When delegating tasks to employees, to ensure that the tasks get completed to your satisfaction and to ensure that employees get the support they need to be successful, take these best practice steps:
- Choose the right employee to delegate to. Be sure the employee has the basic skills to get the task completed and the time to get it done.
You don’t want to delegate tasks to employees who are already overwhelmed with work, don’t have the basic skills needed to complete the task or are new to the organization. Based on your knowledge of the employee, map assignments to help employees develop new skills or to focus on areas in which they would like to focus. For example, providing an employee who is very social and likes to plan events to lead planning a company outing.
- Set up a meeting with the employee to discuss the task to be delegated.
Provide sufficient details about the task such as:
- It’s importance within the workgroup, department, division or organization. How it fits into what else is going on in the organization (big picture outlook.)
- What needs to be done (at a high level.) Don’t get into step-by-step details on exactly how to perform the task, let the employee determine how to get from Point A to Point B. Your job is to tell them what you want to see as a final result/product of the task assigned.
- Your expectations in terms of quality, timelines for completion and check-in/status updates.
- The authority level of the employee such as making decisions, solving problems that arise, etc. The amount of authority delegated will be directed related to how much expertise and experience the employee has and how successful they have been in completing delegated tasks in the past.
- Points of contact or other resources who can assist the employee if needed. This might include individuals in the organization they need to reach out in order to get data needed or make decisions.
During this meeting ask the employee what other support or resources he needs to be successful. Gauge his comfort level with the assignment based on the questions he asks and his interactions with you.
Follow up this meeting with an email that recaps the discussion and what was agreed upon with the employee.
- Determine additional training or coaching required.
In Step 1 we discussed the need to ensure the employee has the basic skills for the job. If the task may require more skills than the employee currently has, or the employee believes he needs more support/guidance to be comfortable, providing training to develop skills or a coach to assist the employee. Another employee may function as a mentor to help the employee, or you as the manager may take on that role.
Delegating tasks and assignments to employees enables them to build their skills and increase their knowledge. It provides them opportunities for professional and personal growth and enables for increased visibility within the organization.
