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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall – why do my employees come to work at all?

Written by: Ann Andrews

Article Overview: How to improve employee productivity

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall – why do my employees come to work at all?

Never before has it been so vital to deal with less than fabulous performance in our employees. Every organisation has to do more with less, every single day, as competition grows and customers are faced with endless choices.

Having even one employee coming to work unmotivated and only marginally productive will have an effect on the bottom line.

But before we as Managers, Owners and/or Team Leaders rush into cracking the whip or looking for replacements for these slack people, there are a few questions that need to be asked:

WHY is this person not performing anywhere near their potential?
Is this a recent phenomenon, or have they always been this way?
If they have always been this way, why did we not pick up their laissez-faire attitude at the recruitment phase?
If it is a recent decline in productivity – what happened to cause the problem?

As an ex Personnel Manager and Human Resources manager, I am absolutely passionate about people. I believe that every single employee WANTS to get up in the morning feeling great about coming to work. I also believe every single employee would LOVE to be part of an awesome team. I also know that the best ideas often come from the shop floor (or office floor)…..so if performance anywhere, isn’t what it could be or should be, questions need to be asked.

What prevents employees from being able to be great as individuals and also what prevents our teams from being fabulous?

The first place to look is often the mirror. And for most Managers and Team Leaders this is the last place they would consider looking. However, if in the first instance you are willing to look at your management style, and having been brave enough to do that, if you are then also willing to look at what you have set up in your department or organization, you may find a few clues for you.

Sometimes we over-manage our people. We breathe down their necks every second of the day and then wonder why they make so many mistakes. Don’t you make mistakes if someone is looking over your shoulder?

Or we may be one of those who micro-manage….we don’t give any information, don’t let people know how well (or not) they are doing and then wonder why their performance doesn’t improve. It is very difficult to perform in a vacuum! People are not mind-readers. If you want something you need to let your people know; similarly if you DON’T want something, you also need to let them know. And being this honest is often hard to do.

You see today your role has changed beyond all recognition. Your role now as well as being a MANAGER also needs to be that of coach and mentor. And if you have never had a coach or a mentor you don’t know what that looks like; feels like or how it happens.

So here are a few things you can do to start your role as coach and mentor, and motivate the late, the lazy and the terminally uninspired employees in your team.

Firstly you can ask each employee these four questions:


1.Where would you like to be in 5 years?
2.What skills do you need to get there?
3.How can I help/coach/mentor you (and delegate one of my boring jobs to you) in order for you to achieve that goal?
4.When would you like to start?

In the Industrial Age our organizations were set up in what I call parent/child….manager
in parent – employee acting and reacting in child. It takes a lot of time and too much
energy to keep working in this strange fashion. Even the lowliest employee in every
organization has a brain…tap into that. Every organisation is wrestling with trying to do
more with less, to work smarter not harder and yet we are masters (and mistresses) of our
own demise. Employees are the answers to our ‘next-giant-leap-in-thinking’.

In summary – create an environment where employees are not encouraged to bring
forward ideas for improvement and they won’t. Create an environment where they are
expected to leave their brains at the door and they will.

Ricardo Semlar (author of Maverick) improved employee productivity from $10,200 per
employee per year to $96,000 per employee per year. He did it by telling them what the
goal of the company was, what their part in that was, when they were doing well and
what they were not doing well. He encouraged people to speak up, to put forward ideas
no matter how strange those ideas were, and he encouraged people to
come to work and take ownership of their part of the business…the results speak for
themselves!

And I would like to leave readers with a thought:

‘I’ve come to realise how deeply employees long for a place where fun, energy and productivity drive out stress, boredom and burnout.’

Can you look in the mirror?

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Article Tags: attitude, bottom line, cracking the whip, decline, endless choices, fabulous performance, first instance, human resources manager, management style, mirror, personnel manager, phenomenon, productivity, recruitment, replacements, single day, team leaders



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Re: Where to focus your time? - Thank you Michelle and Thank you Evan F-O-C-U-S . . . That has been my biggest challenge since I was 3 minutes old. My Ex business partner always said " No one can beat Barry [u:1px6ddia][i:1px6ddia]when[/i:1px6ddia][/u:1px6ddia] he's focused". . .With "WHEN" being the proverbial "operative word". Thanks for holding up the Mirror. That is the benefit of being part of this community. Thanks again Regards Barry
Re: Finding AND Keeping Good People - Employee retention or as you mention “Keeping the Good People” is one of the biggest challenges for any growing business. It takes a huge effort from the entrepreneur’s end. I can come up with the following when it comes to KEEPing the good people- 1. Motivation of the employees 2. Recognition of the needs of the employees 3. Activities to make the employees feel valuable towards the organization 4. Make benefits more accessible 5. Offer profit sharing incentives 6. Create clear career paths at the company 7. Consider telecommuting, job sharing and other flexible working arrangements 8. Incentives are essential and they don't have to be huge 9. Have other managers praise an employee's work 10. Be sensitive to the balance between work and private life
employees or 1099? - In my line of work, we are trying to keep our costs down and stay as "virtual" as possible. I was wondering if anyone had some insight as to whether I should hire employees or contractors? My apologies, here is a description of the situation so you might actually be able to answer my question. Little Man Consulting has a policy to NOT meet with clients unless they are truly against the completely virtual environment. As my company has quadropled in size this year alone, I am finding it harder and harder to keep up with the work and still grow the business. There are other Virtual Assistants out there. Should I farm out the work, or bring in employees?
Keeping Employees Happy - Here are three interesting ways from career coach Marty Nemko on how to keep employees happy: 1. Instead of hiring consultants to train employees, cater lunch once a month and rotate employees teaching co-workers what they know best. 2. Do the employees hate tough customers? Shunt them all to one volunteer employee who gets special recognition or combat pay. Matt Weinstein, CEO of PlayFair, tells of a bank manager who awards a magnum of wine to the teller who, that week, served the most difficult customer. As a result, instead of trying to avoid difficult customers, most tellers actually look forward to them. 3. Give employees a frequent chance to earn small rewards combined with public recognition: sports tickets, free meals, or on-the-spot cash. But Lynn Halpin, CEO of Detroit Edison, warns that this better be part of a comprehensive plan. "If you work for Attila the Hun, someone handing you $50 is like rubbing salt in a wound."
Re: Should you hire ambitious workers or employees with no goals - [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":2ijq3b5e]As a small business owner, should you hire ambitious workers or employees with no goals? My friend's father is a relatively successful entrepreneur and it's his belief that you should primarily hire employees with no ambition because you can get away with paying them less and they're less likely to leave (thus saving you money from a high turnover rate). "Grunts" are the way to go, even though ambitious workers are typically smarter. What do you think?[/quote:2ijq3b5e] I say YES to hirin employees with no Goals!!! they make great "front-line" employees as long as you have carefully documented your process for them to follow. They typically are open to perform routine administrative tasks and they work for a much lower wage. I know what I've said is pretty gloomy but it's reality from my experience. Occasionally one of the "employees with no goals" will stand up and say, "I love working here". You pluck these individuals and promote them to tasks which require more decisions.


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