Now understand that I am not defending the employee and maybe he should
have been fired. The problem once again is not what was done; rather it was
how it was done.
A good supervisor does not need to be accessible 24/7 yet
the leader needs to be accessible to the needs of his/her employees.
In this
situation, maybe the supervisor was so overworked that he (in this case it
was a male) did not see what was going on with the employee until it was too
late. While this may be true it still does not warrant firing an employee in
voice mail.
Last year I heard of an employee getting fired in a text
message. I am not sure which avenue is worse, text message, or voice mail.
What has happened to open communication between leaders and front line
staff?
While productivity is at the forefront of most Americans, instances
like these two damage the morale of the staff and in turn have an adverse
affect on productivity. Most people feel that morale is difficult to
measure. While difficult, it can be measured. Let's look at some statistics.
The good news is that according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
since 2001 the rate of productivity growth has accelerated again to 3.4% per
year. From the mid 1970's through the mid 1990's the productivity rose at
just 1.5%. In the mid 1990's the productivity rate rose to 2.5%.
Productivity absolutely depends on the people. According to the 2006
Employee Review by Randstad USA (Randstad is a global provider of
professional employment services and the third largest staffing organization
in the world) employers say that top five productivity gains have come from
the following:
- 28% - Increased employee effectiveness
- 15% - Technology
- 12% -
More skilled people
- 8% - Pay for performance
- 4% - Logistics improvement
Investments, supply chain efficiencies six sigma outsourcing off-shoring and
onsite contract workforce management accounted for about 2% each in
productivity gains.
There is no doubt that technology plays a huge part
(15%) in productivity gains and as technology changes (and it will continue
to) employers need to provide the right training at the right time to keep
pace with technology.
The old adage of 'a happy employee equals a productive
employee' has never been more prevalent than in today's workforce. When was
the last time you took an employee satisfaction survey? How about the last
time you found out what is important to your employees? What about how they
feel about management? And of course how they feel the morale of the company
is? Naturally all of these need to be asked anonymously to insure fair and
balanced responses. I think you would be amazed at what you can learn from
your staff.
The Randstad report shows that over 70% of employers and
employees say that high levels of employee satisfaction and high morale
along with a willingness to assume more job responsibility are vital when it
comes to productivity.
One of the most important things any organization can
do is to provide ongoing training for employees both of the technical and
soft skill variety. Training if done correctly should accomplish the
following:
- Increase the skill set (technical or soft).
- Improved self
confidence and self esteem.
Old school technology focused on the equipment
or physical assets of an organization and not as much on the people. Today
as Generation Y enters the workforce values and beliefs are changing and
like it or not everyone has to adapt to keep productivity moving forward.
If you fail to keep up you will get left behind.
Contact Gregg today and see
how his keynote speeches and breakout training sessions can help your
company or organization.
Gregg Gregory helps organizations design cooperative teams that produce
results and perform at peak levels. Through his interactive workshops and
consulting, Gregg’s clients achieve greater team focus, cooperation,
productivity, and impact. His experience includes more than two decades of
human resources, real estate, mortgage banking, as well as radio and
television broadcasting. Please contact Gregg at 866-764-TEAM.
http://TeamsRock.com
