Key Findings:
• Frontline supervisors play a critical role in    implementing HR policies by developing    employees and managing performance.
• Coaching counts—one-on-one feedback    from frontline supervisors increases the    bottom-line by improving individual    productivity.
• Coaching alone isn’t enough. It is much    more effective when combined with other    management practices—for example, group    incentives that enhance collaborative    problem-solving and learning, and reinforce    the lessons from individual coaching.
• The resources and constraints of workplace    technologies can affect the return on your    frontline coaching and HR management    strategies. Don’t overlook the level of    process automation and rate of technical    change on the job

Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, ILR School, Cornell University

English

Key Findings:  • Frontline supervisors play a critical role in    implementing HR policies by developing    employees and managing performance.  • Coaching counts—one-on-one feedback    from frontline supervisors increases the    bottom-line by improving individual    productivity.  • Coaching alone isn’t enough. It is much    more effective when combined with other    management practices—for example, group    incentives that enhance collaborative    problem-solving and learning, and reinforce    the lessons from individual coaching.  • The resources and constraints of workplace    technologies can affect the return on your    frontline coaching and HR management    strategies. Don’t overlook the level of    process automation and rate of technical    change on the job.No1_10ResearchLink_BattFrontlineSups.pdf: 2128 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

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Harness the Power of Frontline Supervisors to Turn HR Policies into Performance Gains

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CAHRS ResearchLink Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) 
1-2010 
Harness the Power of Frontline Supervisors to Turn HR Policies 
into Performance Gains 
Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, ILR School, Cornell University 
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Harness the Power of Frontline Supervisors to Turn HR Policies into Performance 
Gains 
Abstract 
Key Findings: 
• Frontline supervisors play a critical role in implementing HR policies by developing employees and 
managing performance. 
• Coaching counts—one-on-one feedback from frontline supervisors increases the bottom-line by 
improving individual productivity. 
• Coaching alone isn’t enough. It is much more effective when combined with other management 
practices—for example, group incentives that enhance collaborative problem-solving and learning, and 
reinforce the lessons from individual coaching. 
• The resources and constraints of workplace technologies can affect the return on your frontline 
coaching and HR management strategies. Don’t overlook the level of process automation and rate of 
technical change on the job. 
Keywords 
talent management, employee engagement, development, performance management 
Comments 
Suggested Citation 
Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. (2010, January). Harness the power of frontline 
supervisors to turn HR policies into performance gains (CAHRS Research Link No. 1). Ithaca, NY: Cornell 
University, ILR School. 
This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs_researchlink/3 
Harness the Power of Frontline Supervisors to 
Turn HR Policies into Performance Gains
THE TOPIC: THE ROLE OF 
FRONTLINE SUPERVISORS IN HR 
MANAGEMENT
In response to evolving customer demands, many 
companies are adopting competitive strategies 
that emphasize innovation in products, processes, 
and technologies. These strategies, in turn, are 
increasing the demand for workplace learning—
even among low or semi-skilled employees—as 
they need to absorb new skills and routines to 
perform their jobs.
One approach to creating a learning environment 
is to broaden the core responsibilities of frontline 
supervisors—beyond traditional duties of 
monitoring and administration to a set of 
performance-oriented tasks that identify, assess, 
and develop the competencies of their employees 
and align their performance with the organization’s 
strategic goals.
This study examines a set of supervisory activities 
designed to improve employee learning, problem-solving, and performance. Rather than taking a traditional approach focusing on 
individual performance management alone, this study examines the synergistic effects of coaching by frontline supervisors in combination 
with group management practices—all in the context of daily work tasks and technological constraints.
KEY FINDINGS
◊	Frontline supervisors play a critical role in 
implementing HR policies by developing employees and 
managing performance. 
◊	Coaching counts—one-on-one feedback from frontline 
supervisors increases the bottom-line by improving 
individual productivity.
◊	Coaching alone isn’t enough. It is much more effective 
when combined with other management practices—for 
example, group incentives that enhance collaborative 
problem-solving and learning, and reinforce the lessons 
from individual coaching.
◊	The resources and constraints of workplace 
technologies can affect the return on your frontline 
coaching and HR management strategies. Don’t 
overlook the level of process automation and rate of 
technical change on the job.
No. 1 January 2010
The Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) is an 
international center serving corporate human resources leaders and 
their companies by providing critical tools for building and leading high-
performing HR organizations. CAHRS’ mission is to bring together 
partners and the ILR School’s world-renowned HR Studies faculty to 
investigate, translate and apply the latest HR research into practice 
excellence.
CENTER FOR ADVANCED 
HUMAN RESOURCE STUDIES
Cornell University
ILR School
193 Ives Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
Tel: 607-255-9358
www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs
cahrs@cornell.edu
esearchLink
2  CORNELL CENTER FOR ADVANCED HR STUDIES | ResearchLink
THE STUDY QUESTIONS
In this study, researchers asked the following questions:
◊	 How does individual coaching—frontline supervisors providing one-on-one feedback and guidance—affect employees’ 
performance over time?
◊	 Do group management practices—team projects, group rewards, and pairing new with experienced employees—improve 
performance?
◊	 Can organizations reap greater performance gains by combining individual coaching and group management practices?
◊	 How do workplace technologies help or hinder the effectiveness of coaching?
THE RESULTS
Coaching increased productivity over time. When 
frontline supervisors spent more time providing 
individual feedback and guidance, employee 
productivity improved.
Coaching yielded substantial financial returns. In 
the context of this study, a single hour of coaching 
translated into a monthly return of $18.00 over 
and above the cost of a $48.00 investment in that 
coaching.
The use of team projects and group rewards 
increased employee performance. However, 
pairing less with more experienced workers, 
sometimes called buddy systems, was not related 
to productivity improvement in this particular 
setting.
Performance improvements from coaching were higher when frontline supervisors combined coaching with group rewards.
The interaction between coaching and workplace technologies was significant. While all work groups in this study benefited from coaching, 
the returns to investment were higher in less automated sites than in more automated sites. In addition, the benefits to coaching eroded 
more quickly where technical changes were occurring at a faster pace.
In sum, these findings emphasize the importance of taking 
a coherent approach to implementing HR policies at the 
workplace level—an often neglected area of HR management. 
While much research in strategic HR management has shown 
the link between HR policies and organizational performance, 
few studies have focused on the vital role of frontline 
supervisors in their interactions with work groups and 
individuals. This study indicates that what truly matters for 
performance is the informal implementation of management 
practices by frontline supervisors, not just the existence of 
formal HR policies. 
3  CORNELL CENTER FOR ADVANCED HR STUDIES | ResearchLink
PERFORMANCE ON THE FRONTLINE: 
COACHING AND GROUP MANAGEMENT 
PRACTICES
Coaching has advantages over formal training because it’s considerably 
less expensive and fits the current need for continuous learning and 
improvement in the context of firm-specific processes and technologies. 
It allows supervisors to communicate clear expectations to employees, 
provide feedback and suggestions for improving performance, 
and facilitate employees’ efforts to solve problems or take on new 
challenges.
Examples of coaching activities include helping employees set goals, 
providing constructive feedback on specific tasks, offering resources 
and suggestions to adopt new techniques, and helping employees understand 
the broader goals of the organization.
Research suggests coaching may affect individual performance through three 
mechanisms: acquiring job-related knowledge and skills, enhancing motivation 
and effort, and the process of social learning. One-on-one guidance helps 
employees develop and maintain knowledge of a firm’s products, customers, 
and work processes, and the 
skills to effectively communicate 
with customers, respond to their 
requests, and deliver prompt 
service. 
Reinforcing individual 
learning via group 
management practices
Beyond individual coaching 
activities, frontline supervisors 
can influence performance 
by how they shape working 
relationships among the 
employees they oversee. One 
approach is for them to create 
an environment of individual 
competition based on the 
assumption that employees will 
be motivated to perform better because they want to out-perform their peers. 
Alternatively, supervisors may adopt group management practices that foster 
a cooperative environment based on the assumption that group interaction 
provides social support, or opportunities for mutual learning, that enhance the 
performance of all employees.
In this study, we find that a cooperative approach is more effective for 
reinforcing the benefits of coaching. It helps establish positive group norms 
that define the accepted patterns of employee behavior, and helps employees 
apply what they’ve learned to their jobs.
Examples of group management practices include pairing novice employees 
with experienced peers; using group discussions, team projects, or task 
forces for problem-solving; and offering cash and non-cash group rewards as 
incentives for group collaboration and performance improvement. 
Accounting for workplace technologies in 
frontline management strategies
Frontline supervisors typically have little control over 
the design of technical systems that enable or limit 
opportunities for individual learning and performance. 
Yet, these systems set the functional and psychological 
requirements of tasks and shape 
individual performance. Therefore, it’s 
important to consider the technological 
factors that enhance or limit the returns 
of coaching.
Where processes are more automated, for 
example, the role of human intervention 
is narrower, leaving employees with 
limited opportunities to use acquired 
skills or influence outcomes. This doesn’t 
mean coaching is unimportant in this 
environment, simply that the returns on 
investment are likely to be lower than in 
less automated workplaces. Similarly, 
in workplaces constantly bombarded 
with process and technical changes, the 
benefits of coaching may erode more 
quickly and need to be reinforced more 
frequently.
Beyond call centers: relevance to more 
complex workplace settings
This study draws on data from call centers that 
provide telephone directory assistance in a multi-
state, unionized telecommunications company. One 
may wonder how applicable the results are to other 
types of workplaces; we believe the results are quite 
generalizable. This is because we have taken a ‘critical 
case’ approach by choosing an environment where we 
would be least likely to find positive effects of coaching 
and group management practices.
Compared to many other settings, the high degree of 
automation and standardization in call centers limits 
4  CORNELL CENTER FOR ADVANCED HR STUDIES | ResearchLink
the ability of frontline supervisors to intervene in 
the work process to pull employees off the line for 
coaching or group learning activities. Similarly, 
this setting of highly individualized work is 
an unlikely one in which to find that group 
management practices are effective. Moreover, 
the union contract in this company sets uniform 
policies that constrain managerial discretion in 
HR policies.
Nonetheless, even with these constraints, we find 
that coaching and group management provide 
significant financial returns in this context—
suggesting that the returns to supervisory HR 
management should be even higher in settings 
with more complex tasks and more demand for 
creativity and knowledge sharing.
From an empirical standpoint, this study also 
applies a much more rigorous standard than 
many prior studies: it includes the random 
assignment of tasks; longitudinal data; real time 
measures of coaching; and objective measures of 
performance linked to employee and supervisor 
archival and survey data in one company. 
THE TAKEAWAY
What can HR practitioners do to increase 
employee productivity?  
◊	 Invest in on-the-job training via frontline 
supervisor coaching activities. Coaching 
provides a cost-effective approach to on-
going learning that leads to real productivity 
gains because employees learn in the 
context of daily work and technology.
◊	 Invest in frontline supervisors. Although 
companies continually face pressures to 
cut costs, training frontline supervisors 
to implement HR strategies pays off. 
Evaluate what combination of hiring, 
promotion, and training practices are 
needed to ensure these supervisors have 
the skills, experience, and ability to develop 
employees and manage performance.
◊	 Develop a coherent approach to 
performance management by frontline 
supervisors. Combinations of reinforcing 
management practices are much more 
effective than individual practices. While 
the choice of which sets of HR practices 
will depend on the specific workplace 
context, this study suggests that individual 
coaching reinforced by group management 
practices is effective.
THE DATA SOURCE
Data came from 9,918 observations, 2,327 individuals, and 42 work groups. To 
measure performance, the researchers considered call handling time—the average 
number of seconds an operator spends on a customer call in a month. The average 
call time for operators was 21.09 seconds during the research period, with the 
average operator handling over 1,000 calls per day. 
Coaching was measured by how much time a worker received coaching from a 
frontline supervisor, which was recorded when workers logged out of the call 
distribution system. Coaching was based on supervisors’ monitoring of calls, 
behaviors, and keystrokes, and the average coaching time ranged from 54 to 71 
minutes per month.  
Group management practices were measured in three ways: team projects 
(supervisor surveys), group incentives (employee surveys), and pairing (supervisor 
surveys). In total, 666 employees and 110 frontline supervisors completed surveys. 
The level of job automation was also measured by surveys, which asked frontline 
supervisors how often their employees needed to use paper methods (e.g., “workers 
have to look something up in the manual”). To measure technical process changes, 
the researchers also surveyed supervisors to determine how often employees 
received updates about product features, pricing, and service options. 
THE RESEARCHERS
This study was conducted by:
• Helen (Xiangmin) Liu, Assistant Professor in Labor Studies and Employment 
Relations, Penn State University
• Rosemary Batt, Alice H. Cook Professor of Women and Work, the ILR School 
(Industrial and Labor Relations), Cornell University 
For an in-depth discussion of this topic, see:
Liu, Xiangmin and Batt, Rosemary. How Supervisors 
Influence Performance: A Multilevel Study of Coaching 
and Group Management in Technology-mediated 
Services. Personnel Psychology (forthcoming 2010).
◊	Questions about this research should be directed to 
Rosemary Batt at rb41@cornell.edu.


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Harness the Power of Frontline Supervisors to Turn HR Policies into Performance Gains

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