Supervisors nurture talent in organisations

Policy brief Firms

Based on findings from a field experiment, this policy brief considers the influential role of supervisors in coaching employees of a Ugandan research organisation.

  • This policy brief considers the impact of frontline supervision on the speed and quality of output produced by workers who conduct household interviews for a research organisation in Uganda.
  • Supervision targeted workers’ predicted weaknesses and led to persistent improvements in productivity. These improvements also spilled over to metrics of performance that were not directly supervised by the organisation.
  • In conclusion, findings show that organisations should design career paths that nurture supervisors’ coaching skills. In addition, early coaching interventions for new employees may yield substantial performance gains.