HOW TO BATTLE DISENGAGEMENT WITH YOUR TEAM


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A 2013 study by Gallup discovered 70 percent of the workforce is disengaged on the job. This brings the problem of disengagement to the top of employers’ “to solve” list.

But how to battle this problem? There is actually a low-cost and highly effective solution – transparency.

1.     Make transparency a priority from the top down.
Make company’s values, decision-making and challenges clear throughout the company. Be open about what is needed and what should be avoided. Seek and share feedback on the performance of both your managers and their direct reports. Openly communicating about the strengths and weaknesses on all levels of your team will ensure that everyone is performing to the best of their ability.

2.     Use different strategies to engage different types of employees.
It is important to ensure that your employees receive the information in a way that they are able to appreciate and engage with. No two people are the same and it goes for your team-mates as well: some use email, others prefer face to face meetings, others yet do not mind gong through reports. This is a little step for you, but a big change in transparency for your team.

3.     Stop office gossip before it spreads.
The clearer and ore open the culture – the fewer reasons there are for gossip. If people know what’s going on, it simply becomes pointless. Make sure your managers have an “open door” policy, allowing employees to stop by and ask questions directly from the source.

THE FIVE QUESTIONS YOU MUST ASK BEFORE TERMINATING AN EMPLOYEE

Answers

How do you know when it is time to say good bye to an employee? Surely, there may be plenty of signs to tell you that you are not a good match, but we often tend to have that shadow of doubt when terminating a relationship.

According to the work of Rick Brocato and Marc De Simone, the following five questions are a must before throwing in the towel:

1. Does the employee clearly understand your expectations?
Before labeling your team-mate as lazy, unprofessional, incompetent or inexperienced, you may want to make sure that your expectations are clear to them. We often think that everyone has the same idea when it comes to working style and productivity. But what if this is not the case and the only true problem is miscommunication?

2. Have you removed all organizational roadblocks?
Removing obstacles helps employees to be more productive.

And, more often than not these obstacles are quite easy to remove: a few policies or regulations, internal politics, extra paperwork or a lack of critical resources. Once your team have all they need, a lot of your difficulties may disappear.

Note: However, do not get too involved in the personal problems your employees may have. Let your helping hand be restricted to the internal organization.

3. Is the employee fully trained and has he or she had enough time to practice?
Practice makes perfect. And no matter how fast-paced the business world is, allowing your team sufficient time to learn and make mistakes is necessary.

4. Have you motivated the employee to perform?
Catch employees doing something right and tell them about it. Motivation is a powerful tool to increase productivity anf pinpointing what your team members do right – is often the best way to make sure they work harder and make fewer mistakes.

5. Is the employee capable and/or willing to do the work?
Simply put, is it that he or she CAN’T get it done or simply WON’T do it?

In the former case, one of the solutions  may be to move them to a different department or role, that may better match their abilities.

In the latter case, i.e. if the employee is unwilling to do their job, it is time to terminate their employment. As a business owner, you simply can not afford to keep paying someone who is not willing to produce results.

如何与您的团队抗争

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Gallup 2013 年的一项研究发现，70%的员工没有参与工作。这就把离职问题提到了雇主“要解决”的首要问题。
但是如何解决这个问题呢？实际上，有一个低成本且高效的解决方案——透明度。
1.     自上而下优先考虑透明度。
使公司的价值观、决策和挑战在整个公司内清晰可见。对需要什么和应该避免什么持开放态度。寻求并分享对您的经理及其直接下属绩效的反馈。就团队各个级别的优势和劣势进行公开交流，将确保每个人都尽其所能。
2.     使用不同的策略来吸引不同类型的员工。
重要的是要确保您的员工以他们能够欣赏和参与的方式接收信息。没有两个人是一样的，你的队友也是如此：有些人使用电子邮件，有些人更喜欢面对面的会议，有些人却不介意通过报告进行。这对您来说是一小步，但对您的团队来说是透明度的重大变化。
3. 流言蜚语在办公室传播之前停止它。
文化越清晰、越开放，流言蜚语的理由就越少。如果人们知道发生了什么，那就变得毫无意义。确保你的经理有一个“门户开放”的政策，允许员工直接从源头过来提问。

解雇员工前必须问的五个问题

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你怎么知道什么时候该和员工说再见？当然，可能有很多迹象表明你不是一个很好的匹配，但我们在终止一段关系时往往会产生怀疑的阴影。
根据 Rick Brocato 和 Marc De Simone 的工作，在离开之前必须回答以下五个问题：
1. 员工是否清楚了解您的期望？
在给你的队友贴上懒惰、不专业、无能或缺乏经验的标签之前，你可能需要确保他们清楚你的期望。我们经常认为每个人在工作方式和工作效率方面都有相同的想法。但如果情况并非如此，唯一真正的问题是沟通不畅怎么办？
2. 您是否已清除所有组织障碍？
消除障碍有助于员工提高工作效率。
而且，这些障碍通常很容易消除：一些政策或法规、内部政治、额外的文书工作或缺乏关键资源。一旦您的团队拥有了他们需要的一切，您的许多困难可能会消失。
注意：但是，不要过多地介入员工可能遇到的个人问题。让您的援助之手仅限于内部组织。
3. 员工是否接受过全面培训，是否有足够的时间练习？
熟能生巧。无论商业世界的节奏有多快，让您的团队有足够的时间学习和犯错是必要的。
4. 你有没有激励员工去执行？
抓住员工做正确的事情并告诉他们。激励是提高工作效率的强大工具，可以确定您的团队成员做对了什么——通常是确保他们更加努力工作并减少错误的最佳方式。
5. 员工是否有能力和/或愿意做这项工作？
简单地说，是他或她做不到还是干脆不做？
在前一种情况下，解决方案之一可能是将他们调到不同的部门或角色，这可能更符合他们的能力。
在后一种情况下，即如果雇员不愿意做他们的工作，是时候终止他们的工作了。作为企业主，您根本无法继续向不愿意产生结果的人付款。

周四提醒

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提醒您计划的重要性，开始您的星期四。
无论是您的预算、您的每日待办事项清单还是您的下一个周末郊游，计划都可以在平稳体验和艰难体验之间产生差异。