by Helena Turpin, Co-Founder of GoFIGR
If you’re a manager and you are reading this, you’re probably doing two jobs.
Because let’s be honest: managing people is on top of your actual job.
It's not like your job responsibilities disappear the moment you start managing a team. If anything, they increase. Effective performance management requires new skills and tools.
And suddenly, you’re in this constant tug-of-war – trying to balance project deadlines and business targets with a whole group of individuals who are looking to you for direction, feedback, support and growth.
I know this isn’t a new problem. It’s been happening forever.
People get promoted because they’re great at what they do. Then they reach a certain level, get handed a team, and are told: “Congratulations! Now keep doing your old job, plus look after these eight people.”
In the past, the unspoken rule was:
It is what it is. This is the job. Figure it out.
But today, we know better.
If managers don’t have the right support, things break down. Performance suffers. People leave. And valuable knowledge and momentum leak out of the business.
I've experienced this firsthand, and I've always believed that there is a BETTER way to do leadership development and people management.
One that lets managers actually manage, without burning out – and that gives employees the growth they’re looking for without relying on heroic levels of one-to-one support.
Why balancing both roles is so challenging today | The need for HR technology solutions
Managing a team well means doing more than just checking in on tasks.
Your team wants to feel mentored, heard and respected. They want to feel that they are growing and making an impact. They want:
- new assignments,
- clear career pathways and
- feedback that helps them level up.
All of that takes time. When you’re already running at capacity in your own role, it can feel impossible to do any of it well.
However, if you ignore your team, it will cost you (and the business) in different ways, too.
Without the right level of support, people disengage or (worse) leave. If you ignore your own work, performance drops. And when either side slips, it creates even more pressure of:
- rehiring and retraining,
- cleaning up missed deadlines or
- chasing progress that didn’t happen.
This isn't just a time management problem (because you can only do so much). It's a structural challenge that requires talent retention strategies.
Thankfully, there's a way to figure it all out | AI-Powered Leadership Development
The good news is, we don’t have to rely on heroic/burnout effort anymore.
With the right tools, we can create a smarter structure for people management and leadership development, one that supports employees while giving managers back time and clarity.
That’s what an AI-enabled internal talent marketplace platform like GoFIGR is designed for.
GoFIGR is an innovative HR solution developed by a team (yes, my amazing team!) who understand both employees and managers. We’ve created to help employees grow and managers manage, without the need for micromanagement or the risk of burnout from doing too much.
How does an internal talent marketplace support managers | Preventing Manager Burnout
In essence, an AI-powered talent marketplace platform works wonders in people management by giving you full visibility of:
- your team’s existing skills,
- their career goals and aspirations,
- available upskilling opportunities
- and a lot more.
For now, let’s focus on these three practical ways a platform like GoFIGR can take some pressure off managers – while still helping your people grow, stay engaged and deliver real impact:
Better employee engagement and retention
When employees feel seen, supported and given room to grow, they stay.
With GoFIGR, you can create an environment where people can:
- discover opportunities,
- connect with mentors and
- raise their hand for new challenges
– all in one accessible AI-powered platform that algorithmically matches employees’ skills and interests with internal opportunities to develop, learn and grow, giving them the chance to do what they love and do best every day.
This keeps your team motivated and reduces the risk of burnout and attrition.
The best part? GoFIGR takes care of all of it – and you can even use it for your own leadership development opportunities, too!
Career conversations made easy with career development tools
As a leader, it’s only natural for you to want to support your team’s career growth – however, you may not always have the time, tools or frameworks to start (and continue) career conversations.
AI-enabled HR tech like GoFIGR also functions as a career reflection and goal-setting tool.
It guides career check-ins with structured templates, offers conversation prompts and tracks individual goals over time. With built-in, advanced people analytics, you also don’t need to keep everything in your head and manually keep track of every employee’s skill and career goal.
This way, it's also easier to make sure employees walk away from career chats with real clarity and momentum. This is performance management technology at its best.
Future-proofing your team with career pathing and talent retention strategies
Career development shouldn’t be vague or inconsistent.
This is why you need to give your people visibility into what a future at your company can look like.
Whether they want to grow in their current role, pivot to a new area or step into leadership, it’s important to let your team know that you care about their future goals.
With a talent marketplace like GoFIGR, you can help guide those journeys without having to manually chart every path themselves. And because it’s connected to your broader skills and capability data, it stays aligned with where the business is headed.
With your leadership skills and the insights from GoFIGR, you can create a win-win scenario where your team is empowered to take charge of their growth, while you’re freed up to focus on meaningful one-on-one connections.
Yes, you have two key roles now, BUT you don’t need to choose between doing your job and developing your team. With the right systems in place, you can do both – without burning out or letting people down.
Let GoFIGR manage the insights, so you can focus on the people.
There’s a future-proof team that’s already working for you – find, inspire, grow and retain them with the right technology.
By shifting the admin and logistics of people management into a central, reliable platform, you’ll have more time and headspace for the parts that actually require your judgment, empathy and experience: the human-to-human moments that matter most.
It’s the ultimate way to build internal mobility and foster a progressive workplace culture to minimise your reliance on the hiring cycle.
It’s a great way to save crucial hours in your day as well.
Contact GoFIGR today to discover how we can help you foster a future-focused workforce using our Internal Talent Marketplace platform.
Helena Turpin spent 20 years in talent and HR innovation where she solved people-related problems using data and technology. She left corporate life to create GoFIGR where she helps mid-sized organizations to develop and retain their people by connecting employee skills and aspirations to internal opportunities like projects, mentorship and learning.
