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March 14, 2006 Increase Profits & Productivity by Reducing Staff Turnover The common false impression given by most incentive/motivation/recognition programs is that it is always about money. Although it might sound cliché, you can’t buy the love of your employees. Surprisingly money often plays a small role in overall job satisfaction. In fact money is not always the most effective incentive for employees to stay at their job. Bob Nelson, the author of “The 1001 Rewards and Recognition Field book” states that “58% of workers surveyed said they would leave to work elsewhere for a slight increase in pay.” Which makes you think that money is the entire package but no, “It is about whether your staff is happy where they work. If they aren’t happy, you can bet that they will leave for better pay. But if they are happy, they will more times then not stay with even slightly less pay.” And that will have a profound effect on your staff and your bottom line. Setting performance expectations can help drive efficiency and productivity in the warehouse, particularly when tied to a performance based pay system. However, there are several ways to recognize and compensate your workers for a job well done that range from the straightforward to the overstated. Prior to you jumping into the countless number of incentives that are available, consider the simplicity of assessing your work atmosphere with the 3 topics mentioned below. 1. Assess the Management – People work for people, not organizations. Do your managers/department heads create work environments that are high self-worth environments? Are they communicating the essential information in the most suitable way? Do they understand the vision, mission, and core values of your organization? If staff members feel they have a good quality boss, they often correlate those feelings with that of having a good job. 2. Foster Unambiguous Communication Ideals – Does everyone in your organization feel comfortable communicating to the people they need to or is there too much indirect contact? If you have a young staff, eliminate wasted time and confusion by training them early on how to communicate professionally and straightforwardly. 3. Measure the Growth - Setting and measuring performance expectations is vital to getting the most from your labor force. Using performance standards has become a proven strategy to drive productivity simply because it lets workers know what is anticipated from them. Measuring performance also ensures that every employee is pulling his or her own weight, as it is often easy to identify when an individual isn’t meeting his/her standards. However, creating and implementing a performance standards agenda is no simple task. Two commonly overlooked keys to managing performance expectations are: · Create a range of acceptable performance, not a single threshold. Logically every employee is different and therefore when you expect identical performance from each worker you will only set yourself up for disappointment. Furthermore, this only discourages those staff members who are unable to reach the standards, and encourages the top performers to underachieve. Discouragement and underachievement are two things you want to avoid having in your business. Also, employees are more likely to buy into the performance expectations if they understand that there is an array of acceptable performance. · Whenever operations in the warehouse change, your performance expectations need to be revised as well. New equipment, new warehouse software systems, new processes being implemented (such as cross-docking), changes/additions to the building’s layout, all have an effect on staff productivity. In most cases those old expectations are no longer applicable and must be revised. Normally it takes 3 to 6 months before employees become truly comfortable with any major changes in the business, so wait until sufficient time has passed before reviewing and revising your performance expectations. Bottom Line = Happy Employees Mean A More Productive Company To Unsubscribe
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