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What does a research supervisor do?

Research supervisors must learn to be authentic mentors, as well as sharing their experience and knowledge. Robert Crammond reflects on his time in the role

Robert Crammond

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Sharing expertise and experience of academia will come naturally to most academics, but acting as a source of developmental support might not, at least not initially.

Over the last decade, I’ve had the privilege of supervising many students at various stages of their academic journeys. Some have been undergraduate students working on their dissertations, some postgraduate master’s students, while others have been working on their doctoral theses.  Here I share my advice based on what I’ve learned during my time as a research supervisor and the five key aspects of the supervisory role.

Set realistic goals

First, as supervisors embark on new projects, they should be realistic with their goals – and this is also the case for the supervisees. In short, a work-life balance must be met to ensure that progress is not at the expense of health and well-being. Setting appropriate milestones to effectively respond to the demands of the project is crucial. This should allow time for priorities to be met, while also putting welfare at the forefront.

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Across the term or semester, confirm a number of mini-deadlines and ensure that simple catch-ups take place every seven to 10 days. I’ve found that setting these rules helps to reassure students and maintains their focus.

Communicate to gain context

It is vital that supervisors understand new and ongoing factors affecting their research. This appreciation of context, and engaging in conversation about it, both motivates researchers and increases the validity of the work in question. It also helps in understanding any gaps, problems or challenges within the topics. Students and new researchers will feel included and valued as they begin their investigations.

As a key starting point – ask relevant questions. What is the situation that this research topic concerns? Who is involved? What are the impacting factors and where can more information be found?

Be the mentor, not a research robot

Being knowledgeable is fundamental to being a successful and competent supervisor – but so is being relatable. Those you are working with need to know that you care about them not only as colleagues, but also as individuals. Be aware of (and willing to talk about) how the research journey affects each researcher and their family and how it can lead to sacrifices being made in day-to-day life. Being approachable builds strong working relationships and ultimately leads to a positive research culture.

Supervisors should emphasise that the journey has its ups and downs. They should encourage students and research groups to take time to relax, recharge and enjoy their hobbies and interests . A focus solely on work is not sensible or sustainable. The role of the supervisor is not merely about meeting research objectives – it’s about helping students become well-rounded and successful individuals.

Manage workloads

For many academics and research students, workload consists of both teaching and research and can feel rather intense. That’s not to mention role-specific duties, which obviously vary. Agreeing on what is the priority term-to-term results in working smarter and more efficiently. 

Consider the many responsibilities your team members are juggling and plan effectively. Target specific conferences or external engagement activities relevant to the research focus, to confirm writing projects and timelines for research within the calendar year.

Emphasise exposure and impact

Effective supervisors ensure that their students and groups are part – and feel part – of their research communities. They also ensure the work they are supervising is visible on the widest possible scale and that the supervisee understands why this is important. What is the purpose of research if it is not shared and placed firmly in the public sphere? If we are to make an impact on society, we must talk about what we are doing.

Pose the following questions to your supervisees at the beginning and end of the journey: What are the (expected) contributions of this research? What knowledge or subject area does this research advance? Where is the significant value? Most importantly, who benefits – and how?

Reflecting on my career as a research supervisor has helped me identify the challenges that need to be addressed in the role. Above all, being an authentic mentor who is approachable, takes workloads into consideration, prioritises work-life balance and provides reassurance will benefit everyone.

Robert Crammond is a senior lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland.

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• Open access
• Published: 13 May 2022

Research supervisors’ views of barriers and enablers for research projects undertaken by medical students; a mixed methods evaluation of a post-graduate medical degree research project program

• Joanne Hart   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9473-0383 1 ,
• Jonathan Hakim   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0232-8953 1 ,
• Rajneesh Kaur   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4406-4327 1 ,
• Richmond Jeremy   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1281-0505 1 ,
• Genevieve Coorey   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4624-9947 2 ,
• Eszter Kalman   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9900-6987 3 ,
• Rebekah Jenkin   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8071-9183 4 &
• David Bowen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7965-5581 1  

BMC Medical Education volume  22 , Article number:  370 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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Medical degree programs use scholarly activities to support development of basic research skills, critical evaluation of medical information and promotion of medical research. The University of Sydney Doctor of Medicine Program includes a compulsory research project. Medical student projects are supervised by academic staff and affiliates, including biomedical science researchers and clinician-academics. This study investigated research supervisors’ observations of the barriers to and enablers of successful medical student research projects.

Research supervisors ( n  = 130) completed an anonymous, online survey after the completion of the research project. Survey questions targeted the research supervisors’ perceptions of barriers to successful completion of projects and sources of support for their supervision of the student project. Data were analysed by descriptive statistics and using manifest content analysis. Further quantitative investigation was made by cross-tabulation according to prior research supervision experience.

Research supervisors reported that students needed both generic skills (75%) and research-based skills (71%) to successfully complete the project. The major barrier to successful research projects was the lack of protected time for research activities (61%). The assessment schedule with compulsory progress milestones enabled project completion (75%), and improved scientific presentation (90%) and writing (93%) skills. Supervisors requested further support for their students for statistics (75%), scientific writing (51%), and funding for projects (52%). Prior research supervision experience influenced the responses. Compared to novice supervisors, highly experienced supervisors were significantly more likely to want students to be allocated dedicated time for the project ( P  < 0.01) and reported higher rates of access to expert assistance in scientific writing, preparing ethics applications and research methodology. Novice supervisors reported higher rates of unexpected project delays and data acquisition problems ( P  < 0.05). Co-supervision was favoured by experienced supervisors but rejected by novice supervisors.

Conclusions

Both generic and research-related skills were important for medical student research project success. Overall, protected research time, financial and other academic support were identified as factors that would improve the research project program. Prior research supervision experience influences perceptions of program barriers and enablers. These findings will inform future support needs for projects and research supervisor training for the research supervision role.

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Introduction

Medical education programs increasingly employ scholarly activities to support development of basic research skills, the ability to critically evaluate medical information and the practice of evidence-based medicine [ 1 ]. Furthermore, research activities undertaken by students can foster life-long interest in medical research [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. This is crucial for the development of clinician-academics, who have key roles in clinical research and translational medicine [ 5 ]. There are declining numbers of clinician-academics in Australia [ 6 ] and globally [ 7 ], thus the importance of fostering interest in research in medical students is imperative.

The University of Sydney 4-year post-graduate Doctor of Medicine Degree (MD) is unique, enrolling students from a wide range of previous academic backgrounds and with various prior research and employment experiences. As an integral and compulsory component of the MD Program curriculum, the research project (MD Project) is delivered as 320 study hours over 2.5 years, from mid-Year 1 to the end of Year 3. Students receive 40 h of training in research methods, basic statistics and research ethics at the end of Year 1, shortly after they commence their projects. Students complete their research project on top of the overall MD program curriculum, without protected research time.

The pedagogical framework for the MD Project program employs active, experiential, project-based learning in a research context with individual projects being supervised by academic staff mentors or mentoring teams. The intended learning objectives of the MD Project are summarised in Table 1 .

In the course of the research project, students need to develop key research and generic skills, including self-motivation, time management and organisation, and building relationships in clinical and research laboratory environments. Students achieve these aims through hands-on experience in devising and conducting a project relevant to health or medicine, analysing the findings, and reporting the results. The scope of MD Projects is broad and includes clinical studies, projects in biomedical science, epidemiology and public health, medical education, bioinformatic and information technology and policy, law, and ethics. A series of compulsory milestone assessments are designed to facilitate progress of each project towards completion. These Milestone tasks include an early project outline, a full appraisal of the ethical implications of the project and verification that ethics approval has been obtained, a structured literature search strategy, and progress reports involving written and oral scientific presentations. The final assessment task is a 3000-word scientific report. Many students were encouraged to present at conferences or prepare manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals, however these were not requirements of the MD Project program. Students are supervised individually or in small groups (usually 2–5 students) by academic staff and affiliates, including basic research scientists, public health researchers and clinicians. The majority of supervisors are not directly employed Faculty members, but University affiliates, who are not specifically remunerated for their time. Supervisors were not required to have a PhD or any formal research supervision training. No Faculty funding was provided to support the project or its supervision. Supervisors were required to provide all project materials and expertise and would supervise up to 6 students at a time. Many supervisors were based in public hospitals and took on MD Project supervision in addition to their existing clinical and/or research workloads.

The research supervisor has a key role in the success of this traditional model of research project [ 8 ]; however, research supervision experience varies from very limited to extensive. Although research supervision training for supervisors of higher degree students is common worldwide and often mandatory, most academics learn to supervise research students “on-the-job” and by emulating their own research mentors [ 9 ]. Currently, there is no formal training provided for the supervisors of MD Projects, or for those supervising similar short-term research projects by undergraduates, including Honours degrees [ 10 ]. Whilst there is evaluation data available for similar research project programs from the students’ viewpoint [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ], the perspective of the supervisors is under-reported. Given the key role of the supervisor in this research education model, their experiences are an important source of information to guide future program improvements.

This study sought the views of research supervisors on the MD Project program and their experiences of supervising medical student research projects, including:

observations on the barriers to and enablers of successfully completing an MD Project,

sources of support for their supervision of the project,

extent of research supervision experience on attitudes to and overall experience of supervising the MD projects,

requirements for professional development or other assistance.

Materials and methods

Study design.

This study is a mixed methods evaluation of the MD Project program from the perspective of the research supervisors.

Participants

MD Project research supervisors were invited by email to complete an anonymous online survey following the completion of the student projects in 2018 and 2020. Participants were University academic staff and appropriately qualified affiliates, including basic research scientists and clinicians. Participants had varying levels of previous research supervision experience, ranging from none to supervision of post-graduate research degree completions. Their areas of research expertise were broad though based in health and medical research. There were no exclusion criteria. Consent to participate was inferred if participants opted to complete and submit an online survey.

Survey tool

The survey tool was developed specifically for this program and was reviewed and refined by MD Program Faculty members, including some research supervisors, to optimise face and content validity. The survey consisted of 30 items, mostly on a 5-point Likert-type scale (with responses of not at all, slightly, moderately, very, extremely ), with optional text responses. Some items required selection of multiple responses from a given list. Survey domains included participant demographics and prior research supervision experience, their overall experience of supervising MD Projects, enablers for and barriers to successful completion of the project (at the MD Program, project, supervisor and student level) and resources and support needed for the supervision role. Participants were provided with a link to the survey within an email invitation to participate; responses were anonymous and aggregate data are shown. The survey tool is available upon request from the authors.

Data analysis

Descriptive analyses were used to explore the overall patterns of response, and qualitative content analysis was used to examine the responses to open ended questions. MD Project supervisors were divided into three categories of research supervision experience: novice (no prior research supervision), moderately experienced (supervised any one of: summer research projects of duration 6–10 weeks, undergraduate Honours projects of up to 6 months or post-graduate research degrees) and highly experienced, (all of the abovementioned supervision types) based on their responses to the survey. Descriptive analysis and Chi Square test including the Mantel–Haenszel test of trend were used to assess any differences in responses between the supervisor experience groups. P  < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Quantitative analyses were carried out in SPSS V26 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY). Responses from open ended questions were analysed through qualitative methods using manifest content analysis [ 15 ]. Initially deductive coding for explicit phrases was carried out. These codes were then contextualised with the research question of the study. This was followed by generation of homogenous categories from the codes. Conclusions were drawn through investigator triangulation.

Response rates and Faculty respondent demographics

Survey responses were collected from two cohorts of MD Project supervisors, following the completion of the project. From 463 MD Project supervisors’ invitations, 130 (28%) responded. Most respondents identified as clinical researchers, followed by public health academics and biomedical science researchers (Table 2 ). Others had expertise in medical education, bioinformatics, information technology and health-related policy, law, or medical ethics. Many identified multiple areas of expertise.

Faculty research supervision expertise

MD Project supervisors are required to be academic staff or affiliates of the University, however there are no other specific requirements to become a supervisor. Approximately 60% of the respondents were highly experienced research supervisors across a range of project types and duration. One third had moderate experience supervising either summer research project students, Honours Degree students or post-graduate research students. Ten percent of the supervisors had no previous research supervision experience (Table 2 ).

Student-Supervisor relationship

About half (47%) of the supervisors felt their feedback on student performance was only moderately well received (Fig.  1 ), though the majority (73%) of supervisors felt the students were grateful for the opportunity to do research with their team (Fig.  1 ). Supervisors reported that students were organised and interested in their projects and were moderately proactive in communications. Overall, there was agreement amongst MD Project supervisors (86%) that their experience of supervision was very dependent on the individual student (Fig.  1 ).

Student-Supervisor relationship items. Supervisors responded to a number of items related to the student-supervisor relationship on a Likert scale from not at all to extremely. Percentage of responses are shown

Enablers for successful completion of the research project

Student skills needed to successfully complete the md project.

Respondents identified skills that students needed for successfully completing their MD Project, these are presented in Fig.  2 . These were often generic skills, including time management and organisation, independence and initiative and effective communication skills. The top research skills needed included literature searching, scientific writing, statistical skills and navigating the ethics review process (Fig.  2 ). Task-specific skills such as familiarity with information technology and databases were considered less critical, which may reflect the mix of projects undertaken.

Research supervisors’ perceptions of skills students needed for completing research projects. Percentage of supervisors ( n  = 130) who selected these items from a list of generic and research skills needed in the student research project

Assessment schedule

There were mixed views on the utility of the milestone assessment tasks, which are presented in Table 3 . The majority of respondents reported that compulsory milestone assessment tasks helped students make progress on their project, though only half thought the tasks were necessary to maintain momentum or hold students accountable to the standards required. About one-third reported that milestones assured the supervisor that the student was progressing as expected. Novice supervisors generally rated the assessment tasks as more useful than the experienced supervisors (Table 3 ). The oral presentations were rated as very useful for student progress, helping them learn to accept and respond to feedback and develop their scientific presentation skills. Preparing a final scientific report was strongly viewed as a very useful activity (Table 3 ).

Barriers to successful completion of the research project

Potential impediments for MD project success fell into four broad groups: Program level, project level, supervisor-related and student-related (Fig.  3 ). The principal barriers were at program level, with lack of dedicated time for the project and competing academic demands on students of the overall MD Program being most frequently cited (Fig.  3 ). At project level, unexpected problems, such as delays in data acquisition and time taken for Ethics Committee review and approval were reported. Supervisor time constraints reflected clinical load and other demands. Lack of previous research experience, or lack of commitment to the project were student-related characteristics that were identified as important barriers.

Barriers to successful completion of MD Projects reported by supervisors. Percentage of supervisors ( n  = 130) that selected these items from a list of barriers to successfully completing the research project. These barriers were grouped in relation to the MD Program, the project, the supervisor or the student

Challenges described by MD Project supervisors in free text responses indicated a range of other concerns mostly related to student issues but also to their own role as supervisor. They report that a major challenge for the students was competing priorities for learning. The MD Project Milestone tasks therefore became extrinsic motivators and barriers to overcome instead of activities that meaningfully contributed to their learning. This was particularly evident in students competing milestones ‘just in time’ leaving little opportunity for meaningful feedback from supervisors. Other difficulties cited were students having no research or science background as reflected in the following quotes:

“The students struggle to maintain any momentum with their MD Projects as they prioritise other aspects of the MD Program and other deadlines (naturally), so the MD Project often is done all in a rush near the milestone deadlines which is then challenging for supervisors to find the time for a large number of students who need help.” (Experienced Supervisor, Epidemiologist) “Most (students) have a poor understanding of research and stats. This was especially the case with one student from a non-science background.” (Moderately Experienced Supervisor, Clinician)

Challenges cited for MD Project supervisors included the demands of completing other parts of the course and MD Project simultaneously, demanding or disengaged students, a large number of students to supervise, and a lack of time or competing priorities or deadlines. It was reported by some that this type of project supervision was not a good fit for a full-time researcher.

“Of the 11 students I have been involved with, even though all have done well many are very disengaged until the last week or two of the projects, then very demanding for input into their report.” (Experienced Supervisor, Clinician & Biomedical Researcher) “The students have so many competing demands that the MD Project is a real challenge for everyone. As a full-time researcher, fitting such students into my main program is not a good fit.” (Experienced Supervisor, Clinician)

Supervision support for MD projects

Only 11% of respondents said they had all the resources they needed to run the MD Project. The respondents indicated that more support was required for statistics, ethics applications, scientific writing, research methods, and funding both for the project costs and for students to attend conferences (Fig.  4 ).

Support and resources needed by MD Project supervisors. Percentage of supervisors ( n  = 130) that selected these items from a list of supports and resources needed for the MD Project

Effect of prior research supervision experience on responses

Prior research supervision experience did not affect the perception of the generic skills that supervisors felt students needed to successfully complete their MD Project. However, skills that were more highly regarded by novice supervisors included skills in literature searching (92%), database development (46%) and understanding the ethics review process (69%). Highly experienced supervisors were more likely to cite independence and initiative (75%) as a required skill than novice supervisors (47%). It is notable that novice supervisors recorded a higher agreement with the utility of the assessment tasks than the overall respondent data (Table 3 ). Regarding the student-supervisor relationship, there was no difference in responses by prior research supervision experience.

Interestingly, although overall the major barrier cited was a lack of dedicated time for the MD Project (Fig.  3 ), novice supervisors were significantly less likely to want a dedicated time for the project (23%) compared with highly experienced supervisors (69%, χ 2  = 10.351, P  = 0.005 Fig.  5 A). Lack of dedicated time for the MD Project was recognised as a barrier which increased with supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, P  = 0.002, Fig.  5 A). Further, highly experienced supervisors were significantly less likely to identify the student’s lack of previous research experience as a barrier (49%) compared to moderately experienced (72%) and novice supervisors and this trend was statistically significant (69.2%, χ 2  = 6.040, P  = 0.049). A significant trend of this being less of a barrier was noted with increasing supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, P  = 0.031, Fig.  5 D). Novice supervisors were significantly more likely to rate their students at the outset of the project as being familiar with research methods (χ 2  = 13.431, P  = 0.001). A significant trend was noted for this rating by supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, P  = 0.005, Fig.  5 B). Novice supervisors also felt that students were more confident in approaching their project than experienced supervisors and this trend was statistically significant (χ 2  = 6.348, P  = 0.042) and associated with supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, P  = 0.046, Fig.  5 C). No novice supervisors reported they had a lack of time for supervision, although novice supervisors identified their clinical load as a barrier (15%) more often than experienced supervisors (8%).

Novice supervisors’ appraisal of student research capabilities. A Novice supervisors were significantly less likely to want a dedicated time for the project, ( B ) were more likely to consider their students familiar with research methodology and ( C ) confident in approaching the project. D Highly experienced supervisors were significantly less likely to cite their student’s lack of previous research experience as a barrier compared to moderately experienced and novice supervisors. * P  < 0.05, ** P  < 0.01, χ 2 -test; # =  P  < 0.05, Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, by supervisor experience

Notably, compared to experienced supervisors, novice supervisors reported higher rates of project delays due to ethics committee review (χ 2  = 1.463, P  = 0.481, Fig.  6 A) where a trend by supervision experience is observed but does not reach statistical significance. They also report increased rate of data acquisition problems (χ 2  = 4.026, P  = 0.134, Fig. 6 B), and unexpected project problems (χ 2  = 4.359, P  = 0.113, Fig. 6 C). A significant trend was observed by supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend,  P  = 0.047, Fig.  6 B,  P  = 0.038, Fig.  6 C). Highly experienced supervisors reported significantly higher rates of access to expert assistance particularly in scientific writing (novice 7.7% vs highly experienced 21.3%, χ 2  = 8.251, P  = 0.016), and there was a significant trend with supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, P  = 0.005). In addition, highly experienced supervisors reported twice the access to expertise for preparing ethics approval applications (novice 15.4% vs highly experienced 37.3%) and research methodology advice (novice 15.4% vs highly experienced 38.7%) compared to novice supervisors, though this does not reach statistical significance. Those with moderate prior supervision experience were significantly more likely to want orientation sessions for the MD Project (χ 2  = 8.519, P  = 0.014). None of the novice supervisors wanted co-supervision and few sought increased involvement of expert advisors (8%), whereas moderately and highly experienced supervisors were open to these options (16–20%).

Novice supervisors’ reported rates of project delays or problems. MD Project delays, due to ( A ) ethics approval, ( B ) data acquisition or ( C ) unexpected problems were more often reported with novice supervisors, with a decreasing trend in delays as supervision experience increased (# =  P  < 0.05, Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, by supervisor experience)

Content analysis of free text comments revealed differences in perceptions of the contributions of supervisors to the MD Project program. The more experienced supervisors felt they had a responsibility to participate in the MD project as supervisors, with specific reference to the need for experience to support the student cohort and the difficulty of the task. Novice supervisors noted that they were gaining professional skills as a result of supervising the students. Thus, experienced supervisors felt they were giving something to the program, whereas novice supervisors felt they themselves received a benefit from the program.

“For us who are experienced supervisors, we need to do this to help out the Faculty and the MD program. This is not for inexperienced supervisors.” (Experienced Supervisor, Clinician) “There are a large number of students and relatively few tutors with research experience, so I feel there is a responsibility to participate.” (Experienced Supervisor, Biomedical Scientist) “Rewarding yet challenging at the same time. Helps with ongoing education and professional development for myself.” (Novice Supervisor, Clinician)

This study examines a large post-graduate medical student research project program from the perspective of the research project supervisors. Supervisors reported that students needed both generic skills and research-based skills to successfully complete the project. Across 3 years of the program, the students are expected to spend 320 h dedicated to their research project. Supervisors reported that having no protected time for research activities was a significant barrier to the successful completion of the project. Further support was requested for statistics, scientific writing and funding for projects. Importantly, prior research supervision experience affected the responses, where novice supervisors reported higher rates of project delays due to ethics review, data acquisition problems and unexpected project problems compared to experienced supervisors. Inexperienced supervisors also reported less access to supports, suggesting further support and training of novice supervisors would be of benefit.

The supervisor workforce in this study was mostly clinician researchers, followed by public health and epidemiology researchers and biomedical scientists. A smaller proportion of the supervisors oversaw medical education, bioinformatics, information technology or medical policy law or ethics projects. Thus, the project scope and supervisor research expertise varied, and many indicated they had multiple areas of expertise. This is in line with most medical degree scholarly programs which offer a wide scope of project experiences [ 2 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Most of the respondents identified as being experienced supervisors, a third had supervised some project models, and some had no prior research supervision experience. This is common across student research programs, where the role of project supervisor often requires no qualification other than being a researcher or being available, though it is known that the supervision role requires support [ 16 ]. This study also provided some insight into the motivations of the research supervisors, where the experienced supervisors felt the need to contribute to teaching, whereas the novice supervisors wanted to gain supervision skills.

An important finding of this study is that supervisors report that both generic and research skills are important for successful completion of MD Projects. Indeed many of the generic skills needed are also required by medical professionals, and such skills are now routinely included in many medical program curricula [ 19 ]. These skills include time management and organisation skills, taking initiative and acting independently, and effective communication skills which all contribute to the development of professionalism [ 20 ].

The major barriers to student success identified by supervisors are similar to those previously published [ 21 ] comprising the trio of time, funding and the student-supervisor relationship. The delivery of the MD Project, within the already busy medical school curriculum, was cited as one of the major barriers for student success in their projects. A recent realist review also concluded that research experience for medical students required protected time and adequate supervision to achieve scholarly outcomes [ 4 ]. Interestingly, MD Project supervisors reported that students had time to complete their projects, although a lack of dedicated time to conduct the project manifested in students adopting a stop-start approach to their projects, as they navigated the rest of the medical program content. This was very clear in the respondent reports regarding student communication, which describe many students as being proactive only as milestone assessment tasks approached. The progressive assessment schedule for the MD Project was well received by the supervisors, who found it useful to progress projects, though only half thought milestone assessments were useful to maintain momentum of the projects or to determine how their students were tracking within the cohort (Table 3 ). Traditional scientific research project assessments were used, including written and oral progress reports and a final written scientific report, which were all considered very useful in project progress towards completion.

Only 11% of the supervisors said they had all the resources they needed to run their project; this is a clear area for improvement. The supervisory role was not remunerated, there was no backfill for time taken, no project funds available and nearly all supervisors had busy and demanding research and/or clinical roles. Thus, the volunteer nature of the supervisor cohort is quite important, especially given that some of the usual paybacks of supervising students to do research are uncommon in this setting, e.g., generating publications, piloting projects or advancing parts of larger projects. Supervisors reported that academic support for students in statistics, research methods, scientific writing and ethics were lacking and that central support for these services would be welcome. Thus, to sustainably run a research program like this at scale, further central support for these activities needs to be provided.

Participants were from a variety of specialty areas, both clinical and non-clinical, and with varying degrees of research supervision experience. Notably some survey responses were significantly different according to the respondent’s previous supervision experience. This is in line with a recent report [ 22 ] and trends with prior supervision experience were further explored. Novice supervisors were significantly more likely to rate their students at the outset as being familiar with research methods and confident in approaching their project. This likely reflects the supervisor’s inexperience and is consistent with previous reports that interpreting student understanding is difficult for novices [ 23 ]. They also may have different pre-existing expectations of the research project process than the experienced supervisors [ 22 ]. Novice supervisors were significantly less likely to report that a dedicated time was needed for students to work on the project, and this is contrary to consistent evidence that protected research time is required for the success of these projects [ 20 ]. A further finding is that highly experienced supervisors were significantly less likely to suggest that student’s lack of prior research experience was a barrier to project progress, possibly as they had better support structures in place for their students, and better understanding of how to guide students in their research activities.

Further, novice supervisors were more likely to report significant project delays, due to unexpected problems, ethics review, and data acquisition delays. In addition, there was a significant trend in these delays with prior supervision experience, suggesting that mentoring or further support for new supervisors would be useful to bridge the gap. Moreover, there was a significant trend showing that students of novice supervisors had less access to support for scientific writing, expertise in research methods and preparation of ethics review applications, further revealing areas where increased training and support would be useful for novice supervisors.

Quality research supervision involves expertise of the supervisor in the research area, and a willingness to guide the student through the research project process [ 24 ]. Different models of supervision are likely to be required for different students and different project types [ 25 ]. Further, studies show that the student-supervisor relationship is largely dependent on how reliant the student is on their supervisor; thus, students who are more dependent may need a different approach to supervision than those who are independent [ 26 ]. This is consistent with the current findings that supervisors felt that the overall supervision experience varied widely. The ideal research environment for medical students has been reported to involve individual supervision with continuous feedback [ 8 ]. Notably, many MD Project supervisors felt that their feedback on student performance was only moderately well received, but the reasons for this are not clear. Compiling and delivering feedback to assist student progress is a complex process with several considerations including the emotional impact of receiving or giving written feedback; written feedback in the supervisory power dynamic; communicating written feedback; and the content and structure of written feedback [ 27 ]. These proficiencies are a further area for future training considerations. In addition to this, improving the supervisor experience would likely cultivate future supervision capacity and retention of experienced supervisors, which is an important consideration for the sustainability of a large MD Project Program.

Many research supervisors are not specifically trained in the pedagogy associated with supervision. Although specific training programs have become standard for higher degree supervisors [ 9 , 28 ], this is not the case for research supervision at the undergraduate or post-graduate coursework level, as in this program. Higher degree supervisor training programs cover topics like managing the relationship between student and supervisor, keeping roles and expectations clear, managing milestones and project progress. Other important considerations may be handling breakdowns in relationships, authorship, and research ethics issues [ 9 , 29 ]. All of these are relevant to the MD project supervision. In this study, supervision experience ranged from none to extensive, but supervisors were not required to have any supervision qualifications. Notably, inexperienced supervisors were less inclined to have a second supervisor or expert content advisor involved in supervising their student’s project, whereas experienced supervisors were more open to this option. This finding is in accord with the supervisor professional identity dilemma previously reported for both novice and more experienced supervisors [ 23 ].

Limitations

This cross-sectional study has limitations in that it is subject to self-report bias and the timing of the survey which took place at the end of the 2.5-year project risking the introduction of recall bias. The relatively low response rate (28%) reflects the participant cohort which includes busy clinicians and researchers [ 30 ].

In conclusion, research supervisors reported that both generic and research-related skills were important for research project success. Overall, supervisors considered that the program delivered on its objectives, and that the assessment tasks enabled project progress and skill acquisition. Protected research time, funding, and academic support, particularly for research methods and ethics, would improve the research project program. Supervisor perceptions differed depending on prior research supervision experience and suggest a targeted training program could be beneficial. This should be further investigated to inform future support provisions.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available, as per conditions of Ethics Committee approval, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Prof Michael Frommer and Prof David Tiller who were instrumental in the design, development, and implementation of the MD Project Program. Academic management for the MD Project team was provided by Clara Spencer, Anna Forte, Hannah Bath, Craig Purcell, Nicholas Olsen, Paniani Patu and Sally Middleton. The substantial support of research supervisors and coordinators of both the research project program and this survey is also acknowledged.

No funding was received for this work.

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Contributions

Jonathan Hakim, Rebekah Jenkin, Eszter Kalman and David Bowen contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection was performed by Jonathan Hakim and Joanne Hart. Data analyses were performed by Joanne Hart, Genevieve Coorey and Rajneesh Kaur. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Joanne Hart and all authors commented on subsequent versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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This research project was approved by the University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee, #2017/748. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Informed consent was obtained from each participant. Participation was anonymous and submission of the online survey form was accepted as informed consent to be involved in the study.

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Hart, J., Hakim, J., Kaur, R. et al. Research supervisors’ views of barriers and enablers for research projects undertaken by medical students; a mixed methods evaluation of a post-graduate medical degree research project program. BMC Med Educ 22 , 370 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03429-0

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Training of Research Supervisors: Communities of Practice, Distance Supervision, and Holistic Strategies

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This chapter explores the evolution of supervisory training and contrasting approaches that universities engage in during the training of supervisors. It deals with the use of technology and supervisory communication with offshore or distance doctoral students, but also whether cultural differences between supervisors and students could affect their relationship. It notes examples of the development of an online research supervision toolkit as well as incorporating communities of practice. It presents a case study of a holistic view of supervisory training within a university research training framework. Recommendations for managing current challenges and future needs for research supervisory training are discussed.

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Erwee, R. (2018). Training of Research Supervisors: Communities of Practice, Distance Supervision, and Holistic Strategies. In: Erwee, R., Harmes, M., Harmes, M., Danaher, P. (eds) Postgraduate Education in Higher Education. University Development and Administration. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0468-1_36-1

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GRS supervisor development workshops

The Graduate Research School (GRS) offers a series of workshops to strengthen supervisors’ knowledge, skills, and tools in best supervisory practices.

As an HDR supervisor, you will have the privilege of watching your students grow into independent researchers who make a meaningful contribution to knowledge. You will also become part of a community of UTS staff who are committed to developing the next generation of professionals and researchers who can lead our global society.

In order to supervise HDR students, you must complete the initial supervision module “ Graduate research supervision at UTS ” (opens link to NEO). Principal or co-supervisors must also complete two additional training workshops.

Foundations

• Graduate research supervision at UTS  This online module is an introduction to graduate research supervision at UTS. It is an overview of the global, Australian, and UTS contexts for graduate research education. In addition to providing an important summary of UTS policies and guidelines, it also offers an entry point into understanding the foundations of effective HDR supervision practices. These practices must take into account the purpose of the contemporary HDR degree. The module is a mandatory requirement to register as an HDR supervisor.

Research questions and beginning writing The focus of this workshop is on working with graduate research students who are in their early stages of candidature. In particular, it looks at supporting students as they formulate research questions/problems, pursue initial research processes and begin writing—all of which need to be contextualised within the student’s specific discipline/field of practice. The module foregrounds how to help students get started and get writing, and how to give guidance and effective feedback on their work. 23 April, 10:00am - 12:00pm

Past themes and topics

Building strong supervisory practices.

• Supervising distance and part-time research students Research doesn't always take place on campus. Whether a student is undertaking field research, completing a PhD by distance mode , or simply studying part-time, students who aren't on campus full-time can benefit from different approaches to supervision. This session focuses on how to maintain good communication and progress with distance and part-time students, as well as supporting their ongoing wellbeing and development as professional researchers.
• Holding challenging conversations Research supervision is a multiyear relationship that encompasses a variety of responsibilities, milestones, and potential approaches. Some conflict is likely, and not inherently a problem: what makes conflicts healthy or harmful depends on how they're managed. This workshop focuses on how to have challenging conversations in a way that helps produce resolution rather than resentment. 
• Working with graduate research students  This session considers ways of working as a supervisor or member of a supervisory panel for graduate research students. It explores a range of supervisory styles and how these develop different kinds of relationships with students. Topics under consideration include negotiating expectations and ways of working, collaboratively setting goals and developing research plans, working with students from diverse contexts, managing problems, and ensuring graduate research study plans assist students in successfully moving through the stages of assessment.
• Collaborative, cross-disciplinary supervision  This session begins with an exploration of conceptions of cross-disciplinary research. It focuses on what this means for graduate research supervision and explores how supervisors can develop productive collaborative ways of working with one another and with students across disciplines and/or fields of practice. The session introduces ideas and strategies for working in a research environment where different theories are brought together and knowledge is being generated from different disciplinary frames using new methods and insights. It emphasises the importance of articulating what counts as quality research in cross-disciplinary work.
• Mentoring and co-supervision  This session introduces a number of tools and practices that support a productive mentoring relationship between established and earlier career supervisors. It focuses on developing ways of working together as supervisors of graduate research students, including negotiating a mentoring agreement and exploring how roles might change during the course of a candidature.
• Understanding industry PhD programs Industry-embedded PhDs can be a powerful mechanism to build research partnerships, drive collaboration, and contribute to real-world impact. This workshop offers an overview of the why, what, and how of industry PhDs, including how to make existing programs like the National Industry PhD Program and UTS's Industry Doctorate Program work for you.

Supporting the thesis journey

• Research questions and beginning writing  The focus of this session is on working with graduate research students who are in their early stages of candidature. In particular, it looks at supporting students as they formulate research questions/problems, pursue initial research processes and begin writing—all of which need to be contextualised within the student’s specific discipline/field of practice. The session foregrounds how to help students get started and get writing, and how to give guidance and effective feedback on their work.
• Supporting progress: managing the graduate research journey This session supports the ongoing relationship between supervisors and graduate research students who have completed Stage One of their candidature. It explores ways of ensuring that supervisory relationships remain positive and productive. Participants will consider a range of supervisory styles and discuss how these may be relevant to advanced candidates. Topics under consideration include (re)negotiating expectations and ways of working, publishing, managing problems, ethical practice and ensuring graduate research study plans assist students in achieving the goals set out in the final stage of their plan.
• Writing up the thesis  The focus of this session is on working with graduate research students who are in their final stage of candidature. In particular, it is aimed at supporting students as they complete and submit their theses for examination, in the staged and organized ways that are appropriate for their discipline/field of practice. This involves extending students’ skills in conceptualising and categorising relevant literature; analysing, presenting and discussing data; and writing a well-structured, cohesive thesis.
• So you want to do a NTRO? Not all scholarly research turns into a journal article. A software algorithm, architectural design, film, or article of clothing could all be Non-Traditional Research Outputs (NTROs). UTS PhDs can integrate NTROs into their research journey, part of the distinctive way UTS supports our students to explore issues and problems that are meaningful to them. This session covers the value and impact of NTROs, how to evaluate their quality, and how to incorporate them into HDR research.

Fostering a healthy and inclusive research culture

• Managing for success: supporting HDR mental health and wellbeing This session focuses on understanding mental health and the role it plays in student success.  Topics under consideration include the foundations of mental health, warning signs of stress and mental health concerns, and avoiding common pitfalls in mental health conversations with students. Supervisors will also learn about the resources available to support student wellbeing and how to implement strategies of self-care.

Neurodiversity ally and accessibility training Ensuring that our research culture embraces diversity is critical to our excellence, creativity, and the future innovative capacity we are developing through our research training. This highly interactive workshop provides an immersive experience of Neurodiversity inclusion   in a higher education context and equips participants to work confidently in Neurodiverse spaces in the future.

Supervising Indigenous Australian HDR students for success  This session will provide supervisors of Indigenous research students with various points to consider when supervising. This workshop has three key areas of focus: the HDR student, the research and support.

Supervising international research students  This session explores ways of working with international students, and the role research supervisors can play in supporting their effective acculturation and learning as a graduate research student at UTS. The workshop focuses on intercultural communication skills as well as ideas and strategies for working with students and colleagues from diverse backgrounds. 

Thinking beyond the thesis

• Strategic recruitment and admissions The first step on the journey to HDR student success is a thoughtful recruitment and admissions process. This session will cover how to approach student recruitment and admissions proactively, strategically, and effectively—helping you maximise the likelihood of attracting and selecting the best candidates. 
• Publishing for (and with) HDRs Scholarly publication is a critical part of an HDR student’s intellectual journey, development of a professional profile, and enculturation into a community of scholars. Yet expectations and norms around co-authorship can vary widely across disciplines and cultures, leading to interpersonal and professional challenges if not dealt with proactively. Incorporating a variety of disciplinary perspectives, this workshop will consider the practical, ethical, and intellectual property foundations of successful co-publishing.
• Working on careers: around and beyond the thesis  This session focuses on working with graduate research students in developing their careers. It explores relevant trends in the future of work and the variety of ways HDR students create impactful careers. Participants will learn how to better support students in planning the next steps in their careers, with a particular emphasis on engaging with scholarly and professional research communities, establishing relationships and networks, communicating their research through scholarly and public channels, and leveraging UTS Careers resources.
• Building industry engagement with research students Supporting research students to undertake industry engagement has a number of benefits for all parties. Supervisors build research partnerships and develop a track record for research funding programs. Students develop multifaceted research thinking, enhance networks, and strengthen professional skills. This workshop focuses on effectively incorporating students into research partnerships and supervising them to ensure they, their thesis, and the partnership are all successful.  

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.

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Introduction

Research shows that over half of new supervisors and managers receive little or no training before assuming their new roles.

The practice is common in many organizations because the typical assumption is that high performing individual contributors will transition easily from managing projects and processes to managing people. But managing people requires an incredibly different and unique skill set. As a result, imagine how that lack of training and preparation can negatively impact the individual, the team, and ultimately, the organization.

So instead, imagine how an investment in your supervisors and managers (from those recently promoted to those who have been in their roles for years), in building their skills to manage people, purpose, and performance, and in setting them up for success (versus failure) can positively impact the individual, the team, the organization, and ultimately, your organization’s future.

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The Importance of Training Supervisors and Managers

Supervisors and managers in every organization, on any given day, experience successes and face challenges. As a result, it is essential that they have a strong and effective skill set in order to both drive these successes and tackle these challenges. And while there are countless organizational benefits to training supervisors and managers, it is critical to consider the pitfalls of not training supervisors that can put your organization at greater risk.

Pitfall 1: Exposing the organization to liabilities

Organizations are exposed to liabilities when their supervisors and managers aren’t knowledgeable about current employment laws or don’t understand how to apply legal guidelines when interviewing candidates.

For example, supervisors may make selection decisions based on non-job related criteria or subjective biases or ask inappropriate interview questions that could out the organization at risk.

Ask these key questions: Are supervisors and managers knowledgeable about  employment laws  in order to successfully apply legal guidelines in the workplace? Do supervisors and managers ask appropriate  interview questions? Do supervisors and managers participate in making legal selection decisions based on job-related factors and qualifications and not based on any protected-class criteria? Do supervisors and managers understand wage and hour law (FLSA) and how it affects the pay of their employees? Do supervisors and managers consistently discipline or handle issues related to employee conduct? Do supervisors and managers understand the basics of  managing employee leave ?

Pitfall 2: Failing to document and manage performance

Performance management is a common struggle for many supervisors and managers. Oftentimes, we find that they aren’t doing enough to support the employee in achieving their performance expectations or standards and not providing regular feedback, counseling, and coaching. Correctly documenting performance is commonly overlooked as well.

Ask these key questions: Do supervisors and managers generally have a high performance work team, or do their employees struggle in reaching certain performance standards or goals? Are employees aware of what is expected of them in terms of performance? Do supervisors and managers communicate these expectations to employees? Do supervisors and managers take the performance review process seriously? Do they understand its importance and how to prepare for and deliver a performance review? Do supervisors and managers document any and all incidents of poor performance? (note: this is also a potential liability) Do supervisors and managers guide performance through regular feedback and coaching? Do supervisors and managers support performance with development and training if needed? Do supervisors and managers have conversations with employees about their career aspirations and developmental interests? Do they follow-up on insights obtained in these conversations? Do supervisors and managers continually challenge and empower their employees? Do supervisors and managers make themselves available to answer employee questions about projects, assignments, and tasks? Do supervisors and managers recognize and thank employees for their contributions when they do a good job? Do supervisors and managers criticize more than they praise? Is there an imbalance of negative and positive feedback, and is this justified?

Pitfall 3: Poor communication skills

Inadequate communication manifests itself in a number of problems including poor relationships with employees, frequent misunderstandings of job-tasks, unclear expectations, or lack or communicating policies.

These issues often surface from poor listening, lack of relationship-building, and ineffective feedback skills that lead to frequent supervisory problems.

Ask these key questions: Do supervisors and managers establish rapport and positive relationships with employees? Do supervisors and managers engage in frequent methods of in-person communication? Do supervisors and managers actively listen to employees’ concerns, problems, and questions? Do supervisors and managers clarify points and issues, trying to better understand work problems employees have? Do supervisors and managers ask for employees’ viewpoints and opinions? Do supervisors and managers exhibit effective non-verbal communication with employees? Do their words match their body language and tone of voice? Do employees often feel confused when completing work assignments, or do misunderstandings frequently occur? Do employees receive enough performance feedback from supervisors and managers? Do they understand where they excel and where they need to improve? Is the feedback provided by supervisors and managers constructive and well-targeted at behavioral changes?

Pitfall 4: Failing to resolve conflict

Many managers fail to resolve conflict. They may not have the proper set of skills to recognize conflict or know how to minimize negative conflict. It’s not uncommon for supervisors and managers to avoid conflict altogether. As a result, unresolved conflict can potentially escalate into an at-risk employment situation.

Ask these key questions: Do supervisors and managers work to accurately define and identify key workplace conflicts, or are problems frequently incorrectly identified? Do supervisors and managers recognize the causes of conflict? Do supervisors and managers understand the costs of conflict on your business and recognize its effects on productivity? Do conflicts generally go unresolved by supervisors and managers, or do supervisors and managers practice different strategies to manage and resolve conflict, ensuring that it has a limited effect on performance? Do supervisors and managers frequently collaborate and strive for “win-win” approaches to conflict? Do supervisors and managers try to prevent negative conflict by encouraging positive coworker relationships, encouraging recognition of individual differences, and addressing work problems quickly before they escalate? Do supervisors try to adapt to different personalities and styles in order to maximize their effectiveness?

Pitfall 5: Not understanding the new role

Typically promoted from individual contributor roles, supervisors and managers find themselves not understanding the new requirements and expectations of their new role. Consequently, that lack of understanding can lead to performance problems for the supervisor or manager.

Ask these key questions: Do supervisors and managers frequently encounter challenges on the job in dealing with employee issues and problems? Do supervisors and managers understand how their role is different than that of their previous role as an individual contributor? Do they understand its importance in driving results through others? Do supervisors and managers understand the responsibilities of their role and how to carry them out? Do supervisors and managers make time for employees, balancing task completion and building supportive relationships? Do supervisors and managers show trust and confidence in employees? Are employees excessively directed and micromanaged? Are employees treated with respect and courtesy?

If the supervisors and managers in your organization succumb to one or more of these pitfalls, there are a number of ways to develop them: training, skills coaching & mentoring, and educational materials.

Common Challenges Supervisors Face

Regardless of industry, geographic region, organization size, supervisors and managers in every organization face very common challenges. Why? Because supervisors and managers have to lead people AND policy. It is the art and science of supervising and managing, and it can be a tough balance to maintain.

Challenge 1: Communication

Managers may not be completely aware of their communication style and how the quality of their communications affect and are perceived by their employees.

In order to be successful, it’s crucial for your supervisors and managers to be aware of and understand their unique communication and interpersonal styles. Being aware of one’s own style, as well as being familiar with other styles, helps supervisors use their styles more effectively across different situations.

Try providing your supervisors and managers with communication templates, scripts, tips, or checklists. Engage in role-play or dialogue with the supervisor to help them practice their skills and identify opportunities for improvement.

You can also educate supervisors and managers on common communication breakdowns, how to spot signs of typical communication problems, such as misunderstandings, lack of communication, etc., and how to avoid them or address them when necessary.

Another option you have is to provide a personal coach if communication problems persist within your organization.

Challenge 2: Conflict Resolution

Ineffective supervisors and managers ignore problems and don’t effectively or directly address conflicts with their employees or team.

These problems may include performance problems, conflicts among team members, and issues of trust or personality clashes, just to name a few

Managers are challenged to confront and address conflicts directly and as they emerge, diffuse employees’ feelings and emotions regarding the problem, listen to both parties’ needs and desires, derive win-win solutions that lead to more productive, effective and positive work relations, and minimize conflict in the future by nurturing positive coworker relationships and recognizing potential for conflict or problems early.

Challenge 3: Performance Management

Supervisors must balance meeting goals, managing workloads, and motivating employees. These responsibilities paired with the fact that many supervisors are ill-equipped to provide documented, regular, and constructive feedback, can make performance challenging.

Build on-going performance feedback into the performance management process to ensure accountability with your supervisors/managers and their employees. Create an easy method for supervisors/managers to document performance like a database, software system, log, or diary. Provide support tools for supervisors/managers to use to help them build and recognize the importance of performance management such as rewards, or training and development. Most importantly, train supervisors/managers on topics such as performance management, coaching, and feedback since many won’t have prior experience with these.

Challenge 4: Compliance

Most supervisors and managers are not well-versed in administering ADA, FMLA, and other laws that protect certain groups of employees (because that’s HR’s job, right?). However, most also find themselves managing an employee who requires an accommodation, a leave of absence or a special circumstance because of a protected class situation.

These situations need to be handled delicately due to their legal nature, so ensure your supervisors are aware of: Legal basics such as conditions or disabilities that are protected. How to determine essential functions and reasonable accommodations. Requirements associated with FMLA (eligibility, length of time, etc.) Types of employees that are protected under law (gender, race, nationality, etc.) Hiring and interviewing liabilities (questions to ask/not ask, etc.)

Challenge 5: Policy Administration

One of the most common challenges for supervisors and managers is treating employees fairly and consistently. A supervisor may apply policies and rules to some employees but not others, or may disregard employment policies altogether. This type of behavior opens up potential liabilities and perceptions of bias or favoritism that may negatively affect the workplace.

Make sure your organization’s policies are clear and understood by supervisors and managers. Whenever a change in policy occurs, be sure to make them aware.

Set clear criteria for making employment decisions and clearly differentiate between the policies that supervisors and managers have discretion to implement and those they don’t.

In addition to the common challenges faced by supervisors and managers, those who are newly promoted encounter a unique set of issues.

For many, transitioning into a supervisory or managerial position can be a difficult, yet exciting experience. There are plenty of opportunities and challenges during this process, and it is the organization’s role to ensure the transition goes as smoothly as possible.

Discover the challenges that arise for organizations during the transition process and how to address them:

Tip 1: The Announcement

Often times the transition from an employee to a supervisor or manager ruffles some feathers. If another employee was up for the promotion, feelings may be hurt. Other employees may also react emotionally. Having the new supervisor or manager send an email on their own behalf stating they are “the boss” now may trigger issues in establishing their new authority.

How to address it: Make sure your organization has a process in place for announcing personnel changes.  The Harvard Business Review  notes that when an organization has a good process for addressing the transition, then people will formally acknowledge the new supervisor or manager as such.

Not having a  formal announcement process for new supervisors  could lead to questions of credibility or authority of the new supervisor or manager. An announcement directly from the new supervisor or manager may come off as arrogant to their new employees whereas an email from upper management or HR may set the tone for a more formal relationship.

Tip 2: Preparedness

Navigating from the role of an employee to a supervisor or manager comes with a broad range of challenges; it’s nearly impossible for an organization to have a formal policy about how to handle each and every challenge. Moving into a supervisory or management role for the first time can present more issues than just learning how to now manage friends or previous peers. A new supervisor or manager may struggle with delegation and micromanagement issues, communication issues, or learning how to develop, mentor, and empower others.

How to address it: Try connecting the new supervisor with other managerial staff or assign a mentor. Monica Burke and Aaron Hughey from  Western Kentucky University  report that new supervisors should get a mentor and that “having the benefit of the insights from someone who has been through a similar experience can be invaluable.

Western Kentucky University also notes how important it is to enhance leadership skills through training. If a supervisor lacks leadership skills, that supervisor may not be fully effective. A supervisor with leadership skills may develop a stronger, more accountable team. Setting up a  supervisory training program  for all supervisors in the organization to take advantage of could do wonders for the transition.

Tip 3: Conflict Management

Managing conflict can still be hard for even the most seasoned supervisor or manager so it’s of no surprise that conflict management for someone new to the role is a difficult skill to learn.

How to address it: The Society of Human Resource Management  suggests offering support to the supervisor or manager with the knowledge of how to “recognize causes of workplace conflict, how to facilitate resolution of conflict and how to manage the work relationships once the conflict has been resolved.” These instances of conflict may arise from varying view points between employees, having to depend on one another in order to make progress on a project, or miscommunications.

These types of support should be in line with your current policies and practices. New supervisors face these challenges and more. It is important for the Human Resources department to support and offer assistance during this transitional period.

How to Successfully Transition Employees to Supervisors

This newfound responsibility comes with a transition from employee to supervisor or manager that is one of the most difficult transitions an employee must make in their career. It’s important for HR to ensure this transition goes as smoothly as possible by properly equipping them with the skills they will need.

One best practice is to approach the transition in the same way you would on-board a new employee. Would you expect your new employee to learn by trial and error? Probably not.

Anticipate your new supervisors and managers will need initial and on-going training and support to perform their new role and responsibilities. Similar to on-boarding, the more you develop your employee in advance, the less redirection or “correction” they will need later. Review suggestions on transitioning employees to supervisors or managers.

Clarify expectations and priorities.

Most newly promoted supervisors and manager have little clarity regarding what their priorities and expectations should be in their new role and aren’t prepared to be effective in their new role.

As a first step, spend time discussing their new responsibilities and performance expectations and how these have changed from their previous role.

Discuss your organization’s management philosophy.

Every organization has management norms and a certain style of leadership that supports its culture, so it’s important to discuss with your new supervisor and manager how your organization expects employees to be managed.

This helps ensure that employees are  supervised consistently throughout the organization .

Schedule supervisors for training sooner than later.

Schedule employees for supervisory training as close to the time of promotion as possible or even prior to the transition, particularly for people management skills (i.e. communication, teambuilding, conflict management, etc.).

Make sure new supervisors are set-up with the most  critical baseline skills  they need to be successful on the job. This will minimize common new supervisor and manager mistakes.

Brief them on managerial procedures.

Administering a performance review, conducting a disciplinary write-up, handling employee leave, or dealing with a grievance are just a few of many complicated issues in which your new supervisor and manager has never been exposed.

Make sure supervisors are knowledgeable about  correct procedures to handle these issues and can access the proper procedures and guidance.

Coach supervisors on critical conversations.

Your new supervisor or manager will soon find themselves in tricky situations such as dealing with an underperforming employee, a high-performing but dissatisfied employee, an employee who arrives late, or a team that isn’t working together. These situations require difficult conversations.

Consider  counseling and role-playing  with them on the “right” and “wrong” things to say in these conversations and how to handle and mitigate common employee problems.

Provide time to interact with other managers.

One of the best ways for your new supervisor or manager to learn the ropes of management is to spend time with other experienced supervisors and managers and excellent leadership role models who can encourage and guide them, listen to their challenges and frustrations, and help them learn through their own experiences.

Encourage self-awareness.

It’s unlikely that your newly promoted employee has ever considered how their interpersonal style helps or impedes their effectiveness. As soon as they start leading people, however, the uniqueness of their interpersonal style (how they deal with conflict, their communication preferences, their personality, etc.) become apparent.

Provide tools to help them become more aware of their style and behavior and flex it to meet others’ needs and become a more effective manager.

Redirect their natural reflexes

Every new supervisor experiences some natural reflexes—including the urge to do the work themselves and impose their ways of doing things on others without building consensus or asking for input.

New supervisors will need to be encouraged to fight their natural reflexes to go back to the tactics that made them successful in their prior role.

Suggest resources for your new supervisors.

Recommend books, tools, articles, blogs, job aids, and other tools for your new supervisor to access in order to become a better manager. Better yet, create a library of these resources at your organization. This will also help your other managers in their on-going management development.

Observe their transition to identify additional areas of development.

In their first few weeks and months on the job, observe how their transition is going.

Specific issues to observe may include how much (or little) they are delegating, how they are interacting with their employees, and their team’s performance.

Talk to the new supervisor and employees on the supervisor’s team to gather additional feedback. If you notice issues early on and correct them, it’s unlikely that they will escalate.

You can never fully prepare managers for all of the challenges they will face, but by providing training, guidance, and support to supervisors before they hit the front-lines you can set them up to succeed as new leaders.

Ready to train your supervisors and managers?

There are a variety of reasons your supervisors can be ineffective.

• Maybe someone just is not the “right fit” for leadership. Not a bad employee or not a high performer – just maybe not a good candidate for leading others.
• As an organization, you do not hold them accountable.
• Their development is not encouraged or supported
• Too little, too late…

1. You didn’t evaluate their potential well enough

Picking the right individual for a supervisory or managerial role is critically important, and shouldn’t just be based on their performance in an individual contributor role. Just because an employee is technically competent and proficient in their current position doesn’t automatically mean that they will be successful in a supervisory or management role which demands that they achieve results through others.

The individual you select for a supervisory role should have the interpersonal skills, potential to lead others, motivation to excel at a higher level in the organization, and culture fit for the department in which they can work.

They don’t need to have all the skills, but they should have these characteristics so they can develop needed skills later on.

2. You don’t hold them accountable for “soft stuff”

Unfortunately, supervisors are often not held accountable for “soft-stuff,” like engaging, retaining, and developing employees. Hold your supervisors accountable for the things that matter most by building in accountabilities into your performance management process.

Some ways to build accountabilities into your performance management process include,  360 degree feedback , employee satisfaction,  employee engagement surveys , and retention metrics.

These tools help measure how your supervisors and managers are performing.

3. You aren’t supporting their leadership development on an on-going basis

Building great supervisors is a continual process of  leadership development . It doesn’t happen overnight or following a single training program. Supervisors and managers need to have internal resources as well as on-going training and development to help them lead others successfully.

Consider the following to help provide your supervisors with more support: Offer a senior-level mentor. Encourage them to meet with supervisors at least quarterly. Provide templates, forms, and guides to help managers do their daily tasks. Send them to at least one leadership development workshop or seminar each year. Consider a blended learning approach for manager and leadership development.

4. You waited too long to train them

Many organizations wait too long to train their employees to be supervisors or managers. As mentioned in the forward, too often, organizations promote employees to supervisory or managers positions without training them. It should not be assumed that because an individual performed well in their past or current role that they will perform well in their new role.

As a result, many supervisors do not have the knowledge or skills they need to  lead others effectively .

This can lead to poor managerial habits over time, which are difficult to reverse. If you begin the training process early, however, supervisors and managers develop better practices which help them be more successful.

Crucial Skills for Supervisors to Have

Success as a supervisor or manager will be determined by a different skill set than that which made them successful as individual contributors.

Here’s a list of crucial skills for your supervisors to have:

1. Understanding the role of a supervisor

As a supervisor, the qualities and knowledge that enabled success in a previous job may be very different than the skills that will make an effective supervisor today. A lot of the time, when someone is hired as a supervisor, they have just been promoted from within the company. Therefore, a lot of supervisors find it  challenging to go from “bud to boss.”

Supervisors are responsible for whatever happens within their team; they are the voice of the company to the staff. If supervisors involve their direct reports in decisions and help them feel like part of the team, it will help everyone be successful.

People come to work wanting to make a contribution and do a good job, but if they don’t know what is expected from them, they can’t hit the target.

2. Communicating effectively

The success of a supervisor or manager depends a great deal on how well they communicate with their employees. Since it’s estimated that people spend 70-80 percent of their workday communicating, it’s important to also understand that  successful communication is a two-way street .

Both supervisors and employees need to listen to one another, share viewpoints constructively, and ensure each other’s messages are being properly received.

Supervisors and managers also have to communicate clear expectations. By having both parties develop open, positive, and supportive communication styles, it’s ensuring that both parties will build a positive working relationship.

3. Minimizing & Resolving Conflict

Supervisors and managers spend a considerable amount of time handling conflicts, an estimated 20 percent of their time. Supervisors and managers also spend quite a bit of time trying to  prevent or minimizing conflict .

However, if conflict does arise, here are some things that may help: Investigate and document the conflict If appropriate, use positive discipline Identify when outside assistance is needed; refer difficult conflicts to human resource specialists, hired counselors, or use other intervention Minimize conflict in employee workgroups by encouraging positive coworker relations and open communication

4. Managing employees’ performance goals

The biggest misconception about documenting an employee’s performance is the time and attention given to it. It’s not a once per year activity. Documenting an employee’s performance is an ongoing process that begins as soon as a supervisor or managers has started working with the employee to establish goals.

In addition, performance management requires a system that will allow a supervisor or managers to fully and accurately document successes, challenges, progress, and/or completion of goals.

This system includes setting clear goals, determining key job responsibilities, identifying and using skills, coaching and giving continuous feedback, and providing an objective appraisal of performance.

5. Understanding employment law

Supervisors and managers have a shared responsibility with HR in making sure that their interactions and relations with employees are  compliant with federal and state employment laws . Since most people are unaware of everything they need to do to stay in compliance, it’s critically important to receive ongoing training on employment law, as well as receive continual coaching and development.

Some of the major employment law issues supervisors and managers should be aware of include: Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) Equal Pay Act (EPA) Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

6. Problem-solving and making decisions confidently

Problem-solving is about identifying the problem, analyzing data to determine the root cause, identifying and implementing a solution and then monitoring the process to ensure the solution remains implemented and that it doesn’t cause more problems.

A person needs the following to effectively solve problems: Creative thinking skills and attitudes to generate new ideas to adapt to a changing environment Critical thinking (analytics) skills and attitudes to ascertain whether his/her or others’ ideas are good ones Practical thinking (innovation) skills and attitudes to implement the ideas and persuade others of their values

7. Leading and working with teams

Teams are comprised of several individuals with different social styles, personalities, reward and recognition preferences, work prioritization styles, coaching style preferences, and preferences for receiving feedback. Supervisors and managers have the responsibility of juggling all of these differences while also forming a cohesive, cooperative team.

When people of differing work styles work together, issues can and will arise. If supervisors and managers are not prepared, those issues will be seen as obstacles instead of opportunities.

Without a strong leadership presence and without a central figure who can help navigate these differences, relationships can break down, morale can suffer, and the culture of high performance becomes one of mistrust.

While the task can be challenging, one of the most rewarding things a supervisor or managers can do is bring a group of individuals together,  fostering a team culture and personality , and in the process, creating a high performance, focused, and driven team.

8. Leading and managing change

Change is inevitable. It’s how change is lead and managed that makes the difference. Companies that accept and embrace change are typically healthier, more dynamic, and faster growing than those companies that fear change.

When faced with change,  people typically put a negative spin on it , often without knowing all of the facts. A person’s natural tendency is to see change as a threat. That’s how our brains are hardwired- to be risk averse, rather than seeing the positives.

There are three simple commands that we teach supervisors and managers to consciously consider when dealing with a perceived negative like change: Stop: When change first occurs, it’s important to not automatically turn to a negative response. Instead, as a supervisor or manager, stop and refrain from acting and deciding anything. It is also important to mentally disconnect and try to observe the change that is happening. Challenge: Once a moment is taken to process what has happened instead of reacting to it, the next step as a supervisor or managers is to take on the challenge of finding the positives in a situation. Choose: Once the silver lining has been identified within the challenge, the next step as a supervisor or manager is to develop an ideal response. Once the ideal response has been uncovered, it’s imperative to use it.

9. Planning and managing the work

Gone are the days of minimal interruptions while at work. So how is anyone, let alone a supervisor or manager, supposed to make the best use of their time? First, prioritize. Second, understand that as a supervisor or manager, it’s tough to do the job alone. Third, if some solid behaviors, habits, and processes are put in place, a supervisor’s or manager’s management of time will be more efficient and successful. As a result, they won’t receive more time, but can make better use of the time they have.

Your supervisors and managers must help employees manage their time, priorities, and projects, in addition to their own. A common pitfall supervisors and managers face is not asking for help and continuing to manage everything themselves, instead of relying on their time.

To be a successful supervisor or managers, it’s vital to help employees get the job done, delegate tasks in order to help the employees grow and develop, and help employees succeed overall.

10. Understanding and respecting generational differences

With Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials all coexisting in the same office, there is bound to be generational differences. These differences are now forcing companies to put practices into place to help manage the generational issues and conflicts.

Traditionalists, still representing approximately 1% of the American workforce, are driven to work BY work, not requiring any kind of recognition—public or private. Also called the “Silent” generation, these individuals are reluctant to challenge authority or the “rules.” However, this is a generation with immense experience and an invaluable experience, and as a result, need to be encouraged to share their feedback (positive or negative).

Baby Boomers are motivated by recognition, taking charge, making a difference, teaming, personal growth, health and wellness, autonomy and creativity, competition and success. This group is ideal for formal leadership roles within an organization, as well as informal leadership roles. Baby Boomers also want to work on projects that matter to them, such as wellness and community outreach.

Generation X is strong-willed and independent. What engages and drives this group is challenging work, training, recognition and rewards, good relationships with their boss and coworkers, and development and growth opportunities. In short, this group wants to feel as though they’ve “made it.”

Millennials tends to identify with a person, specifically a leader and thrive on having their own workplace and career tour guide. They look for someone to connect with and learn from and someone who can champion them and their career. They also look for development and growth opportunities. Millennials strive for leadership roles but are often not given proper training. Gen Z, now representing approximately 2% of the American workforce, still a bit unknown, in terms of their workplace expectations and future. However, we do know they are considered “digital natives, not digital immigrants” like all previous generations, and their having grown up in an “on-demand” culture might drastically influence their expectations for career growth and advancement.

Training and development is an essential function of most organizations. Strategically investing in employees’ training and development, nurturing their talents, and building their skill sets helps organizations achieve their desired results, enhances their culture, and assists leaders in better managing talent. Most organizations can’t compete effectively without providing training and development.

Properly managing and administering staff training is important. Here is some guidance on how to begin developing your training plan:

Plan Development Overview

Training and development functions need to have goals, and ideally, a strategy. Many training functions lack strategic direction, which limits their effectiveness and does not support the business as much as it could.

Properly managing and administering staff training is important. Here is some guidance on how to begin developing your training plan: Goal setting Budgeting and staffing Training needs assessment Training and development offerings Administration and management Policy development Evaluation and follow-up

Goal Setting

When creating goals for your training and development function, consider the following questions: What does it set out to achieve? How will it support the business and its strategy? How will it integrate and align with other HR functions? How will you measure success? What key outcomes are expected?

Typically, a training and development function aims to promote individual employee development by offering a variety of programs to foster a culture that supports learning and growth of skills and abilities in order to enhance the organization’s effectiveness.

Budgeting & Staffing

When establishing a training and development budget, seek benchmark information regarding how much other organizations budget for training. Also, consider the types of offerings you plan to deliver, how many offerings you are going to provide, and expected participation/number of people trained. All of this affects your training budget.

Most training budgets range from 1-4% of payroll, according to local research. Smaller organizations are less likely to have a training budget than larger organizations and the majority of larger organizations have a budget between 1-2% of payroll. Training budgets of 5% or more are not common, but tend to be more common among employers of choice.

According to the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD)’s State of the Industry Report, the average direct expenditure per employee on training and development is $1,182. Small and mid-sized organizations tend to spend more per employee on training and development ($1,605) than larger organizations with 500 or more employees ($1,102). Of learning expenditures, on average, 56% was spent internally, and the remainder was spent on tuition reimbursement (14%) and external services (30%).

Staffing a training and development function appropriately is also crucial. The function may be staffed with simply one individual, or a team of employees. When determining staffing levels, it’s important to consider your budget, how many employees you will service, whether training will be conducted by internal staff, and the types of activities or training that will be carried out in the department. These factors tend to affect the budget.

Training Needs Analysis

Your organization must understand the training needs and interests across your entire workforce and among individuals and teams. This involves evaluating needs, assessing gaps between the skills needed for effective job performance and the skills currently held, and considering gaps in employees’ interests and personal developmental goals.

Training needs analysis  can help identify skills or competencies in which employees are least proficient, as well as common training needs and interests. It can be very simple such as listing or selecting the top training needs, asking employees about their training needs, or observing and recording needs. Conversely, it can involve a more complex gap analysis involving multiple types of assessment and complex statistics.

Gathering internal data from performance reviews, individual development plans, manager feedback/recommendations, employee feedback, customer feedback, and performance measurements (quality, service, error rates, etc.) can also aid in identifying individual or team training needs. Similarly, 360 feedback tools, succession plans, and talent reviews can be especially helpful in identifying leadership and managerial training needs.

In addition, workforce planning may be useful for: Internal mobility (job changes, promotions, transfers, etc.) Organizational changes and strategic initiatives New technology implementations

Training needs analysis also identifies who needs training. It can identify specific individuals and/or groups or segments of employees that need training. This information is crucial for scheduling training.

The larger your organization and the more training needs you have, the more important it will be to prioritize training needs and interests. It generally won’t be possible to meet everyone’s needs and interests regarding training and still stay within your budget.

It’s important to develop a system of prioritization for training needs. For example, higher priority training and development may depend on subject matter and business needs and topics with the broadest impact. Lower priority training and development may be specific to one individual’s needs with low business impact. A training matrix is helpful in establishing priorities. Making sure that you identify the most critical training priorities that affect the largest segments of your workforce is important.

Consider the following questions to help you organize and prioritize training needs: What training needs are the most urgent or imperative? What training needs are critical to reducing important risks? (safety, legal, etc.) What training needs will have the most impact on performance? (quality, efficiency, etc.) What training needs do current and future leaders have, or are critical for succession planning? What training needs will have the greatest impact on morale, retention, and engagement?

Training and Development Offerings

The  training needs assessment  and prioritization of training needs yields the information necessary to make decisions about training and development offerings and select topics on which employees will be trained. At a minimum, however, all organizations should supply essential training relative to new-hire on-boarding, safety, compliance, harassment, systems and tools, supervisory/leadership, as well as sales and customer service.

As a general rule, learning objectives should be established for every program developed. Objectives help guide the focus of the content and ensure that it leads employees to attain specific skills or knowledge needed, ensuring that training and development needs are met. They also assist in measuring the results of the program.

Depending on what topics you have chosen and the learning objectives, certain delivery formats and tools may be more appropriate than others. The topic and the learning objectives should influence your choice of delivery format and tool.

There are a range of delivery formats to choose from: instructor-led classroom training, webinars, e-learning, social learning, coursework, certification programs, involvement in professional associations, mentoring, coaching, stretch assignments, and informal learning (cross-training, job shadowing, etc.). But be aware of cost differences. Generally-speaking, here is a comparison of low to no cost options and moderate to high cost options:

The most important factor to consider when choosing training options is to make sure they match and fit the desired learning needs and objectives. Low to no cost options aren’t always the most effective for learning or meeting certain objectives. In fact, moderate and high cost options may be the most beneficial options in some cases, and may actually yield more learning and behavioral change. It’s just important to be aware that these options can carry a higher price tag in exchange for their value.

It’s advisable to have a seasoned instructional designer, trainer, learning and development professional, or individual trained in adult learning design training and development solutions for your organization as they understand how to create a successful program that fits specific learning needs.

When creating a staff training or development program or initiative, here are general tips: Identify the goals and learning objectives based on knowledge/skill needs identified. Establish the content that will be covered (leadership skills, communication skills, etc.). Select a delivery format or a blended approach for your learning initiative such as e-learning, classroom training, on-the-job training, or mentoring. Create materials for your initiative/program such as workbooks, power-points, case studies, activities, job aids, etc. Choose participants for the initiative/program including: level, job classification, and department or team. Select a time for the learning initiative. Identify how you will evaluate and measure success. Metrics should be tied to the goals and learning objectives and on-the-job performance indicators.

Establish the appropriate resources to facilitate training and development including materials, tools, infrastructure, trainers, vendors, and external expertise. Be sure to evaluate training providers based on their expertise/knowledge of the topic, training or teaching experience, and results. Identify what topics can be delivered using staff expertise, and what topics will need to be outsourced.

In-house training and development is typically used for the following: Job-specific needs Information focused Straightforward content Established procedures and standards

Consider outsourcing training when expertise is lacking, where complex content exists, when there are legal implications, or when teaming, peer learning, and application is helpful.

Administration and Management

Administering and managing staff training and development involves a great deal of coordination, including the following:

• Learning management system (LMS)
• HR information system (HRIS)
• Tracking spreadsheet to monitor and track training and development activities, who participated in them, hours spent, cost, etc
• Budgeted average dollar amount per employee
• Budget as a percentage of payroll
• Budgeted number of hours per employee
• Timeframe for training and development activity
• How often training and development will be scheduled
• Ideal length for programs based on topic and audience
• Frequency in which certain programs will be made available
• Location where training will be scheduled (onsite vs. off-site)
• Design a manner in which training can be requested and approved.
• Prepares the learner
• Sets expectations
• Supports the learner on-the-job after training has been completed

Training and development costs can rack up quickly, but there are many ways to manage these costs more effectively.

• Find high quality training that  produces results and tangible benefits . Poor quality training is a wasted investment.
• Train people who are most in need of the training. Organizations often try to fill courses with individuals who may not need training, and they derive little benefit from it.
• Match training needs to appropriate training and development options. High cost training options should only be used if there is no other available option that would produce a similar result.
• Seek state and federal government workforce development grants to help fund your training. These grants are often available for technical training.
• Use a train the trainer model for common types of training (such as sales training, new-hire orientation, etc.). Train subject matter experts inside your workplace to deliver training.

Policy Development

Once procedures are established, create applicable policies for training and development activities, such as criteria and guidelines for tuition and training reimbursement, how and when training hours will be paid for non-exempt employees, and request and authorization for external training, among the most critical ones.

Many organizations also have a policy which states that it encourages employees to develop their capabilities and offer learning and development programs. Some also cite specific eligibility criteria for participating in training and development programs.

Evaluation and Follow-Up

Training and development programs and initiatives should always be measured and evaluated for their value and impact. Not only does this help establish the credibility and benefit of your function, but it also helps improve offerings over time.

Your organization can measure results of these programs by: Gathering feedback and measuring satisfaction with the training and development initiative Evaluating what participants learned and what knowledge was acquired Assessing whether participants’ behavior has changed Observing if learning has been put to use on the job Using a formal assessment (such as a 360 feedback) Measuring results or business outcomes of training, such as quality, production, and customer satisfaction; return on investment of training

Certainly, the simplest and most common method of evaluating training and development initiatives is to collect employees’ feedback about each of your training programs. This can be done via a form that rates aspects of the training and collects comments about its effectiveness. Interviews, focus groups, and committee feedback can also be useful in gathering feedback, but can be more time-consuming.

Beyond feedback, it’s also important to evaluate the results of your training and development initiatives in terms of knowledge and skills obtained by participants, behavior change, improved performance and/or productivity (or other quality and on-the-job performance measurements), and even return on investment. Establishing specific criteria for measuring training and development is helpful for this. Many organizations tie measurements back to the learning objectives.

In addition to evaluation, it’s also important to follow-up with managers, as they have the biggest impact on the success of training and development. Ensure that employees have opportunities to practice their new knowledge and skills on the job, are supported with coaching and feedback by their manager, and are held accountable for integrating their new skills and knowledge. Managers can also work with employees to make sure that they are using what they learned on the job through learning contracts, actions plans, and other methods of establishing accountability for learning.

Another trend in follow-up is the concept of blended learning, where learning content is presented in multiple formats and helps reinforce concepts. Providing on-going “bite-sized” learning can also help reinforce what is delivered in training.

We have examined the pitfalls, challenges, and crucial skills experienced by and required of supervisors and managers—newly-hired and veterans alike.

Regardless of industry, organization size, and/or length of tenure, anyone in a leadership role requires strong support, ongoing training, and practical reinforcement to become and remain a successful leader.

By drawing on the expertise of working with hundreds of organizations and thousands of supervisors and managers across the country, we hope this guide has offered you a starting place for just that! A spark to help you with ideas, information, and insight to launch your own learning and development initiative!

About ERC Training

ERC Training  provides customized learning and development solutions nationwide. Our training programs are implemented at the customer site or a site of their choice. All of ERC’s training courses and programs are highly interactive, as we believe that being involved in one’s own learning is the only way to create behavior change.

ERC’s Supervisory Training  has helped thousands of supervisors across the country be more successful in their roles. Supervisors, managers, and leaders of all levels of experience and in all industries have learned how to build more engaged and productive teams as a result of ERC training.

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The Good Supervision Guide for new and experienced research supervisors of PhDs

This guide, written by a PhD candidate, is based on interviews with UCL Faculty Graduate Tutors at UCL.

1 August 2019

Written by Alexandra Bulat (PhD Candidate, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies).

Whether you are  new to supervision or already have extensive experience , it is always possible to learn from others’ experiences. 

This guide was compiled based on interviews with Faculty Graduate Tutors from across the  disciplines:

• medical sciences
• arts and humanities
• mathematical and physical sciences
• life sciences
• population health sciences
• built environment
• engineering
• social and historical sciences. 

We asked them to give examples of what ‘good supervision practice’ means for them and developed a guide based on the themes which emerged from these conversations. 

Some supervision advice applies to some disciplines more than others, whereas other insights transcend disciplinary boundaries.

What good research supervision practice is

Even after years of experience, some naturally struggle to answer the question 'What is good supervision practice?' with precise examples. 

We identified three key principles, which, if applied, will likely improve the relationship between you and your PhD students. 

Each principle is divided into themes which include advice from the Faculty Graduate Tutors we interviewed.

1. Set expectations, but be aware of the changing reality

This section provides advice on: 

• setting expectations early in the PhD
• being flexible
• planning the PhD process
• managing your time spent on supervision.

2. Communicate well with students, peers and make use of institutional resources

• listening to students
• communicating with fellow supervisors and working well with the institutional structures in which supervision takes place
• making use of the resources available.

3. Think outside the (thesis) box

This section provides advice on:

• how to think beyond the thesis as a piece of research 
• how to consider your students’ career aspirations, which may not always be academic.

Download the full PDF guide to good research supervision

Where to find help and support

Research supervision web pages from the UCL Arena Centre, including details of the compulsory Research Supervision online course. 

Research and project supervision: an introduction  (Arena guide)

Appropriate Forms of Supervision Guide from the UCL Academic Manual

the PhD diaries

The UCL Doctoral School

Handbook and code of practice for graduate research degrees

Doctoral Skills Development programme

Student skills support (including academic writing)

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UCL Students' Union (UCLU)  

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External resources

Vitae: supervising a docorate

UK Council for Graduate Education

Higher Education Academy – supervising international students (pdf)

Becoming a Successful Early Career Researcher , Adrian Eley, Jerry Wellington, Stephanie Pitts and Catherine Biggs (Routledge, 2012) - book available on Amazon

This guide has been produced by the UCL Arena Centre for Research-based Education . You are welcome to use this guide if you are from another educational facility, but you must credit the UCL Arena Centre. 

Further information

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Research supervision at UCL

Research and project supervision (all levels): an introduction - UCL Arena Centre toolkit

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Research supervisors’ views of barriers and enablers for research projects undertaken by medical students; a mixed methods evaluation of a post-graduate medical degree research project program

Joanne hart.

1 Sydney Medical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW Australia

Jonathan Hakim

Rajneesh kaur, richmond jeremy, genevieve coorey.

2 School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW Australia

Eszter Kalman

3 Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education), University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW Australia

Rebekah Jenkin

4 School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW Australia

David Bowen

Associated data.

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available, as per conditions of Ethics Committee approval, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Medical degree programs use scholarly activities to support development of basic research skills, critical evaluation of medical information and promotion of medical research. The University of Sydney Doctor of Medicine Program includes a compulsory research project. Medical student projects are supervised by academic staff and affiliates, including biomedical science researchers and clinician-academics. This study investigated research supervisors’ observations of the barriers to and enablers of successful medical student research projects.

Research supervisors ( n  = 130) completed an anonymous, online survey after the completion of the research project. Survey questions targeted the research supervisors’ perceptions of barriers to successful completion of projects and sources of support for their supervision of the student project. Data were analysed by descriptive statistics and using manifest content analysis. Further quantitative investigation was made by cross-tabulation according to prior research supervision experience.

Research supervisors reported that students needed both generic skills (75%) and research-based skills (71%) to successfully complete the project. The major barrier to successful research projects was the lack of protected time for research activities (61%). The assessment schedule with compulsory progress milestones enabled project completion (75%), and improved scientific presentation (90%) and writing (93%) skills. Supervisors requested further support for their students for statistics (75%), scientific writing (51%), and funding for projects (52%). Prior research supervision experience influenced the responses. Compared to novice supervisors, highly experienced supervisors were significantly more likely to want students to be allocated dedicated time for the project ( P  < 0.01) and reported higher rates of access to expert assistance in scientific writing, preparing ethics applications and research methodology. Novice supervisors reported higher rates of unexpected project delays and data acquisition problems ( P  < 0.05). Co-supervision was favoured by experienced supervisors but rejected by novice supervisors.

Conclusions

Both generic and research-related skills were important for medical student research project success. Overall, protected research time, financial and other academic support were identified as factors that would improve the research project program. Prior research supervision experience influences perceptions of program barriers and enablers. These findings will inform future support needs for projects and research supervisor training for the research supervision role.

Introduction

Medical education programs increasingly employ scholarly activities to support development of basic research skills, the ability to critically evaluate medical information and the practice of evidence-based medicine [ 1 ]. Furthermore, research activities undertaken by students can foster life-long interest in medical research [ 2 – 4 ]. This is crucial for the development of clinician-academics, who have key roles in clinical research and translational medicine [ 5 ]. There are declining numbers of clinician-academics in Australia [ 6 ] and globally [ 7 ], thus the importance of fostering interest in research in medical students is imperative.

The University of Sydney 4-year post-graduate Doctor of Medicine Degree (MD) is unique, enrolling students from a wide range of previous academic backgrounds and with various prior research and employment experiences. As an integral and compulsory component of the MD Program curriculum, the research project (MD Project) is delivered as 320 study hours over 2.5 years, from mid-Year 1 to the end of Year 3. Students receive 40 h of training in research methods, basic statistics and research ethics at the end of Year 1, shortly after they commence their projects. Students complete their research project on top of the overall MD program curriculum, without protected research time.

The pedagogical framework for the MD Project program employs active, experiential, project-based learning in a research context with individual projects being supervised by academic staff mentors or mentoring teams. The intended learning objectives of the MD Project are summarised in Table ​ Table1 1 .

MD Project Learning Objectives

In the course of the research project, students need to develop key research and generic skills, including self-motivation, time management and organisation, and building relationships in clinical and research laboratory environments. Students achieve these aims through hands-on experience in devising and conducting a project relevant to health or medicine, analysing the findings, and reporting the results. The scope of MD Projects is broad and includes clinical studies, projects in biomedical science, epidemiology and public health, medical education, bioinformatic and information technology and policy, law, and ethics. A series of compulsory milestone assessments are designed to facilitate progress of each project towards completion. These Milestone tasks include an early project outline, a full appraisal of the ethical implications of the project and verification that ethics approval has been obtained, a structured literature search strategy, and progress reports involving written and oral scientific presentations. The final assessment task is a 3000-word scientific report. Many students were encouraged to present at conferences or prepare manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals, however these were not requirements of the MD Project program. Students are supervised individually or in small groups (usually 2–5 students) by academic staff and affiliates, including basic research scientists, public health researchers and clinicians. The majority of supervisors are not directly employed Faculty members, but University affiliates, who are not specifically remunerated for their time. Supervisors were not required to have a PhD or any formal research supervision training. No Faculty funding was provided to support the project or its supervision. Supervisors were required to provide all project materials and expertise and would supervise up to 6 students at a time. Many supervisors were based in public hospitals and took on MD Project supervision in addition to their existing clinical and/or research workloads.

The research supervisor has a key role in the success of this traditional model of research project [ 8 ]; however, research supervision experience varies from very limited to extensive. Although research supervision training for supervisors of higher degree students is common worldwide and often mandatory, most academics learn to supervise research students “on-the-job” and by emulating their own research mentors [ 9 ]. Currently, there is no formal training provided for the supervisors of MD Projects, or for those supervising similar short-term research projects by undergraduates, including Honours degrees [ 10 ]. Whilst there is evaluation data available for similar research project programs from the students’ viewpoint [ 11 – 14 ], the perspective of the supervisors is under-reported. Given the key role of the supervisor in this research education model, their experiences are an important source of information to guide future program improvements.

This study sought the views of research supervisors on the MD Project program and their experiences of supervising medical student research projects, including:

• observations on the barriers to and enablers of successfully completing an MD Project,
• sources of support for their supervision of the project,
• extent of research supervision experience on attitudes to and overall experience of supervising the MD projects,
• requirements for professional development or other assistance.

Materials and methods

Study design.

This study is a mixed methods evaluation of the MD Project program from the perspective of the research supervisors.

Participants

MD Project research supervisors were invited by email to complete an anonymous online survey following the completion of the student projects in 2018 and 2020. Participants were University academic staff and appropriately qualified affiliates, including basic research scientists and clinicians. Participants had varying levels of previous research supervision experience, ranging from none to supervision of post-graduate research degree completions. Their areas of research expertise were broad though based in health and medical research. There were no exclusion criteria. Consent to participate was inferred if participants opted to complete and submit an online survey.

Survey tool

The survey tool was developed specifically for this program and was reviewed and refined by MD Program Faculty members, including some research supervisors, to optimise face and content validity. The survey consisted of 30 items, mostly on a 5-point Likert-type scale (with responses of not at all, slightly, moderately, very, extremely ), with optional text responses. Some items required selection of multiple responses from a given list. Survey domains included participant demographics and prior research supervision experience, their overall experience of supervising MD Projects, enablers for and barriers to successful completion of the project (at the MD Program, project, supervisor and student level) and resources and support needed for the supervision role. Participants were provided with a link to the survey within an email invitation to participate; responses were anonymous and aggregate data are shown. The survey tool is available upon request from the authors.

Data analysis

Descriptive analyses were used to explore the overall patterns of response, and qualitative content analysis was used to examine the responses to open ended questions. MD Project supervisors were divided into three categories of research supervision experience: novice (no prior research supervision), moderately experienced (supervised any one of: summer research projects of duration 6–10 weeks, undergraduate Honours projects of up to 6 months or post-graduate research degrees) and highly experienced, (all of the abovementioned supervision types) based on their responses to the survey. Descriptive analysis and Chi Square test including the Mantel–Haenszel test of trend were used to assess any differences in responses between the supervisor experience groups. P  < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Quantitative analyses were carried out in SPSS V26 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY). Responses from open ended questions were analysed through qualitative methods using manifest content analysis [ 15 ]. Initially deductive coding for explicit phrases was carried out. These codes were then contextualised with the research question of the study. This was followed by generation of homogenous categories from the codes. Conclusions were drawn through investigator triangulation.

Response rates and Faculty respondent demographics

Survey responses were collected from two cohorts of MD Project supervisors, following the completion of the project. From 463 MD Project supervisors’ invitations, 130 (28%) responded. Most respondents identified as clinical researchers, followed by public health academics and biomedical science researchers (Table ​ (Table2). 2 ). Others had expertise in medical education, bioinformatics, information technology and health-related policy, law, or medical ethics. Many identified multiple areas of expertise.

Faculty areas of research expertise and prior research supervision experience

a Multiple responses allowed

Faculty research supervision expertise

MD Project supervisors are required to be academic staff or affiliates of the University, however there are no other specific requirements to become a supervisor. Approximately 60% of the respondents were highly experienced research supervisors across a range of project types and duration. One third had moderate experience supervising either summer research project students, Honours Degree students or post-graduate research students. Ten percent of the supervisors had no previous research supervision experience (Table ​ (Table2 2 ).

Student-Supervisor relationship

About half (47%) of the supervisors felt their feedback on student performance was only moderately well received (Fig.  1 ), though the majority (73%) of supervisors felt the students were grateful for the opportunity to do research with their team (Fig.  1 ). Supervisors reported that students were organised and interested in their projects and were moderately proactive in communications. Overall, there was agreement amongst MD Project supervisors (86%) that their experience of supervision was very dependent on the individual student (Fig.  1 ).

Student-Supervisor relationship items. Supervisors responded to a number of items related to the student-supervisor relationship on a Likert scale from not at all to extremely. Percentage of responses are shown

Enablers for successful completion of the research project

Student skills needed to successfully complete the md project.

Respondents identified skills that students needed for successfully completing their MD Project, these are presented in Fig.  2 . These were often generic skills, including time management and organisation, independence and initiative and effective communication skills. The top research skills needed included literature searching, scientific writing, statistical skills and navigating the ethics review process (Fig.  2 ). Task-specific skills such as familiarity with information technology and databases were considered less critical, which may reflect the mix of projects undertaken.

Research supervisors’ perceptions of skills students needed for completing research projects. Percentage of supervisors ( n  = 130) who selected these items from a list of generic and research skills needed in the student research project

Assessment schedule

There were mixed views on the utility of the milestone assessment tasks, which are presented in Table ​ Table3. 3 . The majority of respondents reported that compulsory milestone assessment tasks helped students make progress on their project, though only half thought the tasks were necessary to maintain momentum or hold students accountable to the standards required. About one-third reported that milestones assured the supervisor that the student was progressing as expected. Novice supervisors generally rated the assessment tasks as more useful than the experienced supervisors (Table ​ (Table3). 3 ). The oral presentations were rated as very useful for student progress, helping them learn to accept and respond to feedback and develop their scientific presentation skills. Preparing a final scientific report was strongly viewed as a very useful activity (Table ​ (Table3 3 ).

Assessment tasks and whether they facilitated MD Project progress

a Not all participants answered all questions

b Novice supervisors had no research supervision experience prior to the MD Project

Barriers to successful completion of the research project

Potential impediments for MD project success fell into four broad groups: Program level, project level, supervisor-related and student-related (Fig.  3 ). The principal barriers were at program level, with lack of dedicated time for the project and competing academic demands on students of the overall MD Program being most frequently cited (Fig.  3 ). At project level, unexpected problems, such as delays in data acquisition and time taken for Ethics Committee review and approval were reported. Supervisor time constraints reflected clinical load and other demands. Lack of previous research experience, or lack of commitment to the project were student-related characteristics that were identified as important barriers.

Barriers to successful completion of MD Projects reported by supervisors. Percentage of supervisors ( n  = 130) that selected these items from a list of barriers to successfully completing the research project. These barriers were grouped in relation to the MD Program, the project, the supervisor or the student

Challenges described by MD Project supervisors in free text responses indicated a range of other concerns mostly related to student issues but also to their own role as supervisor. They report that a major challenge for the students was competing priorities for learning. The MD Project Milestone tasks therefore became extrinsic motivators and barriers to overcome instead of activities that meaningfully contributed to their learning. This was particularly evident in students competing milestones ‘just in time’ leaving little opportunity for meaningful feedback from supervisors. Other difficulties cited were students having no research or science background as reflected in the following quotes:

“The students struggle to maintain any momentum with their MD Projects as they prioritise other aspects of the MD Program and other deadlines (naturally), so the MD Project often is done all in a rush near the milestone deadlines which is then challenging for supervisors to find the time for a large number of students who need help.” (Experienced Supervisor, Epidemiologist) “Most (students) have a poor understanding of research and stats. This was especially the case with one student from a non-science background.” (Moderately Experienced Supervisor, Clinician)

Challenges cited for MD Project supervisors included the demands of completing other parts of the course and MD Project simultaneously, demanding or disengaged students, a large number of students to supervise, and a lack of time or competing priorities or deadlines. It was reported by some that this type of project supervision was not a good fit for a full-time researcher.

“Of the 11 students I have been involved with, even though all have done well many are very disengaged until the last week or two of the projects, then very demanding for input into their report.” (Experienced Supervisor, Clinician & Biomedical Researcher) “The students have so many competing demands that the MD Project is a real challenge for everyone. As a full-time researcher, fitting such students into my main program is not a good fit.” (Experienced Supervisor, Clinician)

Supervision support for MD projects

Only 11% of respondents said they had all the resources they needed to run the MD Project. The respondents indicated that more support was required for statistics, ethics applications, scientific writing, research methods, and funding both for the project costs and for students to attend conferences (Fig.  4 ).

Support and resources needed by MD Project supervisors. Percentage of supervisors ( n  = 130) that selected these items from a list of supports and resources needed for the MD Project

Effect of prior research supervision experience on responses

Prior research supervision experience did not affect the perception of the generic skills that supervisors felt students needed to successfully complete their MD Project. However, skills that were more highly regarded by novice supervisors included skills in literature searching (92%), database development (46%) and understanding the ethics review process (69%). Highly experienced supervisors were more likely to cite independence and initiative (75%) as a required skill than novice supervisors (47%). It is notable that novice supervisors recorded a higher agreement with the utility of the assessment tasks than the overall respondent data (Table ​ (Table3). 3 ). Regarding the student-supervisor relationship, there was no difference in responses by prior research supervision experience.

Interestingly, although overall the major barrier cited was a lack of dedicated time for the MD Project (Fig.  3 ), novice supervisors were significantly less likely to want a dedicated time for the project (23%) compared with highly experienced supervisors (69%, χ 2  = 10.351, P  = 0.005 Fig.  5 A). Lack of dedicated time for the MD Project was recognised as a barrier which increased with supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, P  = 0.002, Fig.  5 A). Further, highly experienced supervisors were significantly less likely to identify the student’s lack of previous research experience as a barrier (49%) compared to moderately experienced (72%) and novice supervisors and this trend was statistically significant (69.2%, χ 2  = 6.040, P  = 0.049). A significant trend of this being less of a barrier was noted with increasing supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, P  = 0.031, Fig.  5 D). Novice supervisors were significantly more likely to rate their students at the outset of the project as being familiar with research methods (χ 2  = 13.431, P  = 0.001). A significant trend was noted for this rating by supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, P  = 0.005, Fig.  5 B). Novice supervisors also felt that students were more confident in approaching their project than experienced supervisors and this trend was statistically significant (χ 2  = 6.348, P  = 0.042) and associated with supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, P  = 0.046, Fig.  5 C). No novice supervisors reported they had a lack of time for supervision, although novice supervisors identified their clinical load as a barrier (15%) more often than experienced supervisors (8%).

Novice supervisors’ appraisal of student research capabilities. A Novice supervisors were significantly less likely to want a dedicated time for the project, ( B ) were more likely to consider their students familiar with research methodology and ( C ) confident in approaching the project. D Highly experienced supervisors were significantly less likely to cite their student’s lack of previous research experience as a barrier compared to moderately experienced and novice supervisors. * P  < 0.05, ** P  < 0.01, χ 2 -test; # =  P  < 0.05, Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, by supervisor experience

Notably, compared to experienced supervisors, novice supervisors reported higher rates of project delays due to ethics committee review (χ 2  = 1.463, P  = 0.481, Fig.  6 A) where a trend by supervision experience is observed but does not reach statistical significance. They also report increased rate of data acquisition problems (χ 2  = 4.026, P  = 0.134, Fig. ​ Fig.6B), 6 B), and unexpected project problems (χ 2  = 4.359, P  = 0.113, Fig. ​ Fig.6C). 6 C). A significant trend was observed by supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend,  P  = 0.047, Fig.  6 B,  P  = 0.038, Fig.  6 C). Highly experienced supervisors reported significantly higher rates of access to expert assistance particularly in scientific writing (novice 7.7% vs highly experienced 21.3%, χ 2  = 8.251, P  = 0.016), and there was a significant trend with supervision experience (Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, P  = 0.005). In addition, highly experienced supervisors reported twice the access to expertise for preparing ethics approval applications (novice 15.4% vs highly experienced 37.3%) and research methodology advice (novice 15.4% vs highly experienced 38.7%) compared to novice supervisors, though this does not reach statistical significance. Those with moderate prior supervision experience were significantly more likely to want orientation sessions for the MD Project (χ 2  = 8.519, P  = 0.014). None of the novice supervisors wanted co-supervision and few sought increased involvement of expert advisors (8%), whereas moderately and highly experienced supervisors were open to these options (16–20%).

Novice supervisors’ reported rates of project delays or problems. MD Project delays, due to ( A ) ethics approval, ( B ) data acquisition or ( C ) unexpected problems were more often reported with novice supervisors, with a decreasing trend in delays as supervision experience increased (# =  P  < 0.05, Mantel–Haenszel test of trend, by supervisor experience)

Content analysis of free text comments revealed differences in perceptions of the contributions of supervisors to the MD Project program. The more experienced supervisors felt they had a responsibility to participate in the MD project as supervisors, with specific reference to the need for experience to support the student cohort and the difficulty of the task. Novice supervisors noted that they were gaining professional skills as a result of supervising the students. Thus, experienced supervisors felt they were giving something to the program, whereas novice supervisors felt they themselves received a benefit from the program.

“For us who are experienced supervisors, we need to do this to help out the Faculty and the MD program. This is not for inexperienced supervisors.” (Experienced Supervisor, Clinician) “There are a large number of students and relatively few tutors with research experience, so I feel there is a responsibility to participate.” (Experienced Supervisor, Biomedical Scientist) “Rewarding yet challenging at the same time. Helps with ongoing education and professional development for myself.” (Novice Supervisor, Clinician)

This study examines a large post-graduate medical student research project program from the perspective of the research project supervisors. Supervisors reported that students needed both generic skills and research-based skills to successfully complete the project. Across 3 years of the program, the students are expected to spend 320 h dedicated to their research project. Supervisors reported that having no protected time for research activities was a significant barrier to the successful completion of the project. Further support was requested for statistics, scientific writing and funding for projects. Importantly, prior research supervision experience affected the responses, where novice supervisors reported higher rates of project delays due to ethics review, data acquisition problems and unexpected project problems compared to experienced supervisors. Inexperienced supervisors also reported less access to supports, suggesting further support and training of novice supervisors would be of benefit.

The supervisor workforce in this study was mostly clinician researchers, followed by public health and epidemiology researchers and biomedical scientists. A smaller proportion of the supervisors oversaw medical education, bioinformatics, information technology or medical policy law or ethics projects. Thus, the project scope and supervisor research expertise varied, and many indicated they had multiple areas of expertise. This is in line with most medical degree scholarly programs which offer a wide scope of project experiences [ 2 , 16 – 18 ]. Most of the respondents identified as being experienced supervisors, a third had supervised some project models, and some had no prior research supervision experience. This is common across student research programs, where the role of project supervisor often requires no qualification other than being a researcher or being available, though it is known that the supervision role requires support [ 16 ]. This study also provided some insight into the motivations of the research supervisors, where the experienced supervisors felt the need to contribute to teaching, whereas the novice supervisors wanted to gain supervision skills.

An important finding of this study is that supervisors report that both generic and research skills are important for successful completion of MD Projects. Indeed many of the generic skills needed are also required by medical professionals, and such skills are now routinely included in many medical program curricula [ 19 ]. These skills include time management and organisation skills, taking initiative and acting independently, and effective communication skills which all contribute to the development of professionalism [ 20 ].

The major barriers to student success identified by supervisors are similar to those previously published [ 21 ] comprising the trio of time, funding and the student-supervisor relationship. The delivery of the MD Project, within the already busy medical school curriculum, was cited as one of the major barriers for student success in their projects. A recent realist review also concluded that research experience for medical students required protected time and adequate supervision to achieve scholarly outcomes [ 4 ]. Interestingly, MD Project supervisors reported that students had time to complete their projects, although a lack of dedicated time to conduct the project manifested in students adopting a stop-start approach to their projects, as they navigated the rest of the medical program content. This was very clear in the respondent reports regarding student communication, which describe many students as being proactive only as milestone assessment tasks approached. The progressive assessment schedule for the MD Project was well received by the supervisors, who found it useful to progress projects, though only half thought milestone assessments were useful to maintain momentum of the projects or to determine how their students were tracking within the cohort (Table ​ (Table3). 3 ). Traditional scientific research project assessments were used, including written and oral progress reports and a final written scientific report, which were all considered very useful in project progress towards completion.

Only 11% of the supervisors said they had all the resources they needed to run their project; this is a clear area for improvement. The supervisory role was not remunerated, there was no backfill for time taken, no project funds available and nearly all supervisors had busy and demanding research and/or clinical roles. Thus, the volunteer nature of the supervisor cohort is quite important, especially given that some of the usual paybacks of supervising students to do research are uncommon in this setting, e.g., generating publications, piloting projects or advancing parts of larger projects. Supervisors reported that academic support for students in statistics, research methods, scientific writing and ethics were lacking and that central support for these services would be welcome. Thus, to sustainably run a research program like this at scale, further central support for these activities needs to be provided.

Participants were from a variety of specialty areas, both clinical and non-clinical, and with varying degrees of research supervision experience. Notably some survey responses were significantly different according to the respondent’s previous supervision experience. This is in line with a recent report [ 22 ] and trends with prior supervision experience were further explored. Novice supervisors were significantly more likely to rate their students at the outset as being familiar with research methods and confident in approaching their project. This likely reflects the supervisor’s inexperience and is consistent with previous reports that interpreting student understanding is difficult for novices [ 23 ]. They also may have different pre-existing expectations of the research project process than the experienced supervisors [ 22 ]. Novice supervisors were significantly less likely to report that a dedicated time was needed for students to work on the project, and this is contrary to consistent evidence that protected research time is required for the success of these projects [ 20 ]. A further finding is that highly experienced supervisors were significantly less likely to suggest that student’s lack of prior research experience was a barrier to project progress, possibly as they had better support structures in place for their students, and better understanding of how to guide students in their research activities.

Further, novice supervisors were more likely to report significant project delays, due to unexpected problems, ethics review, and data acquisition delays. In addition, there was a significant trend in these delays with prior supervision experience, suggesting that mentoring or further support for new supervisors would be useful to bridge the gap. Moreover, there was a significant trend showing that students of novice supervisors had less access to support for scientific writing, expertise in research methods and preparation of ethics review applications, further revealing areas where increased training and support would be useful for novice supervisors.

Quality research supervision involves expertise of the supervisor in the research area, and a willingness to guide the student through the research project process [ 24 ]. Different models of supervision are likely to be required for different students and different project types [ 25 ]. Further, studies show that the student-supervisor relationship is largely dependent on how reliant the student is on their supervisor; thus, students who are more dependent may need a different approach to supervision than those who are independent [ 26 ]. This is consistent with the current findings that supervisors felt that the overall supervision experience varied widely. The ideal research environment for medical students has been reported to involve individual supervision with continuous feedback [ 8 ]. Notably, many MD Project supervisors felt that their feedback on student performance was only moderately well received, but the reasons for this are not clear. Compiling and delivering feedback to assist student progress is a complex process with several considerations including the emotional impact of receiving or giving written feedback; written feedback in the supervisory power dynamic; communicating written feedback; and the content and structure of written feedback [ 27 ]. These proficiencies are a further area for future training considerations. In addition to this, improving the supervisor experience would likely cultivate future supervision capacity and retention of experienced supervisors, which is an important consideration for the sustainability of a large MD Project Program.

Many research supervisors are not specifically trained in the pedagogy associated with supervision. Although specific training programs have become standard for higher degree supervisors [ 9 , 28 ], this is not the case for research supervision at the undergraduate or post-graduate coursework level, as in this program. Higher degree supervisor training programs cover topics like managing the relationship between student and supervisor, keeping roles and expectations clear, managing milestones and project progress. Other important considerations may be handling breakdowns in relationships, authorship, and research ethics issues [ 9 , 29 ]. All of these are relevant to the MD project supervision. In this study, supervision experience ranged from none to extensive, but supervisors were not required to have any supervision qualifications. Notably, inexperienced supervisors were less inclined to have a second supervisor or expert content advisor involved in supervising their student’s project, whereas experienced supervisors were more open to this option. This finding is in accord with the supervisor professional identity dilemma previously reported for both novice and more experienced supervisors [ 23 ].

Limitations

This cross-sectional study has limitations in that it is subject to self-report bias and the timing of the survey which took place at the end of the 2.5-year project risking the introduction of recall bias. The relatively low response rate (28%) reflects the participant cohort which includes busy clinicians and researchers [ 30 ].

In conclusion, research supervisors reported that both generic and research-related skills were important for research project success. Overall, supervisors considered that the program delivered on its objectives, and that the assessment tasks enabled project progress and skill acquisition. Protected research time, funding, and academic support, particularly for research methods and ethics, would improve the research project program. Supervisor perceptions differed depending on prior research supervision experience and suggest a targeted training program could be beneficial. This should be further investigated to inform future support provisions.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Prof Michael Frommer and Prof David Tiller who were instrumental in the design, development, and implementation of the MD Project Program. Academic management for the MD Project team was provided by Clara Spencer, Anna Forte, Hannah Bath, Craig Purcell, Nicholas Olsen, Paniani Patu and Sally Middleton. The substantial support of research supervisors and coordinators of both the research project program and this survey is also acknowledged.

Authors’ contributions

Jonathan Hakim, Rebekah Jenkin, Eszter Kalman and David Bowen contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection was performed by Jonathan Hakim and Joanne Hart. Data analyses were performed by Joanne Hart, Genevieve Coorey and Rajneesh Kaur. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Joanne Hart and all authors commented on subsequent versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

No funding was received for this work.

Availability of data and materials

Declarations.

This research project was approved by the University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee, #2017/748. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Informed consent was obtained from each participant. Participation was anonymous and submission of the online survey form was accepted as informed consent to be involved in the study.

Not applicable.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Moscow City Teachers' Training University

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Founded in 1995, the Moscow City Teachers' Training University is a for-profit public higher education institution located in the urban setting of the large metropolis of Moscow (population range of over 5,000,000 inhabitants). This institution also has a branch campus in Samara. Officially recognized by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Moscow City Teachers' Training University (MGPU) is a large-sized (uniRank enrollment range: 15,000-19,999 students) coeducational Russian higher education institution. Moscow City Teachers' Training University (MGPU) offers courses and programs leading to officially recognized higher education degrees such as pre-bachelor's degrees (i.e. certificates, diplomas, associate or foundation), bachelor's degrees, master's degrees and doctorate degrees in several areas of study. See the uniRank degree levels and areas of study table below for further details. This 28-year-old Russian higher-education institution has a selective admission policy based on entrance examinations. The acceptance rate range is 60-69% making this Russian higher education organization a moderately selective institution. International students are welcome to apply for enrollment. MGPU also provides several academic and non-academic facilities and services to students including a library, housing, sports facilities, financial aids and/or scholarships, study abroad and exchange programs, as well as administrative services.

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University Identity

University location, search engine, fields of study / degree levels, introduction.

What is the difference between comprehensive/generalist and specialized universities in terms of the range of fields of study they offer, degree levels available and academic and carreer paths pros and cons? Read our guide article about generalist and specialized universities to learn more.

Fields of Study and Degree Levels Matrix

The following Moscow City Teachers' Training University's Fields of Study/Degree Levels Matrix is divided into 6 main fields of study and 4 levels of degrees, from the lowest undergraduate degree to the highest postgraduate degree. This matrix aims to help quickly identify Moscow City Teachers' Training University's academic range and degree level offering.

This University offers courses in at least one of the following subjects:

• Applied Arts
• Museum Studies
• Performing Arts
• Religion and Theology
• Visual Arts
• Other Arts & Humanities Studies
• Accounting / Finance
• Anthropology / Archaeology
• Business / Commerce / Management
• Communication and Media Studies
• Development Studies
• Library and Information Science
• Physical Education / Sport Science
• Political and International Studies
• Social Policy / Public Administration
• Social Work
• Sociology / Psychology
• Tourism / Hospitality
• Other Business & Social Science Studies
• Aboriginal / Indigenous People Studies
• African Studies
• American & Caribbean Studies
• Ancient and Modern Languages
• Asian Studies
• English Studies
• European Studies
• French Studies
• Germanic Studies
• Indian / South Asian Studies
• Italian Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Portuguese Studies
• Russian / Eastern European Studies
• Spanish Studies
• Other Language & Cultural Studies
• Anaesthesia
• Biomedical Science
• Dermatology
• Medicine / Surgery
• Natural / Alternative Medicine
• Obstetrics / Gynaecology
• Optometry / Ophthalmology
• Orthopaedics
• Otorhinolaryngology
• Radiography
• Speech / Rehabilitation / Physiotherapy
• Other Medical & Health Studies
• Aeronautical Engineering
• Agricultural Engineering
• Architectural Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Computer and IT Engineering
• Electronic and Electrical Engineering
• General Engineering
• Geological Engineering
• Industrial Engineering
• Mechanical / Manufacturing Engineering
• Mining and Metallurgical Engineering
• Other Engineering Studies
• Agriculture / Forestry / Botany
• Aquaculture / Marine Science
• Architecture
• Biology / Biochemistry / Microbiology
• Computer / Information Technology
• Energy / Environmental Studies
• Food Science
• Mathematics / Statistics
• Neuroscience
• Pharmacy / Pharmacology
• Textiles and Fibre Science
• Zoology / Veterinary Science
• Other Science & Technology Studies

Notice : please contact or visit the university website for detailed information on Moscow City Teachers' Training University's areas of study and degree levels currently offered; the above matrix may not be complete or up-to-date.

Programs and Courses

Courses and programs.

Click here to explore a list of Moscow City Teachers' Training University courses and programs or, if not available yet, search for them with our Search Engine powered by Google. We are constantly adding university courses and programs worldwide with the cooperation of university representatives.

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Tuition Fees

Yearly tuition fees refers to the amount of money that a student is charged by a University for one academic year of full-time study. Read our guide article about tuition fees and financial aid options to learn more.

Yearly Tuition Fees Range Matrix

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Notice : please contact the university's Admission Office for detailed information on Moscow City Teachers' Training University's yearly tuition fees which apply to your specific situation and study interest; tuition fees may vary by program, citizenship/residency, study mode (i.e. face to face or online, part time or full time), as well as other factors. The above matrix is indicative only and may not be up-to-date.

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Admission Information

uniRank publishes below some basic Moscow City Teachers' Training University's admission information.

Gender Admission

This institution admits Men and Women (coed).

Admission Selection

Has Moscow City Teachers' Training University a selective admission policy? Yes, based on entrance examinations.

Admission Rate

Moscow City Teachers' Training University's acceptance rate range is 60-69% making this institution a moderately selective higher education institution.

International Students Admission

International students are welcome to apply for admission at this institution.

Admission Office

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Notice : admission policy and acceptance rate may vary by areas of study, degree level, student nationality or residence and other criteria. Please contact Moscow City Teachers' Training University's Admission Office for detailed information on their admission selection policy and acceptance rate; the above information may not be complete or up-to-date.

Size and Profile

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uniRank publishes below some major size and profile indicators for Moscow City Teachers' Training University.

Student Enrollment

Moscow City Teachers' Training University has an enrollment range of 15,000-19,999 students making it a large-sized institution.

Academic Staff

This institution has a range of 1,000-1,499 academic employees (Faculty).

Control Type

Moscow City Teachers' Training University is a public higher education institution.

Entity Type

Moscow City Teachers' Training University is a for-profit higher education institution.

Campus Setting

This institution's main campus is located in a Urban setting.

Academic Calendar

This institution adopts a Semesters type of academic calendar.

Religious Affiliation

Moscow City Teachers' Training University does not have any religious affiliation.

Facilities and Services

What are the most common University facilities and services? Read our two guide articles about University Facilities and University Services to learn more.

University Facilities

uniRank provides below an overview of Moscow City Teachers' Training University's main facilities:

University Library

This institution has a physical Library.

University Housing

This institution provides housing services such as on-campus residences or dormitories.

Sport Facilities/Activities

This institution features sporting facilities and organizes sports activities for its students.

University Services

uniRank provides below an overview of Moscow City Teachers' Training University's main services:

Financial Aid

This institution offers one or more of the following financial aid for eligible students: scholarships, grants, loans, tuition waivers, emergency financial aid etc.

Study Abroad

This institution offers study abroad and exchange program opportunities for its students.

Distance Learning

Not reported

Academic Counseling

Career services.

Notice : please contact or visit the university website for detailed information on Moscow City Teachers' Training University's facilities and services; the information above is indicative only and may not be complete or up-to-date.

Recognition and Accreditation

There are different types of legal recognition and quality assessment of higher education institutions around the world, depending on the country and its legal and higher education system... read our article about university accreditation and recognition to learn more.

Institutional Recognition or Accreditation

Moscow City Teachers' Training University is legally recognized and/or institutionally accredited by: Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation

Year of first Recognition or Accreditation 1995

Specialized or Programmatic Accreditations

uniRank publishes the following list of the most important Moscow City Teachers' Training University's programmatic accreditations; feel free to submit any relevant missing specialized accreditations.

• Federal Agency of Supervision in Education and Science

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Important : the above section is intended to include only those reputable organizations (e.g. Ministries or Departments of Higher Education) that have the legal authority to officially charter, license, register or, more generally, recognize Moscow City Teachers' Training University as a whole (institutional legal recognition), accredit the institution as a whole (institutional accreditation) or accredit its specific programs/courses (programmatic accreditation).

Memberships and Affiliations

University memberships and affiliations to external organizations can be important for several reasons... read our article about university affiliations and memberships to learn more.

Affiliations and Memberships

uniRank publishes the following list of the most important Moscow City Teachers' Training University's affiliations and memberships; feel free to submit any relevant missing higher education-related organizations this university is affiliated with.

• International Association of Universities (IAU)

Academic Structure

Academic divisions can provide valuable insights into the range of fields of study and disciplines a University focuses on and the institution's level of specialization. Comprehensive or Generalist Universities typically offer a wide range of academic programs and have many academic divisions and subdivisions across different disciplines, while Specialized Universities tend to focus on a narrower range of programs within a specific field or industry and have fewer academic divisions and a simplified organizational structure. Read our guide article " Understanding Academic Divisions in Universities - Colleges, Faculties, Schools " to learn more about academic divisions and typical university organizational structures.

uniRank shows a structural diagram of the first-level academic divisions of the Moscow City Teachers' Training University 's organizational structure; feel free to submit any relevant missing division.

Social Media

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uniRank publishes brief reviews, rankings and metrics of some Moscow City Teachers' Training University's social media channels as a starting point for comparison and an additional selection tool for potential applicants.

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Moscow City Teachers' Training University's main LinkedIn profile

Free Online Courses

Open education global.

This higher education institution is not a member of the Open Education Global (OEGlobal) organization that is developing, implementing and supporting free open education and free online courses. View a list of Open Education Global members by country .

Wikipedia Article

Moscow City Teachers' Training University's Wikipedia article

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Feedback, Errors and Update

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK

Patient Access Supervisor

• Faculty Practice Organization
• Other NYC Locations
• Opening on: Apr 4 2024
• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Standard Work Schedule: M-F
• Building: 400 Kelby Street, Fortlee NJ
• Salary Range: 72000-76000

Position Summary

The Patient Access Supervisor is a key role in the ColumbiaDoctors Access Center representing our front door to patients seeking care. The supervisor works under the direction of the Patient Access Manager, leading a team of Patient Access Specialists to provide real-time direction to the activities related to the day-to-day operations of the center. The Patient Access Supervisor is responsible for managing, training, and guiding Specialists in performing their duties is actively involved in resolving cases where patients have complex needs, and partners with Specialists to ensure that patients receive the right care at the right time, the first time. This position also provides continuous support to the Specialists, provides ongoing reports, and resolves problems and complaints. The ideal candidate will have strong communication skills with an emphasis on diplomacy as well as the ability to handle numerous projects simultaneously. In addition, the candidate should be committed to achieving superior results with integrity, sustaining a positive work environment, and embracing working side-by-side with others in a diverse and inclusive culture. 

Responsibilities

Access Center Operations

• Supervises, plans, and manages the functions related to the Access Center scheduling pod assigned.
• Carries out supervision, coaching, call monitoring, and training as needed.
• Assures compliance with all Columbia policies, procedures, and processes.
• Demonstrates initiative and self-direction; can apply knowledge and make sound judgments to effectively resolve issues or concerns Monitors and communicates performance standards to the team, and performs evaluations in a fair and consistent manner.
• Oversees the handling of escalated complaints or inquiries regarding the Contact Center.
• Conducts regular team meetings to communicate issues or changes in policies or procedures, and maintain accessibility for one-on-one communication.
• Partners with the quality assurance teams to assure a consistent and high level of exceptional customer service experience and works to identify areas that require improvement.
• Works closely with the central training teams to understand and deliver the training curriculum.
• Carries out supervision, coaching, call monitoring, training, and reviewing of assigned Contact Center Patient Access Specialists.
• Oversees the handling of escalated complaints or inquiries regarding Contact Center scheduling functions.
• Develops and communicates performance standards to Contact Center scheduling associates and performs evaluations in a fair and timely manner.
• Conducts regularly scheduled team meetings to communicate issues or changes in policies/procedures while maintaining accessibility for one-to-one communication.
• Demonstrates a willingness to participate and share expertise on projects/committees.
• Promotes transparent communication among Contact Center leadership team.
• Works with the management team to ensure strategic alignment of unit goals to the overall Access Center organization, mission, and vision.
• Utilizes data to monitor key performance indicators and implements approved performance improvement initiatives as needed.
• Supports and assists with implementation of change management strategies that support overall organizational goals and process improvement initiatives. Maximize employee adoption and measure effectiveness. Ensure communication of changes is cascaded throughout the unit and feedback channels are in place. Ensures staff support system is in place. Works with the Manager to address any escalated concerns and identified risks.
• Supports projects and related deliverables as needed.
• Evaluates staff performance and competencies, approaching the performance review process constructively, and conducts it in accordance with Human Resources and departmental guidelines and procedures. Offers continuing guidance and assistance to employees on work activities, procedures, competency development, and performance-related issues as appropriate. Ensures manager is kept aware of the performance of each employee on an ongoing basis. Addresses any performance-related issues promptly.
• Supervise, train, develop, coach, monitor, and empower team members to provide customers with a superior service experience, and to inspire the feeling of high energy, excitement, satisfaction, with a sense of pride and belonging in their workplace. This also includes the ability to support the transfer of skills and knowledge obtained in the training into practice and production thereby meeting and exceeding key performance objectives.
• Manages resources as assigned.
• Cultivates an outstanding relationship with providers and practices they support.
• Works collaboratively with peer supervisors in the center to assure efficient and effective workflows, adjusts staffing as needed for peaks and valleys, and drives towards the achievement of the goals for the center.
• Assures KPIs and service metrics are monitored and met.
• Conducts assessment when metrics are not met and implements an action plan to address.
• Tracks and reports issues.
• Compliance with all federal, state, and city regulations and laws.
• Manages to budget, projects, and forecasts future needs Review costs and chargeback models to identify cost efficiencies for the organization and clinical departments.
• Perform other related duties and responsibilities as assigned/requested.

Minimum Qualifications

• Requires bachelor’s degree or equivalent in education and experience.
• 3 years of related experience including 2 years experience in a supervisory role.
• An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.
• Solid computer knowledge and skills, including the ability to navigate complex systems and create reports when needed.
• Demonstrated initiative and self-direction is required; can apply knowledge and make sound judgments to effectively resolve issues or concerns.
• Strong organizational skills are required. Demonstrates ability to think analytically and synthesize complex information.
• Ability to lead and mentor team through new and changing situations. Demonstrate a professional and compassionate manner while conveying a positive image of the Access Center.
• Ability to communicate effectively in both oral and written form. This position requires the ability to interact positively, constructively, and effectively with professional staff, providers, and organizational stakeholders.
• Demonstrated proficiency in problem assessment, and resolution, and collaborative problem-solving in complex, and interdisciplinary settings.
• Ability to communicate effectively in both oral and written form. This position requires the ability to interact positively, constructively, and effectively with staff, providers, and organizational stakeholders.
• Must successfully complete system training requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in customer service.
• Experience managing a team or teams in a fast-paced call center environment, and/or medical practice environment.
• Healthcare or related experience.
• Previous experience using Salesforce or other customer relationship management software.

Other Requirements

Competencies

Proficiency Level

Accountability & Self-Management

Level 3 - Intermediate

Adaptability to Change & Learning Agility

Level 2 - Basic

Communication

Customer Service & Patient Centered

Emotional Intelligence

Problem Solving & Decision Making

Productivity & Time Management

Teamwork & Collaboration

Quality, Patient & Workplace Safety

Leadership Competencies

Business Acumen & Vision Driver

Level 1 - Introductory

Performance Management

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.

Commitment to Diversity 

Columbia university is dedicated to increasing diversity in its workforce, its student body, and its educational programs. achieving continued academic excellence and creating a vibrant university community require nothing less. in fulfilling its mission to advance diversity at the university, columbia seeks to hire, retain, and promote exceptionally talented individuals from diverse backgrounds.  , share this job.

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