How to manage people | People Management in the 2020s

In a world of increasing career mobility and improving employer/employee relationships, how you manage people at work will only become more important in the years to come. That’s why we believe our Business Management (People Management) BSc degree is so valuable.

Staying up to date with the changing times is going to be invaluable as you move through your career, and people management is a complex skill, make no mistake. One that has sparked a lot of research over recent years. If you’re going to stay on top of the evolving expectations colleagues have of managers, you need a course that is on top of the research.

So what does the research tell us?

1. In a survey of over 80,000 managers, the Harvard Business Review found that the most important quality in a good manager was the ability to understand each employee as an individual. It’s research like this that shows the complexity of management as a skill. It’s not leadership, though so many would confuse the two. Where leadership requires an individual to find something universal that their team can believe in and follow, a manager needs to work out their employees' characteristics in order to help them excel. They also found that though teams face an increasing amount of ever more complicated challenges in the modern workplace, a manager could improve their chances of success with just two factors: teamwork and peer-to-peer respect.
2. Respective independent research from the Swedish and South African universities has shown that there is a positive correlation between job performance and empathy in the workplace. Arjun Pratap, founder of HR tech start-up EdGE Networks said, “Cultivate the ability to put yourself in your employees’ shoes, to understand their strengths and limitations: this will help you make better decisions in the long run.” If you can create an environment where your employees feel heard, understood, and valued, they will return that value to you tenfold.
3. Ragan Insider’s research found that communication was the number one factor in influencing employee engagement. Communication is a direct route to understanding and building positive relationships with your employees. The more you understand how they work, the better you will be able to direct that work. No manager ever got the best from an employee through ignorance.

These changing dynamics in the workplace are so important to understand and get right. The need for good managers who can get the best out of their colleagues has never been higher, and a course that stays up to date with the changing times has never been more important. This is why the University of Bolton’s Business Management (People Management) BSc degree is so well respected.

A road to success
Business Management students at the University of Bolton get to take advantage of £31 million worth of facilities, including the Institute of Management in Bolton town centre. We’ve also been rated #5 in the UK for Teaching Quality (The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020) and #1 in the North West for Student Satisfaction (Complete University Guide 2021, 2020, 2019).

If you have ever wondered how to get the best out of colleagues, the Business Management (People Management) BSc degree could be the answer.

Find out how to learn vital business skills and get the best out of the people you manage on the Business Management (People Management) BSc course information page.