All of these situations are not uncommon , and there are hundreds more like them that I could talk about , which brings me to a few important points about ensuring maximum productivity and profit from your employees , especially now that so many are working from home .
1 . Forget “ Ownership ” Mentality . The first thing you have to accept is that employees are NOT owners , nor do they want to be . They are a rented asset , a hired gun . If they wanted your responsibility and workload , they ’ d start their own business instead of working for you . Further , they don ’ t own your business — YOU do . So , expecting an employee to adopt an “ ownership mentality ” is foolish . That ’ s not to say you shouldn ’ t expect them to own some responsibility or to do a great job ; you just shouldn ’ t expect MORE than that . In fact , most want to do just enough work to keep their job and avoid being fired , and that ’ s the accurate thinking required as a starting point for maximum profit and productivity from your employees . Candidly , who can blame them ? Are you incentivizing them to work longer or harder ? If not , you can ’ t be mad at them for doing the minimum necessary to perform so they can save the rest of their day for what ’ s important to them . Often , that is NOT the maximum profitability or productivity of your business .
2 . Have Clearly Defined Work Output And Productivity Standards . If you want productive employees , then YOU must define what “ productivity ” is . For techs , it ’ s 75 % utilization toward a billable client event as well as other productivity standards for clearing and resolving client problems . In sales , it ’ s X appointments sat , X sales closed , and X dollars secured . If it ’ s an administrative job , you need to have a clear list of daily , weekly , monthly , and periodic responsibilities that define what needs to be done and by when . Every employee needs to have clearly stated and documented expectations for how the work is supposed to be done . But in addition to that , you must track and measure their activities . This is the part no one likes about managing people . Sure , everyone likes to give out awards , host the company barbecue , and give out the motivational pat on the back for a great job , but constantly checking to ensure an employee is doing their work to set standards and performance metrics and then confronting them when they ’ re not is FAR from enjoyable , which is why so many don ’ t do it and , therefore , bleed profits from lost productivity .
3 . Don ’ t Let Employees Waste Or Burn “ Inventory .” If you want to get maximum productivity , you ( first ) must view your employees ’ hours as INVENTORY that you PURCHASED . If they screw around on the job , come in late , go home early , or use any of those hours for playing games or running personal errands , they are stealing paid-for inventory from you . While I don ’ t think any CEO would begrudge a few minutes a day on personal activities , spending hours shopping , gambling , and playing games is a horrendous violation of professional ethics , AND IT IS STEALING . So is going home early and coming in late . Don ’ t think so ? Try NOT paying an employee for all the hours they worked and see how that goes over . You ’ ll get a notso-friendly visit from the U . S . Department of Labor .
4 . Have A Way To Track Productivity . Our sales reps are required to use a dialer connected to our CRM to account for the calls they make and the outcomes they produce . Without that , there ’ s a LOT of wiggle room for saying they ’ re prospecting when they are not . We also use Activtrak to measure employees work hours and productivity . Further , our MSP ensures certain websites and searches are blocked from Internet search on company machines . By the way , ALL of this is something you can SELL TO CLIENTS in addition to putting it to work in your business .
Of course , not all employees don ’ t want to work , but even the good ones WILL slack off , take it easy , and work slower than you ’ d like if left unmonitored and unmanaged . YOU set the pace , and lack of productivity is now rampant more than ever with undisciplined people with poor work environments and productivity skills working remotely , unmonitored , and unmanaged .
So , even if you don ’ t have a problem in YOUR business , you can bet one or more of your clients DO , and you can greatly assist your clients by helping them install controls to prevent employee “ theft ” of hours and , more importantly , prevent employees from using company Internet access , data , email , and apps to expose the company to lawsuits and negative PR . Much of this can be solved by blocking the websites and activity on company devices and Internet . Another solution is installing and setting up productivity-tracking software that monitors activity . n
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