1. My Employee of the Year
One of the most fulfilling parts of my job over the years has been developing employees. I knew that I had hit
a home run when one of my employees was able to assume responsibility for submitting complex quarterly
tax returns to the Canadian Revenue Agency. And a year later when another member of my staff started to
prepare monthly financial statements in our ERP system for a small sister company. And this year when a
third staff member was able to assume responsibility for maintaining a complex cash forecasting model in
Excel. None of these employees had enjoyed the benefit of a college education or formal accounting
coursework, but they took on an advanced accounting task that I had earlier assumed would always be on my
plate.
Every supervisor and manager should be delegating simple, repetitive tasks, of course, but what about those
duties that require judgment, research, discernment, and technical training? How can a manager successfully
and efficiently move staff members up the learning curve, and free up himself/herself for more value-added
tasks and projects? In the accounting department, I have found that the following simple method works
extremely well.
1. Manager completes the work for 3 cycles (a cycle could be a day, week, month, or quarter), and
prepares written work instructions.
2. Manager also completes cycle 2 and 3, honing the work instructions.
3. On the 4th and 5th cycle, manager starts training employee as “co-pilot.”
4. On the 6th cycle, manager moves into the “co-pilot” chair, and permits employee to “fly the plane.”
5. Manager carefully reviews employee’s work, and points out any problems using a coaching style.
6. Employee should now fully take over the task, and update the work instructions as needed. The
manager should continue to review and approve employee’s completed work.
This simple approach may not work with all employees. The successful employee must have an inherent
positive attitude, a desire to new learn duties, mental acuity, flexibility, patience, and perseverance.
And not every task, of course, should be delegated. Fortunately most processes in Accounting are repetitive,
and subject to streamlining, re-engineering, and delegation. Below is a simple matrix that can help managers
determine how easily a task could be delegated:
Frequency
Complexity Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually
Low YES YES YES YES Yes
Medium YES YES YES Yes No
High YES YES Yes No No
The 3 employees mentioned in my first paragraph continue to flourish and assume greater responsibilities.
One of the employees, in fact, was selected as “Employee of the Year” in 2014. She recently wrote to me “You
were the best boss that I have had working [here]. Thank you for everything you have done for me, I have
learned so much under your watch.”
Copyright 2015, James A. Oberstadt
![My Employee of the Year
One of the most fulfilling parts of my job over the years has been developing employees. I knew that I had hit
a home run when one of my employees was able to assume responsibility for submitting complex quarterly
tax returns to the Canadian Revenue Agency. And a year later when another member of my staff started to
prepare monthly financial statements in our ERP system for a small sister company. And this year when a
third staff member was able to assume responsibility for maintaining a complex cash forecasting model in
Excel. None of these employees had enjoyed the benefit of a college education or formal accounting
coursework, but they took on an advanced accounting task that I had earlier assumed would always be on my
plate.
Every supervisor and manager should be delegating simple, repetitive tasks, of course, but what about those
duties that require judgment, research, discernment, and technical training? How can a manager successfully
and efficiently move staff members up the learning curve, and free up himself/herself for more value-added
tasks and projects? In the accounting department, I have found that the following simple method works
extremely well.
1. Manager completes the work for 3 cycles (a cycle could be a day, week, month, or quarter), and
prepares written work instructions.
2. Manager also completes cycle 2 and 3, honing the work instructions.
3. On the 4th and 5th cycle, manager starts training employee as “co-pilot.”
4. On the 6th cycle, manager moves into the “co-pilot” chair, and permits employee to “fly the plane.”
5. Manager carefully reviews employee’s work, and points out any problems using a coaching style.
6. Employee should now fully take over the task, and update the work instructions as needed. The
manager should continue to review and approve employee’s completed work.
This simple approach may not work with all employees. The successful employee must have an inherent
positive attitude, a desire to new learn duties, mental acuity, flexibility, patience, and perseverance.
And not every task, of course, should be delegated. Fortunately most processes in Accounting are repetitive,
and subject to streamlining, re-engineering, and delegation. Below is a simple matrix that can help managers
determine how easily a task could be delegated:
Frequency
Complexity Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually
Low YES YES YES YES Yes
Medium YES YES YES Yes No
High YES YES Yes No No
The 3 employees mentioned in my first paragraph continue to flourish and assume greater responsibilities.
One of the employees, in fact, was selected as “Employee of the Year” in 2014. She recently wrote to me “You
were the best boss that I have had working [here]. Thank you for everything you have done for me, I have
learned so much under your watch.”
Copyright 2015, James A. Oberstadt](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/41d21ebf-0156-4f5d-a50c-8748b282aedc-150612132741-lva1-app6891/85/My-Employee-of-the-Year-1-320.jpg)
