Employee Productivity Enhancement

Business owners need to ensure that their employees are productive and eager to do the best job possible--this is especially true during today's challenging economic times. Yet every industry and every organization has people who simply do not produce work in the quality that they are capable of providing. That can create costly problems for a manager.

Leaders often miss the mark when trying to ramp up employee productivity.

1.  Money motivates. Of course, if you pay some enough money, they will do almost any job. And when you give bonuses to reward past behaviour, the recipients are usually very happy (unless they were expecting a larger bonus).

However, studies find this happiness is short-lived. Within six months, individuals have difficulty recalling that bonus and it does not seem to have the same impact it did within the first few weeks or months of receiving it.

It's the recognition and status that are the true motivators for the increased output. Take for example, the high tech salesperson who sold more product than anyone else in the department. The boss rewards that employee with a bonus. Everyone knows who the bonus recipient is, and she is proud of her accomplishments--the high earner gains recognition from colleagues and clients. Recognition and status are two key sources of motivation.

What should you do? Set up situations that allow the employee to feel a sense of accomplishment. Employees respond most to opportunities for achievement, recognition, growth, job enrichment and job enlargement.

2.  Just keep them happy. Employers often go to great lengths to keep their employees happy--some offer game rooms; others have phones with free long-distance access. The theory here is that if we can keep the employees happy during their break time, it will translate into increased motivation and productivity.

Employees actually enjoy their break times, look forward to them, and may even linger during them. But the satisfaction found during the break times does not necessarily translate into better or higher quality job performance.

3.  Ignore Conflict. Few people, especially in the professional world, enjoy conflict. Most bosses and employees alike would rather "let something go" or "sweep it under the rug" than make an issue out of it. Too many managers are concerned about being liked that they don't fulfill their responsibilities to catch problems quickly. Not addressing an employee's problematic behaviour doesn't help anyone.

4.  Some people just aren't motivated. This is a very common misconception. Everyone is motivated--but for different reasons. Walking through the offices, the manager may see someone playing computer games or sending personal email, this could be seen as the individual is not motivated because he's not attending to the job tasks. But that may not be entirely correct. At that moment, the "aimless" employee is motivated, perhaps even highly motivated. But that motivation is not work directed, nor is it productive for the company.

The challenge here is for the leader to discover what actually motivates that employee and match up those elements with the worker's job description. (This point also assumes that the employee is worth keeping.)

5.  Smart employees don't need to be motivated.  Everyone wants to have smart people working for them because these people are quick to learn, adapt and produce. Employers believe that they don't need to spend much time or attention on these employees.

6. 
Unfortunately, intelligence and self-motivation do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. There are plenty of smart employees who haven't been able to find out just what motivates them personally; they tend to get bored or frustrated easily. The result is a lack of interest and a lack of productivity.

So what does an employer do? A smart employer creates the atmosphere that allows and encourages the employee to be motivated. That employer also gets to know what his staff is interested in doing to advance company goals and what parts of the job description are interesting or exciting verses boring


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