Management Interview Help

cs120

I'm going for an interview on Friday for a mangement position. I have very little people management experience. They have ask for a one page document discussing the following
"Based on your work experience, which key area(s) in personnel management you would change in order to positively affect productivity, whilst staffing levels stayed the same"
If anyone can help that would be great.. Not looking for someone to write it just looking for tips on how to go about it.

Thanks:)

Welease

You do have people management experience, not as the manager but as an employee! That experience should allow you to answer the questions.

Base your answers on the differences you have seen between good and bad managers who you have reported to. What did the best manager do differently from the worst managers.. How did they approach problems, or productivity etc. How did they deal with issues?

You could go through the standard online training to see what a manager "should do".. but if you cannot relate that back to real experience you may come unstuck in an interview.

Best of luck.

r3nu4l

If there isn't a timesheet system, can one be put in place to examine productivity? That's needed as a measure to determine improvements.

What processes are currently in place and can they be improved?

e.g. Are senior team members currently booking their own travel and accommodation when they need to go abroad on business. If so, then this should be done by someone else a lot less senior. - That's personnel management.

Delegate responsibility for certain tasks to key individuals. Make them take ownership to ensure that they drive that responsibility forward. - That's personnel management (and a repeat of the above )

Set each member of the team tasks and objectives - That's personnel management.

Send certain members on training courses if the issue is a need of support in aspects of their jobs - That's personnel management.


That's just off the top of my head and some of these may not apply to the position you are looking for.

Motivation is one factor in improving productivity but systems and processes are also vital, it's not all about the personnel but how the personnel are applying existing process. If the processes are laborious and time-consuming, they need to be examined to see if time can be freed up. My last company insisted on having three team members on every telecon. Sometimes that's necessary but in my current company we mostly have one person in a call and we record the call so that if anyone needs to listen back they can.

cs120

Thanks Welease some good advise there..

cs120

r3nu4l wrote: »

If there isn't a timesheet system, can one be put in place to examine productivity? That's needed as a measure to determine improvements.

What processes are currently in place and can they be improved?

e.g. Are senior team members currently booking their own travel and accommodation when they need to go abroad on business. If so, then this should be done by someone else a lot less senior. - That's personnel management.

Delegate responsibility for certain tasks to key individuals. Make them take ownership to ensure that they drive that responsibility forward. - That's personnel management (and a repeat of the above )

Set each member of the team tasks and objectives - That's personnel management.

Send certain members on training courses if the issue is a need of support in aspects of their jobs - That's personnel management.


That's just off the top of my head and some of these may not apply to the position you are looking for.

Motivation is one factor in improving productivity but systems and processes are also vital, it's not all about the personnel but how the personnel are applying existing process. If the processes are laborious and time-consuming, they need to be examined to see if time can be freed up. My last company insisted on having three team members on every telecon. Sometimes that's necessary but in my current company we mostly have one person in a call and we record the call so that if anyone needs to listen back they can.

There is a clock in system in place to keep track of everybody already..

I think motivation is the main thing i need to work on. The work we do is very individulised so everybody works alot on there own and can be quiet monotonous, there is very little team work involve and some people can get very demotivated by this. I think i need to come up with some way to motivate people to make the job more rewarding and less monotonous..

r3nu4l

cs120 wrote: »

There is a clock in system in place to keep track of everybody already..

I think motivation is the main thing i need to work on. The work we do is very individulised so everybody works alot on there own and can be quiet monotonous, there is very little team work involve and some people can get very demotivated by this. I think i need to come up with some way to motivate people to make the job more rewarding and less monotonous..

Individual tasks and objectives are the way to go so. They don't all need to be totally related to meeting deadlines though. They could be to do with professional personal development. Also, surely everyone has processes and procedures to stick to. Can these be tweaked to increase productivity?

Irish_Elect_Eng

For a quick 10m lesson on the latest thinking on motivation: "Drive"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

Also:

A very quick read (< 30 Min) of a classic "The One Minute Manager" is a good place to start for a new manager.

http://www.slideshare.net/shrotriyarakesh/One-Minute-Manager

allibastor

where i work now we have very individual projects and very little communication between parties when at work, as you said its demoralising and leads to slower production as no-one really talks to anyone else. one point a manger here made was to take the team for lunch every friday in the local. people got to chat to colleges on a non-office setting and learned a bit more about what the colleges do. we have a had a good increase in people chatting to each other and a good few suggestions have come up as a result of looking at problems with fresh eyes. just a thought.


Training courses are also a good way to go, they may not be very helpful courses but the mere fact that people think managers have an interest in them leads to higher productivity.