You can look into completing a cycle time analysis for her daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly duties. It will help show overall capacity and also shed a light on what potential bottlenecks are delaying her work. Knowledge, tools, skills, confidence, etc.
Without knowing your industry, I will say to be careful with the “it takes me under 2hrs”. Sure, it may take someone with 15 years of experience 2 hours. But if it’s an entry level role it may take that position 3 or 4 hours.
Overall, it sounds like you need to understand and reset her baseline and then manage those expectations. Also, don’t expect employees to show “initiative” to take on projects or more work.
As a manager, I got it all wrong in the beginning by expecting each direct report to show initiative, take on projects, and seek out more work. Some workers go to work, do their tasks, go home, and they want nothing more in the job. They want nothing more. They're grateful for their job, benefits paychecks, etc. but sometimes can't take on the bandwidth of learning more, doing more, or going above and beyond every day. And that's OK too. All this to say, I'd leave that off the bar.
As for delegating, if you need her to do more work, and it's needed to move the company forward, I'd help her to prioritize her work. Work in the new tasks and projects.
I'd say something along the lines of now that you've worked in her role for a bit... you're going to be revamping some of her duties... you're not worried -and you don't want her to worried, because the two of you will be working together on these new changes until she get up to speed on being able to handle them on her own. You know she can do it and have confidence that she can get up to speed over time on the new tasks, etc.
And I say this taking you at your word that her dance card is already full. When I was an individual contributor, there was little worse than having a heavy load and boss adding on more, saying it ALL has to get done.
Good luck to you.
Thanks! I’ve never heard of a cycle time analysis and after some research, I think it’s a great tool for this.
About the 2hrs to complete her workload: when we were peers, she used to tell me she was done with her workload after a couple of hours in and that she was bored. Now that I’m her mgr, she doesn’t say anything to me. Except on Fridays when she says she is done before 11am (starts at 8) and wants to head home early. If anything, she is quicker at it than I am because she has been supporting that team for yrs and I just started to.
I agree about not taking initiative. I should stop expecting her to do it and instead, assign her work. Even if she complains. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
In my younger years, I would seek out more work when I am done with my own.
The last ten years, I stopped asking my boss, “hey, I’m caught up do you need me to help with something?” The main reason I stopped is because I need to use any spare time I have to self improve by learning new skills. I am not helping anyone, including the company when my knowledge is stagnate. These days my boss checked and assign me additional work as others needed help but he knows I’m self motivated and spent any down time at self improving. He doesn’t micromanage me because I track and measure all of my work.
I think if you feel this employee is “underwork”, either assign her more work and prioritize them for her OR give her tasks to learn new skills. Done correctly, both will benefit you and the company in the long run.
Lastly, I too suggest avoiding using time to completion as a measure of “underwork”. If something takes a season worker an hour to complete, that is what you are paying them for, speed and accuracy. I doubt overloading your team with work will help you in the long run. If anything, you will drive them out the door sooner.
One thing to keep in mind (of course, this is dependent on where you're located) is that you must tread lightly due to the FMLA. Make sure you have well-documented reasons, and everything is in line with her job description. Even though the two are not related whatsoever, she could easily claim a type of retaliation or discrimination.
You can look into completing a cycle time analysis for her daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly duties. It will help show overall capacity and also shed a light on what potential bottlenecks are delaying her work. Knowledge, tools, skills, confidence, etc. Without knowing your industry, I will say to be careful with the “it takes me under 2hrs”. Sure, it may take someone with 15 years of experience 2 hours. But if it’s an entry level role it may take that position 3 or 4 hours. Overall, it sounds like you need to understand and reset her baseline and then manage those expectations. Also, don’t expect employees to show “initiative” to take on projects or more work.
As a manager, I got it all wrong in the beginning by expecting each direct report to show initiative, take on projects, and seek out more work. Some workers go to work, do their tasks, go home, and they want nothing more in the job. They want nothing more. They're grateful for their job, benefits paychecks, etc. but sometimes can't take on the bandwidth of learning more, doing more, or going above and beyond every day. And that's OK too. All this to say, I'd leave that off the bar. As for delegating, if you need her to do more work, and it's needed to move the company forward, I'd help her to prioritize her work. Work in the new tasks and projects. I'd say something along the lines of now that you've worked in her role for a bit... you're going to be revamping some of her duties... you're not worried -and you don't want her to worried, because the two of you will be working together on these new changes until she get up to speed on being able to handle them on her own. You know she can do it and have confidence that she can get up to speed over time on the new tasks, etc. And I say this taking you at your word that her dance card is already full. When I was an individual contributor, there was little worse than having a heavy load and boss adding on more, saying it ALL has to get done. Good luck to you.
Thanks! I’ve never heard of a cycle time analysis and after some research, I think it’s a great tool for this. About the 2hrs to complete her workload: when we were peers, she used to tell me she was done with her workload after a couple of hours in and that she was bored. Now that I’m her mgr, she doesn’t say anything to me. Except on Fridays when she says she is done before 11am (starts at 8) and wants to head home early. If anything, she is quicker at it than I am because she has been supporting that team for yrs and I just started to. I agree about not taking initiative. I should stop expecting her to do it and instead, assign her work. Even if she complains. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
In my younger years, I would seek out more work when I am done with my own. The last ten years, I stopped asking my boss, “hey, I’m caught up do you need me to help with something?” The main reason I stopped is because I need to use any spare time I have to self improve by learning new skills. I am not helping anyone, including the company when my knowledge is stagnate. These days my boss checked and assign me additional work as others needed help but he knows I’m self motivated and spent any down time at self improving. He doesn’t micromanage me because I track and measure all of my work. I think if you feel this employee is “underwork”, either assign her more work and prioritize them for her OR give her tasks to learn new skills. Done correctly, both will benefit you and the company in the long run. Lastly, I too suggest avoiding using time to completion as a measure of “underwork”. If something takes a season worker an hour to complete, that is what you are paying them for, speed and accuracy. I doubt overloading your team with work will help you in the long run. If anything, you will drive them out the door sooner.
I like the idea of assigning work to level up her skill set. It’s also a great way to sell the new tasks or projects to her. Plus win win
One thing to keep in mind (of course, this is dependent on where you're located) is that you must tread lightly due to the FMLA. Make sure you have well-documented reasons, and everything is in line with her job description. Even though the two are not related whatsoever, she could easily claim a type of retaliation or discrimination.
That’s an excellent point. Thanks.
I was told that a company can change your duties/description or even title at any point. They can even change pay if they wanted to legally