Most Employers Are Ineffective at Supporting New Managers

i4cp study finds most organizations don't provide any measurement when transitioning employees to management for the first time

SEATTLE, WA (August 10, 2009) - If you're being promoted to manager for the first time, don't expect a smooth transition, suggests a recent study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp). Only 24% of respondents rated their organization as "good" when it came to employees making the transition from individual contributor to manager.

Much of this is due to a pure lack of measurement. Only a third of respondents said their organization uses tools such as 360-degree feedback or performance metrics to gauge how effectively a person transitions when promoted to a new management position.

"The fact that two-thirds of firms don't even have a way of gauging the success of someone who has just moved into management is a disservice to new managers," said Mark Vickers, i4cp's VP of research. "People are often in over their heads when they take on a management job for the first time. How can they improve if nobody is even measuring how they're doing or establishing where their strengths and weaknesses are so they can improve? This sink-or-swim mentality will result in a lot of drownings."

Of the respondents who do use such tools, a standard company performance appraisal is the most common, with almost 75% of respondents using one. About 60% said they use a 360-degree feedback instrument, while approximately 40% use leadership competency assessments and/or coach/mentor evaluations. Performance metrics, skills gap analysis and center-based evaluations are used by only a quarter or less of organizations.

Almost half of respondents said these tools are used within four to 12 months of the initial promotion; just over a quarter said that assessment tools are used in the 90 days leading up to the promotion. Most assessment tools are used more than once on a given individual, with the largest number of respondents (42.9%) saying they are reviewed on an annual basis. The results of these assessments are used by 80.2% of respondents for formal development purposes, while 62.6% use them for promotion decisions and 38.5% for compensation purposes.

The Internal Job Transitioning Pulse Survey was conducted by i4cp in June 2009. A total of 324 respondents participated in the survey. The full results of the survey are available exclusively for all i4cp corporate members.

About i4cp, inc.

i4cp is the world's largest vendor-free network of corporations focused on improving workforce productivity. Our vendor-free community facilitates innovation by giving our members - among the largest and most respected organizations in the world - access to:

1. Peers to spark new ideas and prevent "reinventing the wheel,"
2. Research to enable members to understand current practices and next practices,
3. Tools to put ideas and research into action,
4. Technology to enable members to easily access tailored information and execute workforce strategies.

With more than 40 years of experience and the industry's largest team of human capital analysts, i4cp is the definitive destination for organizations seeking innovative ways to improve workforce productivity. For more information, visit http://www.i4cp.com/