“How do I make my workers more productive?”
John G from Portland asks: “I have a small car rental business with just five employees, so we run a tight ship. The problem is that three of them are really unreliable. They always seem to be out sick, or on personal time, or on coffee break, and even when they are in the office, they don’t seem to be very productive. Problem is I don’t know how to handle it, and my good workers are getting really fed up with carrying the load.”
December 8th, 2006 at 11:45 am
You’re business will only ever be as good as it’s weakest link John, and unfortunately you seem to have a couple of those. Seems to me you have several steps to take. First-off: they sense your fear, and frankly are testing you, seeing just how far they can push. Quite far, it seems! So first step, consider tightening up on the work ‘rules’ –not to make them onerous, just clear. Second: consider promoting one of your reliable workers to a supervisory position. Third: link incentives to performance–including measures such as reliability, productivity etc. Fourth: communicate these changes, talk about a new collaborative, culture where the load and rewards are shared. Fifth: talk to each of these individuals one on one, and lay it out. Get with the program, or get a new job. Six: if they still won’t play ball, give them notice, get them out the door right away, and bring in some temps to plug the gaps while you look for the right kind of folks to fill their roles. Make sure you’re in compliance with all labor laws of course (check with your local chamber of commerce, or SCORE chapter), and get on with building a kick-ass business!