The Top 10 Skills of an Effective Operations Manager

The main role of an operations manager is to oversee high-level HR duties, such as setting training standards, attracting talent, and hiring procedures. They're also responsible for analyzing and improving organizational processes, as well as working to improve the quality, efficiency, and productivity within a company. If you are interested in becoming an operations manager, not only will you need relevant experience and qualifications to qualify, but you need to possess key skills and attributes that allow you to perform your job correctly. With that in mind, here are the top 10 skills that every effective operations manager needs.

Understand Your Customers

To succeed as an operations manager, you will need to have a deep knowledge and understanding on what your customers want. Whether it's responding to customer inquiries as quickly as possible, or demonstrating fair price assurance, knowing what it takes to keep your audience happy will give you the resources you need to connect with them, helping to generate leads and increase sales within the organization. An effective operations manager also needs to know how to provide support and guidance to a team on how best to take care of their customers' needs.

Effective Communication

An effective operations manager should know how to communicate effectively with many different types of people. No matter the organization, you will be engaging with individuals from all walks of life and backgrounds, so knowing how to get your message across to your workforce, superiors, and your customers is an essential skill that will push you to your limits each day. There are various benefits that effective communication can bring in both a professional and personal setting, such as:

• Building trust with others

• Preventing or resolving problems

• Creating better relationships

• Improving productivity within an organization

• Promoting team building

• Increasing engagement

Understand the Organizations Financial Performance

An operations manager is directly responsible for contributing towards their company's financial performance. There are key responsibilities and duties that an operations manager should know how to perform regarding the financial aspect of the organization, such as:

• Knowing how to prepare sales projections

• Preparing expense budgets

• Analyzing profit & loss statements

• Analyzing balance sheets

To make the process easier of creating financial projections, an operations manager should utilize business planning software, allowing you to build a comprehensive list of financial projections, charts, and reports in a shorter period of time.

Motivate the Team

If your team aren't working to the best of their ability, it's likely that much won't get done within an organization. To succeed in an operations managerial role, you should know the importance of creating a strong team, as well as building positive relationships amongst employees. This can be achieved effectively by learning and addressing the individual needs of your staff. Leadership skills are key when it comes to driving your team towards success, with some of the benefits of effective leadership including:

• Increasing emotional intelligence

• Improved ability to succeed under pressure

• Growth in confidence within your team

• Improved listening and communication skills

• Improved seriousness and charisma in business operations

Track and Measure Staff Performance

For an organization to stay on track, it's essential that you lay out work objectives for your team members as an operations manager. Establishing precise measurements that let your workforce know how they're performing is crucial. Doing so will give you more of an understanding on how your staff are performing, as well as strategies to implement for staff development. Once you've identified how your staff are performing, you will be able to provide honest and constructive feedback to your team. Providing feedback within the company can:

• Clarify expectations

• Enhance performance

• Assist with personal growth

• Provide guidance

• Give your team a sense of purpose

How you deliver constructive feedback can go a long way in terms of boosting productivity and efficiency in the workplace, so make sure that you are direct, problem-focused and specific, and offer praise where it's due.

Establish a Positive Learning Environment

An effective operations manager needs to learn the importance of immersing themselves with highly competent and qualified employees. The last thing you want is for your team to not feel happy and comfortable within the workplace as this will have a major effect on productivity and quality of work. Many employees will look to you as a role model, so it's important that you act professional and are attentive to creating a positive learning environment, helping your team to feel more comfortable to come to you for advice.

Maximize Staff Utilization

Another duty of an operations manager is to manage an organization's most critical asset - its people. When working in this role, you need to establish staffing threshold levels, which will give you the opportunity to assess staffing shortfalls and make adjustments if necessary. This will involve guiding your workforce to other tasks which will reduce bottlenecks, as well as seek out replacements in the event of a no-show.

Delegating Roles Correctly

As an operations manager, putting too much on your plate can increase stress levels and do more harm than good for the organization. When faced with a mountain of work, rather than trying to tackle everything yourself, it's important that you learn how to delegate tasks to other members of the team which will ensure everything gets completed according to plan. Some of the key benefits of delegating include:

• Giving you the time and ability to concentrate on higher-level tasks

• Giving your team the ability to learn and develop new skills

• Developing trust between your team

• Improving communication

• Improving efficiency

• Learning the importance of time management

Enforce Standards

To succeed as an operations manager, you will need to make sure that your team adheres to all practices and policies laid out by your organization, as well as government regulations. If your organization doesn't deliver clear written policies to the team, you will be putting yourself and others at risk of legal implications and ramifications. Applying human resource software will enable your company to quickly create employee handbooks, and various HR checklists and forms which will keep your customers and team protected. 

Main Responsibilities

There are various duties and responsibilities that an operations manager will need to undertake in order to perform their role correctly, which include:

• Making important policy, planning, and strategy decisions

• Developing, implementing, and reviewing operational policies and procedures

• Assisting the HR team with recruiting when necessary

• Providing inspired leadership for an organization

• Overseeing budgeting, planning, reporting, and auditing

• Working with the board of directors to create short and long-term goals

• Building alliances and partnerships with other companies

• Supporting worker communication with the management team

• Making sure that the working environment maintains access to quality equipment

• Organizing, planning, and implementing inventory activity

• Confirming that health and safety regulations are adhered to

• Providing guidance and support to employees

Qualifications and Requirements

In addition to the key skills and attributed listed above, an operations manager will need to undergo relevant training and education before they are able to qualify. Some of the requirements include:

• Bachelor's degree in operations management or a related field

• Experience in operations, management, and leadership

• Understanding of budgeting and general finance, including profit and loss

• Solid understanding of financial management

You also have the option to study for a Master of Science Operations Management degree from institutions such as Kettering University Online which will teach you strong leadership skills and help you develop the expertise and knowledge to perform your role efficiently. Possessing an additional graduate degree can increase your marketability which can put you ahead of other candidates when applying for roles and going for job interviews. 

There is also the option to customize your operations management degree with your pick of a 3-coursengraduate certificate in:

• Global leadership

• Healthcare management

• Operations management

• Supply chain management level 1 or 2

To give you a better understanding on what the course entails, you can click here for more information. If you choose this course, you can study for your degree online which can provide flexibility, especially if you're already in employment.

Salary Expectations

Once you've gained the experience and qualifications needed to flourish as an operations manager, there are various roles that you can go into which can see you earning a 6-figure salary, including:

• Executive management ($179,000)

• VR Operations ($167,000)

• Product development management ($110,000)

• Continuous improvement management ($103,000)

Some of the key skills that employers look for in an operations manager include:

• The ability to enforce and promote the company as well as government regulations

• Understand data, including finances and how it can impact the overall operation of an organization

• Have the attributes necessary to work successfully with individuals outside of an organization

If you have a keen interest in becoming an operations manager, in order to qualify and be accepted for the role, you will need to undergo extensive training and education first. While possessing a bachelor's degree can open doors, to be in with a better chance of securing your dream role, it's advised to undertake a master's degree in operations management. Throughout your course you will learn valuable traits that can be implemented effectively into the workplace, allowing you to perform your job to the best of your ability.