(ThyBlackMan.com) One bugbear that a lot of business leaders have about their employees is laziness! Sure, there will be times where there isn’t much work to do, such as in the run-up to a holiday period. However, it’s when workers spend their time avoiding work during a typical day that can be a major headache for their managers!
You might feel that you’ve just hired the wrong people for the job. But, there is actually a variety of reasons why employees may not feel motivated enough to work at their best each day. In today’s blog post, I am going to explore some of the common reasons for employee idleness and how you can combat those issues.
Wrong tools for the job
Let’s say that your staff needs to use computers to carry out the majority of their work each day. If their systems are archaic by technology standards, they will no doubt be slow to process data and run programs. Now consider this: how much more work could they get done if they had newer, faster computer systems? The answer is simple, of course. They’d complete lots more work!
Have you assessed whether your employees have the right tools for their jobs? You may think they spend a lot of time talking to each other and not doing much work. But, it could just be because they have to wait for their computers or whatever equipment they use to do something!
Not enough space to work
It’s no secret that some employees only need a bit of desk space, while others need to spread out a lot during the day. Severely limiting the space workers need can significantly decrease the work they can produce for you.
Consider reviewing the desk, office and cubicle layout for your workers. You may need to reconfigure cubicles with new furniture from places like A Office Furniture. Or you may even need to expand your office space so that everyone isn’t as “crammed in” as they are now!
No break time policies
When do your employees go on their breaks? And how many do they have each day? If you’re not sure about either question, you may have found a reason for your apparent staff laziness! It pays to define a clear policy on when staff can take breaks and the duration of each one.
You should also state how many employees need to be available for work at any given time. After all; the last thing you want to do is end up being short-staffed!
Unfiltered Internet access
One of the classic ways to waste time at work is to go online and surf the Web. You should ensure that you have a Web filtering system in place to block access to non-work-related websites.
Usually, the way to do that is by configuring each system to access the Internet through an in-house proxy server. Software such as WinGate or Squid can help You may also wish to ask employees not to use their mobile phones during working hours to circumvent such filtering.
Good luck!
Staff Writer; Paul Love
