LEARN TO BE A FRONT LINE MANAGER
- Study the foundations in front line management.
- Learn practical skills to apply to your business, your role as a front line manager
- Improve workplace efficiency for better outcomes.
Front line management is the first or second level of management that is responsible for overseeing the production of goods or services, and other staff. Most businesses will have a front line manager. This course will help you develop effective management skills. You will cover a range of management subjects that will provide you with theoretical management concepts, but, more importantly, practical skills for managing your team.
Course Structure
There are 6 modules in this course, including 4 compulsory modules, followed by 2 electives.
You will study the following four core modules:
Personnel Management
There are ten lessons in this 100 hour module, as listed below.
1. Human Behaviour
2. Workplace Communications
3. Workplace Conditions
4. Controlling Operations
5. Recruitment and Induction
6. Staff Training
7. Work Teams
8. Positive Discipline
9. Grievances and Complaints
10.Monitoring and Reporting
Supervision
There are ten lessons in this module also (100 hrs) as follows:
1. Introduction to Organisational structures & responsibilities.
2. Understanding the work place
3. Communications and human relations
4. Motivating employees
5. Organising the work place
6. Problem solving techniques
7. Discipline, complaints and grievances
8. Interviewing, recruitment, training.
9. Work place safety
10.Dealing with management/worker participation/ report writing/ staff meetings
Industrial Psychology
There are ten lessons in this course as follows:
1. Introduction
2. Understanding the Employees Thinking
3. Personality & Temperament
4. Psychological Testing
5. Management & Managers
6. The Work Environment
7. Motivation and Incentives
8. Recruitment
9. Social Considerations
10. Abnormalities and Disorders
Workplace Health and Safety
There are ten lessons in this module spread over 100 hours of study.
1. Introduction
2. Legislation
3. Protective Equipment
4. Handling Chemicals
5. Handling Equipment
6. Handling Objects
7. Using Computer Work Stations
8. Working Alone
9. Standards and Rules
10.Signs and Signals
Elective Modules
In addition to the above four modules, you need to select two more from the following.
- Leadership
- Motivation
- Business Studies
- Management
- Sales Management
- Other electives may be considered
For more information click on the links below
Modules
Note that each module in the Qualification - Certificate in Frontline Management is a short course in its own right, and may be studied separately.
Supervisors Need to Know their Workplace
Effective supervisors are respected by their subordinates because they know the workplace. Any supervisor who does not take the time to learn, understand and stay up to date, will be seen as ignorant, irrelevant and will not command respect.
To function effectively within an organization, you must know how that organization works.
This information might be provided, to a large degree, in the organisation’s procedure manuals and charts. It might be learned through training, or from people who have worked in the organization for a while. However, it is often the situation that management’s perception of how the organization works is different to the reality of how it works. For instance, management might believe that it leads all decision-making and insist on participating, where in reality, the workers make better decisions on how to get things done, and make them through general consensus among key personnel.
Official channels of power and communication might be hierarchical, from the boss at the top to the workers on the bottom, but the reality might the boss is largely ignored, not being seen to know or care much about how things are done, and therefore, only being given essential information.
To function effectively, you need to know how things really work, who really holds the power to implement decisions, whose cooperation is essential, and whose ideas are most valuable. This can even be someone not in the official framework of the organization, such as the boss’s wife or husband, or his/her son or daughter.
The real power might lie in the person with the greatest understanding of the business, who might be the secretary or a supervisor whose opinion and approval are widely respected and sought. The person who really decides what money can be spent, including on bonuses and new equipment, might be the bookkeeper.
Knowing where the power to get things done or the power to make decisions are really invested will enable you to go directly to the sources of power, or to obtain their support and cooperation, to get things done.
THE SUPERVISOR
The key to success of any company or organisation is good management and the key to good management is the Supervisor. Good supervision is, in fact, the single most important factor in the success of any advanced economy.
What are the responsibilities of a supervisor? He or she must be able to:
- communicate with employees,
- give directions,
- dictate letters,
- set production goals and check performances,
- give interviews,
- communicate with other supervisors,
- write reports and read them,
- check mail,
- attend meetings,
- make decisions about new projects,
- decide on promotions and demotions.
The skills needed to handle this array of tasks are:
a) Technical skills,
b) Human skills,
c) Conceptual skills.
Where does a supervisor fit in the organisational structure?
The answer to this question depends upon the organisation and its organisational structure. Most people spend 50% of their waking hours at work. In view of this, you should understand how your job fits in the overall company structure. You must know how the company is organised, what it consists of, and how the parts work together to make a coordinated "well oiled" operation instead of a disjointed, poorly working firm. Some organisations are large and complex, with many levels of management above the supervisor; while others can be small; where the supervisor and departmental manager is the same person. In larger organisations, levels of management might be defined as follows:
Top Management
Role: Policy Making
Examples: Board of Directors, Business Owner, Administrator, Receiver (in the case of a business in receivership).
Chief Executive Officer
Role: Managing the entire organisation in line with established policy
Examples: Managing Director, General Manager, President, Director, Commissioner, Minister (in the case of government)
Senior Management
Role: Manage a single broad function such as Finance, Services, Marketing, Production, Development, Investment, Stock, etc.
These managers report direct to the Chief Executive Officer.
Examples: Marketing Manager, Financial Manager, Personnel Director
Middle Management
Role: Responsible for specialised functions that together make up a broad function
Examples: Advertising manager, Data Processing Manager
Supervisory Management
Role: Responsible for managing Line positions or work operatives. They directly control the lowest levels of employees; and are responsible to report to middle managers; rather than senior or higher management levels.
Examples: Team Supervisor, Team Manager, Head Electrician, Maintenance Coordinator, Office supervisor, Shop Floor Manager
These definitions are not the same in all organizations, so do not treat this as anything more than a very general insight into how different levels of management might be delineated.
What does a supervisor do?
The supervisor is the first line of management. A supervisor is responsible for:
- implementing policies
- implementing plans
- implementing procedures in ways that will maximize productivity
The supervisor sets goals and objectives for his subordinates in order to achieve the policies, plans and procedures laid down by higher levels of management. Some of the activities that might be involved in setting goals are:
- Job study and analysis (i.e. studying and understanding the work that is required, and analyzing the work). This is best written down or entered into a computer data base;
- Organising resources (e.g. materials and equipment needed for the work, space, information etc.);
- Defining work roles (e.g. staff selection, induction, training, deciding whether staff are taken from existing staff, or outside/new staff are selected);
- Conveying orders to the subordinates (directing the work);
- Motivating subordinates;
- Monitoring and controlling the work (e.g. adjusting allocation of human and non human resources);
- Coordinating (e.g. Interacting with other departments or outside organisation or individuals, whether management, or suppliers of services to the work team, or clients who the work team is serving).
