A supervisor belongs to lower-level management. One of the prime responsibilities of a supervisor is to monitor and regulate the performance of employees for the tasks given to them.
A supervisor has authority over the employees whom he supervises at the workplace. A supervisor can also be known as coordinator, facilitator, foreman, overseer, or gaffer. A person can be a supervisor when he is given a responsibility to supervise a person or a group of people in an official manner.
However, a person can also supervise others without a formal title given to others. For example, parents supervise their children. A supervisor has various roles to play by being in the position of supervisor. In this article, you will learn about the different roles of the supervisor at the workplace.
Table of Contents
1. Responsibility to monitor and train employees
Monitoring comes to the forefront when we speak about responsibilities of a supervisor. She has to handle a team of employees and make sure that they complete their work efficiently and on time.
A supervisor also provides training to employees for whatever work they should be doing as their job. Along with giving training to employees, she also monitors the performance of employees and makes sure that they work properly and help them if they face any problem while working on the task at hand.
2. A supervisor helps in planning and organizing task
When a manager is given the responsibility to supervise a project then he is expected to plan and organize the project in such a way so that the project gets completed on time and with the least wastage of resources.
Therefore, a supervisor plans and divides the project into small tasks and distributes them among his team members and also provides them a timeline in which they are expected to complete the work assigned to them.
3. A supervisor plays a role in human resource management
One more amongst the important responsibilities of a supervisor is to assist the human resources management function of management. A supervisor is the one who works with his employees closely and is responsible for their work performance. Hence, in every organization; supervising manager plays an important role in choosing the employees to work on his team.
A supervisor holds the right to hire and fire employees. A supervisor has a powerful voice in the screening, interviewing, and background checks process. A supervisor can fire an employee if the employee is not performing as expected. Therefore, a supervisor should have good skills in dealing with and analyzing people.
4. A supervisor ensures 100% productivity of employees
A supervisor is responsible for the performance of his team. Therefore, he makes sure that each member of his team works best for his ability. He talks with the employee if he observes a decline in the productivity of the employee and tries to provide a solution to him.
5. A supervisor is a communication link between employees and management
It is a very critical one amongst the responsibilities of a supervisor to establish a communication link between the management of the organization and the employees of his team. He takes instructions from the management and passes them to the employees on behalf of the management.
He also reports about the performance of his team members to the management and on the other hand keeps close contact with the employees so that they can freely talk about the problems, complaints, suggestions they have. He listens to the problems faced by the employees and take those problems to the management and try to provide a solution to the problem faced by employees.
6. A supervisor works towards employee development
A good supervisor is also a leader. He is not only responsible for the completion of the task but also will be concerned about the development of his team members.
He learns about the special skills and talents of his team members and provides them with an opportunity which will help them to grow in their career.
He leads his team members towards betterment and not just order them around.
7. A supervisor is responsible for defining the task to employees
A supervisor gets a project and a deadline to complete that project from the management. After that, he is responsible for dividing the work into small tasks and defining those tasks to his team members.
He explains the task in detail and also takes doubts from the employees. At last, when he is finally confident that each employee understood the task then only he let them start working on the project.
8. A supervisor is responsible for facilities provided to employees
A worker can complete their work and can work at their 100% productivity if only they are provided with the all required facilities to complete the work efficiently.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of a supervisor that his team member gets all the required facilities and that they feel comfortable to work in the work environment provided to them. To do this he makes sure that employees get a proper sitting place, lighting, water facilities, and ventilation, etc.
9. A supervisor makes sure that necessary resources are available for the job-at-hand
An employee can’t complete his work if he is not provided with all the tools, materials, and machinery required for the work. Therefore, it is another important one amongst the numerous responsibilities of a supervisor to make sure that all the tools and machinery are available and in working condition.
He keeps the track of the material required for the task and places orders beforehand so that work does not get interrupted because of the lack of material. In addition to this, he also makes sure that employees handle the tools and machinery given to them with care and don’t waste any material.
10. A supervisor evaluates the performance of employees and presents a performance report to management
As I have mentioned before, a supervisor establishes contact between the employees and management. therefore, naturally, a supervisor is the one who will provide the information about the work performance of employees to the management which will help them to take an important decision like promotion, salary hike, bonus, and even termination from the job.
A supervisor observes the performance of each employee by working close to them and prepare a report for the performance of each employee and present it to the management.
11. A supervisor is responsible for maintaining discipline
When a group of people works together they tend to create nuisance and waste their time in unproductive activities then the role of a supervisor becomes important as he is the one who is responsible for creating discipline in the organization and to make sure that the employees are not spending their working hours doing work which is not related to the job.
12. A supervisor provides moral support to employees
During work, it is common for employees to lose their morale when something doesn’t go the way that it should be. At that time, a responsible supervisor listens to the problems that the employee is facing and tries to provide solutions.
Responsibilities of a supervisor require him to be empathetic. He should give the employees moral support which helps them to perform their work effectively.
Sometimes, a supervisor can help his employees to unleash their hidden talent by just giving them motivation and a little push.
13. A supervisor ensures the optimum utilization of resources
Efficient and effective utilization of resources is one amongst the highly important responsibilities of a supervisor. Resources such as human resources, material, and machinery are an asset of the organization.
Every organization wants to make sure that their resources are being utilized properly and are not being wasted. A supervisor is the one who works closely with the employees and sees that they are making the full use of resources given to them and no resources are being wasted.
14. A supervisor addresses conflicts among the team members
Conflicts are inevitable when people work together. Conflicts if not addressed on time can impact the performance of employees and can also impact the project. If there is a conflict between two employees, then they might try to create problems in each other’s work.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of a supervisor to keep a look for the conflicts between the employees and solve them as earliest as possible.
Wrapping it up…
A supervisor is an important member of the organizational hierarchy. He is the bridge between the front-line executive and higher-order managerial think tank in any organizations. Foremost responsibilities of a supervisor include passing on the managerial vision to the lower-level employees.
A supervisor helps the employees deliver on their tasks and monitors their progress. A supervisor is also entrusted with a responsibility to remove hindrances, if any, from the workflow of employees and boosts their morale.
Liked this post? Check out the complete series on Careers
Good evening, Guys I’M ben looking the true responsability of Supervisor