• Ask for line manager feedback
• Take advantage of technology
Class Exercise
• Design a Line Manager 101 to equip a first time line manager to be
an HR Manager also for the teams given below
• 20 min group work. 5 min presentation
Designation Function Business Size of team Type of Team
Manager Sales FMCG 15 Experienced Sales officers
Manager Production Steel 7 Experienced department heads
Manager Projects IT 10 Mix of experienced and fresh techies
Manager Logistics Pharma 4 Experienced department heads
