Stop Sickies and Make People Happy At Work

Written by Alan Fairweather


Stop Sickies and Make People Happy At Work

If you're an employer or a manager then work place absence is costing you money, inconvenience, and upsetting your customers. And as we all know, not all days taken off work are due to genuine sickness. Many employees "take a sickie" because their morale is low and they just don't like or can't do their work.

The challenge for employers and managers is to make people happier at work. And if people are happy at work then they are less likely to take a day off every time they wake up with a stuffy nose. Some bosses think that paying more money, improving job security or working conditions isrepparttar answer. It isn't and it's also something that can be very hard to achieve.

People who employ or supervise other people need to become more tuned to their employees' emotional needs and find out what really motivates them. This is also much easier to achieve than paying more money or improving job security, however there is no quick fix. Some years ago I inherited a tele-sales operation with low staff morale and poor sales results. It took nearly a year to fix. The long-term benefits were of course worth it in terms of fewer days lost due to sickness and an increase in business. To reducerepparttar 119467 number of sickies there are four steps you need to consider. Firstly, pickrepparttar 119468 right person forrepparttar 119469 job. There's a television advertisement running at present for a recruitment company. It highlightsrepparttar 119470 fact that many people are inrepparttar 119471 wrong job for their skills and attributes. The daft thing is that it was an employer or manager who put them inrepparttar 119472 job inrepparttar 119473 first place. We need to get better at interviewing and selecting people. Take more time over it; pay more attention torepparttar 119474 applicant's human side rather than their qualifications or experience. Get to know them better. Find out what makes them happy, how well they get on with other people and how much energy and enthusiasm they have. Make sure they know what they're getting into and be surerepparttar 119475 job suits them.

A manager inrepparttar 119476 telecom industry was telling me about an engineer who was taking too many sickies. He was being blamed for a poor attitude to his work. His job involved working in tunnels underrepparttar 119477 city repairing and installing equipment. Eventually it was discovered thatrepparttar 119478 poor guy was claustrophobic and was trying to deal with it on his own. He still works forrepparttar 119479 same team but in a job that doesn't involve small spaces. It's not always easy to move people, which emphasisesrepparttar 119480 importance of getting it right inrepparttar 119481 first place.

Secondly, you need to believe in your people. If you've interviewed well and pickedrepparttar 119482 right person forrepparttar 119483 job then you need to trust them to do that job. You need to constantly demonstrate to your people that you trust and believe in them by what you say, your tone of voice and your body language. If you believe that your people are not to be trusted, that they're unable to make a decision without checking with you. That they'll turn up late and go home early, then that's exactly what they'll do. If onrepparttar 119484 other hand you believe that they'll do their job well, that they can be trusted to make decisions and they will give you a fair day's work, then it is more likely this is what you'll get. As with all theories there is no guarantee that it will work every time, howeverrepparttar 119485 majority of employees are reasonable people and if you treat them as such then they are more likely to behave in a positive manner.

The third and probablyrepparttar 119486 most important thing you can do to motivate your people is to give them feedback and coach them. This is where so many employers and managers fall down in dealing with their people; we are hopeless at giving feedback. Many managers are uncomfortable telling staff how they feel about their work performance.

Most employees want to know how they are performing in their job; they want to know if they are doing it right or how they could do it better. If you really want to motivate your people then you need to give them feedback on what they're doing well and what needs improvement.

The 3 secrets of Team Motivation

Written by Alan Fairweather


The 3 secrets of Team Motivation

by Alan Fairweather

(c) Alan Fairweather - All Rights reserved http://www.howtogetmoresales.com/ ==========================================================

Are workers tellingrepparttar truth when they say they are ill? This question was posed onrepparttar 119466 Money Programme on BBC Television in December 2004. British Bosses are reporting that more and more of their staff appear to be skiving off with faked illnesses and many firms are taking new steps to crack down on malingerers. Research byrepparttar 119467 Confederation of British Industry suggests that workplace absence is onrepparttar 119468 rise forrepparttar 119469 first time in five years. Last year we were off sick on average for 7.2 days up from 6.8repparttar 119470 previous year. It costs UK businesses £11.75bn a year,repparttar 119471 CBI says. The CBI also estimates that 15% of all illness is due to people taking days off when they are not really ill.

Now while I accept that there will always people who take time off work for no good reason, I believe managers need to take a long hard look at how they manage their people inrepparttar 119472 first place. Perhaps ifrepparttar 119473 maderepparttar 119474 workplace a far better place to be then a lot less people would take a "sickie."

If you want a highly motivated team who don't take time off work, don't keep looking for other jobs and make a positive contribution to your business there are three things you need to do.

#1 Spend some quality time

I didn't say "quantity time" I said "quality time." One or two minutes of quality time on a regular basis are far more productive than a one hour review every year. You need to get to know your team better and they need to get to know you. It will help you build a relationship withrepparttar 119475 individual. You'll gain a much better understanding of them and how they're handlingrepparttar 119476 job. It will also giverepparttar 119477 impression that you care aboutrepparttar 119478 individual and show that you're there to help with problems both personal and business. Spending quality time will encourage opinions and ideas to flow from them and allows you to explainrepparttar 119479 company's mission. It gives them a feeling of being in on things which is a big motivator. It will also help you build an "early warning system" of any problems both business and personal. Finally, it builds team spirit and morale.

#2 Give feedback and coach

You need to regularly tell each member of your team when they're doing well and when not so well. I read some recent research that suggested 65% of employees inrepparttar 119480 US received no recognition at work inrepparttar 119481 past year. My experience tells me that it's muchrepparttar 119482 same throughoutrepparttar 119483 world and much worse in some countries. Some managers still believe - "why should I praise people when they're only doing what they're paid to do." It's also important to tell people when they're not performing. There are too many managers who either ignore poor behaviour or come down onrepparttar 119484 person like a ton of bricks. There are particular ways to give feedback and coach and they're described in detail inrepparttar 119485 book - How to get More Sales by Motivating Your Team.

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