The people manager role has changed

Hi Bethany,

It's well known that the role of the people manager has shifted in the past few years. And not in terms of hard skills, but the soft skills that are developed naturally with time and experience.

But today's new people managers didn't get that time and experience.

Four years ago, people managers were taught to handle worry, loss, and loneliness, as the priority during the pandemic was to "look after people" first.

Now, they're being promoted quicker, and are expected to be firmer in their managing style since they're back to giving reviews and performance ratings.

When people managers rated themselves in terms of effectiveness, they all considered themselves above average. When we asked those who are managed, the swing was much greater, with some employees rating their manager a five, and some rated their manager a one.

The wide discrepancy led to another realization: people managers who were rated the highest had been managing people for more than 10 years. And those who were rated very low started managing people during the last five years.

That's when we realized that a people manager's skill set has a lot to do with when they became a people manager.

So to help solve that pain point, we've identified what the new expectations are today to help those people managers become more impactful for the future.