Managing people in a work environment is not easy due to all the different variables for each workplace. However, there are three types of control you can put in place as a manager to ensure work is done to standard.

Feedforward is the best type of control and probably companies should use it more to ensure things are done correctly. Feedforward is a control measure that puts things like rules, education, and training in place before the event happens. The purpose of this is to prevent any problems before they happen, which eliminates the need for corrective action. This saves time and resources and therefore improves productivity.

Concurrent control is the use of corrective actions as they occur. It is also known as walking management. This solution is implemented as mentioned above, by walking around the workplace, using surveillance cameras and any other means of monitoring the workplace in real time. Concurrent control is not as efficient as feed-forward control because resources and time are needed to fix the situation.

Feedback control is the last resort when it comes to control. Feedback control takes place after the situation has occurred. The situation is reviewed and analyzed as to why it happened? What caused it? And using forward control, how can this be prevented from happening in the future? As expected, feedback control is the least efficient of all control types because it uses the most resources.

As a manager, you should look to implement forward control as much as possible, then use concurrent control and very little feedback control. If the first type of control is implemented correctly, the next two should not be used much.