Management is never easy – it requires very specific skills and competencies to get it right and to inspire those under you to take note of what you say or do. Often, those that find themselves in such positions have difficulty understanding that it is no longer about them ‘doing’ and is more about coaching and encouraging others to do what they used to do.

Most companies believe such skills can be developed on the job, but it provides difficulties when starting initially and can ultimately test the relationships you have with the workforce. Managing graduates poses different problems – you are essentially starting from scratch with them, and they will have to learn about the business, role and team that they now have around them.

Learn to delegate effectively

The idea of delegating will not be new to anyone, but how to do it effectively takes experience and understanding. You will have to communicate clearly how tasks should be performed, the standards that are required and how you are going to manage the process.

It is important to oversee the project you are delegating but you must bear in mind that keeping some distance is vital, otherwise you risk smothering those around you and ultimately might as well just do the task yourself.

Get to know your team

All graduates will not have gone through the same process, meaning some may have more practical work experience than others and some might be in a different area to what they thought they would be doing, so it is important to understand each individual.

Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each person allows you to tailor the tasks that you can give them to some extent – if they are strong in one area than you should expect a higher standard of work to be produced.

Set targets and goals

This is why getting to know each induvial is so important, so you know exactly what is attainable and what is not for each graduate. It is vital to have something to gauge success and failures by, not just from your own judgement. If it’s a role in sales for example, setting some numbers that need to be hit gives you a clear indication of what level they are at in terms of their performance – it also pushes the graduate to begin self-evaluating their own performance which can increase productivity in the process.

If you’re an employer looking to attract the best graduate talent to your business, find out how Discovery Graduates can help