Staff turnover is the rate at which an employer gains and loses employees. High turnover is often related to unhappy employees, lack of career opportunities and challenges, dissatisfaction with the job or conflict with management; but it can also indicate unsafe or unhealthy conditions. High turnover rates are always a reason to be alarmed.
productivity
In February, our (almost) regular guest blogger Ioanna Lazarov wrote an article about how to deal with office slackers. Io approached the issue from a peer’s perspective. This time we’ll approach it from a manager’s point of view.
In Douglas McGregor’s theories of motivation, slackers can definitely be placed under the X-theory: individuals inherently lazy that will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work.
One pitfall of McGregor’s X theory is that it assumes people as lazy, killing any possibility of rehabilitation. Clearly, the author’s definition of an X can not be taken literally since we know that there are shades of gray in the spectrum of human behavior and personality variations.
If you have a rotten apple in your team, these are 6 things you can try to increase his or her productivity:
In my journey towards cooking proficiency -which I’ve never achieved- I’ve learnt two things (the hard way):
- Never place an empty kettle or casserole on the burner
- Never put too much stuff in a covered casserole
These same rules apply to any job.
If our minds worked as a pressure cooker, with vent pipes that prevent pressure from building up beyond the cooker’s limits, that would be the ideal solution. In fact, this is the way our minds work, but they are not as effective as a pressure cooker. Sometimes the vent pipes get clogged and we explode from the inside in a burst of stress.
Going back to the two lessons I learned, if you are sitting at your desk with nothing to do (empty pot) you’ll eventually get burned out. Having nothing or little to do all day makes the work day drag, lowers our self-esteem due to not being productive or useful and kills our motivation.
As you may notice, your productive output fluctuates throughout your work day. Productivity tends to dwindle right after 12pm until approximately 4PM. On the contrary, the early morning hours are the ones where your energy is at its highest. This curve is due to your circadian rhythm. Your internal clock follows a roughly 24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological and behavioral processes.
Knowing when to expect “down time” will let you to plan your work days accordingly, such us leaving your brain-intensive tasks for morning hours and doing non priority work in the afternoons.
Don’t get me wrong. I love going on vacations and taking days off. It lets me disconnect from work giving me a -sometimes- much needed breath of fresh air. But as good as having lots of free time is, there’s a down side to taking breaks from your job responsibilities. ...
Do you want a team that is able to think or a horde of cyborgs who follow blindly your commands? That is the question that I asked myself today, already knowing the answer (a waste of mental energy). There’s people who feel comfortable delegating work unto others and there are ...
Whether you are easily distracted or feel lost in your new job, making checklists will get you organized and prevent you from missing important deadlines. Professionals from the most challenging fields use them. Doctors, pilots, engineers, all share a common problem. Their jobs involve lots of steps that if overlooked ...
I wanted to write a series of posts that you could apply to your job. Something you can relate to wether you are a salesman, doctor, telemarketer or a store manager. Do any of those professions have anything in common with each other? Yes, no. Doesn’t matter. My goal is ...
Ever felt at work that you are stuck in first or second gear or you are on those days when your motivation is idling. Well, it’s normal. No one can sustain 290 (give or take) days a year at full throttle. If you can you are either alien, on crack ...
