As a plant manager, your job is not the same as it was a few years ago. You’re responsible for your team who are counting on you for safety, leadership, and job security. And the pressure is on you to keep driving up productivity and remain competitive. No wonder certain aspects of your job keep you up at night. But keep reading, because we can help.

Pressure from all sides

Cut costs and increase production, those are the two demands. This pressure means you often don’t have enough time for your employees. And they need your guidance. Their work environment is often high-risk but there is a lot of incentive to cut corners because going faster means better output. Cutting corners, however, kills. So how do you deal with that combination of factors? You’re between employees who need your help, and bosses who drive up the pressure.

This is when it pays to have experience working in different departments, but what if you just can’t be an HR manager, process engineer, and technician all at once? Look around you for help. Seasoned employees with a wealth of experience can help you manage your team, and see if you can find a mentor if you need help managing the demands from above. Grasping any learning opportunity to hone your strategic and managerial skills will give you more confidence walking down your work floor.

Is everyone reaching their full potential?

As a manager, it’s important to you that your people are satisfied in their job, but also that they’re being the best they can be. It’s important to be honest to them, and not pretend they’re in a position they can grow if that’s not the case. But it’s as important to provide training opportunities and learn alongside them, so everyone has opportunities to grow in the directions they want. This way, employees feel more empowered and encouraged to reach targets. Employees who work well independently and don’t need constant guidance is also a load off of your shoulder, which means training can only work out well.

How are we on our KPIS?

Numbers are everything. To remain competitive, targets are ambitious, which means a host of KPIs to keep track of. Doing so every day means it’s likely that you wake up with them, and go to sleep with them. In order to stop having nightmares about missing targets, it’s better to share that burden and be transparent about the KPIs with the team. Identify trends, root causes, and optimize your processes together via a shared dashboard. Multiple heads can do more than one, so you can go to sleep knowing you’re in it together!

When you’re passionate about your job, you’re always looking for ways to improve and learn, just like we are. Subscribe to get your weekly dose of industry knowledge.