post #9 Sharing the marbles
In every situation whether it be at work, a class project, or in an RSO or even a club there is always going to be a suboptimal worker in any situation. Sometimes it is hard to get that person to become more productive and work at a productive pace like the rest of the workers. Managers or people in positions are are sometime to blame in these situations. They are to blame for sub-optimal workers because they are the ones who should keep workers on point, and motivated throughout tuff slumps or at time where they seem like aren't motivated and making sure that they are working at a good or above optimal pace.
My parents have owned a grocery store for basically my whole life and I have always seen them deal with workers and I always would see what they would to motivate there staff. They always did different things to motivate workers. They would have bonuses for holidays to all the workers, they would have food for the workers at least once a month, and during the holidays they give out bonus and holiday baskets. These are just some of the few things they would do for the workers to make sure they were motivated and this does work for the most part, but sometimes it doesn't work or sometimes the workers do get unmotivated. So my parents would have to look for other things to motivate the workers when sometimes their performance would dip. Like in most situations when worker performance dips, you need to first see the dip in performance, then after that you need to see if it goes on for multiple days or it is just a bad day. If its not just a bad day then you know that its something going wrong with their performance and as a manager or as a business owner in this situation you need to assess the problem. First, since most of these jobs in the grocery store you can tell if a workers performance is dipping by productivity. So first my parents would talk to the worker without actually talking about performance, see if everything is okay and have an actual connection with them. Then if this didn't work they would then talk with them again and this time they would bring up performance and let the worker know that they can tell that there work isn't up to par. So this would basically be a warning, letting them know that they need to do better. Most of the time this would be as far it would take. Since the grocery store is an easier environment to motivate and let workers know that they aren't doing all they need.
My parents have owned a grocery store for basically my whole life and I have always seen them deal with workers and I always would see what they would to motivate there staff. They always did different things to motivate workers. They would have bonuses for holidays to all the workers, they would have food for the workers at least once a month, and during the holidays they give out bonus and holiday baskets. These are just some of the few things they would do for the workers to make sure they were motivated and this does work for the most part, but sometimes it doesn't work or sometimes the workers do get unmotivated. So my parents would have to look for other things to motivate the workers when sometimes their performance would dip. Like in most situations when worker performance dips, you need to first see the dip in performance, then after that you need to see if it goes on for multiple days or it is just a bad day. If its not just a bad day then you know that its something going wrong with their performance and as a manager or as a business owner in this situation you need to assess the problem. First, since most of these jobs in the grocery store you can tell if a workers performance is dipping by productivity. So first my parents would talk to the worker without actually talking about performance, see if everything is okay and have an actual connection with them. Then if this didn't work they would then talk with them again and this time they would bring up performance and let the worker know that they can tell that there work isn't up to par. So this would basically be a warning, letting them know that they need to do better. Most of the time this would be as far it would take. Since the grocery store is an easier environment to motivate and let workers know that they aren't doing all they need.
In an office job it might be different compared to a grocery store when it comes to trying to get workers motivated. I would assume some of the tactics are the same when it comes to talking to a worker who isn't doing that well. Most of the time a conversation is what helps, sometimes giving time off if they are going through a tough time which would help them in their work life. Overall there is many things you can do as a manager or as a person in charge to motivate people, every manager has different ways to deal with the situation but what makes a good manager from a bad manager is someone who can talk to there workers and motivate them.
That was an interesting story. Your parents have practical smarts that would be good to learn. I have sometimes wondered about the people at the grocery store where I shop. The people who work at the cash register and those who bag the groceries are on their feet a lot. And there is a lot of repetition to the work. Wouldn't that get very boring? Needing the wages is a motivator, sure. But the other factors of the work would point to it being a job where most employees would lose interest in it now and then.
ReplyDeleteThat your parents take some personal interest in their employees is also sensible. If something entirely outside the grocery is what's responsible for the fall off in productivity, then empathy for the person in a tough situation is the appropriate response, while treating it only as a work problem is a mistake.
I gather that you know this about your parents because you worked at the store on occasion. I wonder if you were ever the one whose productivity dipped and if your parents then treated you as they treat other employees.
I have written in response to other posts on this topic that sometimes the manager's response comes out of anger rather than from thinking through the situation. Having good routines for how to deal with a situation where an employee slacks off may be a way for the manager to not let the anger take over. Staying on a level keel is the ideal, but it may be very hard to achieve.