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An important part of good people management is being able to delegate effectively. Delegation involves assigning tasks to other people, so that they can act on your behalf.

People often have difficulty delegating important tasks for fear that they may not be completed satisfactorily. However, as an employer you may find that you can become overrun with work to complete and may need to assign at least some responsibilities to other employees.

In order to be confident in your employees when assigning tasks, you need to make yourself aware of their skills, knowledge and experience through interviews or assessment. You should also make a judgment based upon their reliability. You may like to start off by assigning simpler or less important tasks to people at first, so you can gauge their abilities, then based on their performance, give them more responsibilities.

By giving employees greater responsibility, you are demonstrating that you have confidence in them, which can in turn improve the employee and employer relationship. Encourage employees to ask questions and clarify their responsibilities to avoid miscommunication and errors.

Occasionally when delegating tasks to your employees, they might make mistakes. It is important to handle these situations in an appropriate and professional manner. Bringing the mistake to their attention and explaining what the issue is will help to prevent further problems. If you feel that the best solution will be to assign the duty to another employee, it is a good idea to explain to both staff members the reason for doing this.

You may benefit from reading further about managing your employees at business.gov.au and reading specific information on delegation at Business Development Tasmania.