One can easily view the workplace as a sweatshop where poor employees toil on endlessly under unbearably harsh conditions. While there may be an element of truth to that perspective in some parts of the world, it is hardly an accurate characterization of work in the USA. When I ask my graduate students, as I do every year, to describe a workplace that is desirable to them, inevitably work is viewed as a place to accomplish something. They find that it is not enough to simply get paid for the time you spend at work. Satisfaction is directly related to a sense of achievement.
Many of the graduate students are working on advanced degrees because they view public service as a personal value. In other words, work becomes a better place to be when I leave each day feeling that my efforts have resulted in measurable, positive outcomes. On the other hand, it is discouraging to leave work with the gnawing sense that my time has been wasted. This is one of the reasons why so many of us dislike group meetings: these meetings are often poorly run and highly wasteful of participants time.
Now, before I go on, I must set forth a disclaimer. There are obviously those employees who are not particularity concerned about accomplishment. If an individual is exhausted because he or she is working two low paying jobs in order to survive financially, personal satisfaction from high accomplishment is probably not on the top of the list. On the other hand, if a person is beset with personal problems, getting by and getting a paycheck may be more than sufficient to that person. While there are constructive strategies for managing employees who are not accomplishment-oriented, that is a topic for a different e-zine and not a concern of this one.
Ultimately, however, I believe that the vast majority of employees like to work in a situation where they believe their time is well spent and for a boss who is good at helping employees get the job done. The remainder of this e-zine focuses on concepts and actions related to creating a productive workplace.
About fifteen years ago there was a wildcat strike at a GM plant in Flint, Michigan. A wildcat strike occurs during the term of a labor contract and is both unusual and illegal. It most often occurs when employees are very angry about something. Ironically, one of the issues at the factory involved a new provision in the labor contract that permitted a piecework approach to certain jobs. Instead, however, of being paid by the piece, employees assigned to a job that was designated piecework were permitted to leave work when they completed the designated number of pieces for that position.
The example set forth in the article that I read involved employees who operated a muffler assembly station. Under the old labor agreement, each employee in this position was producing on average 38 mufflers for each eight hour shift. Under the new piecework system, when an employee finished 40 mufflers they would be allowed to leave work and receive pay for the whole eight hour shift.
Under this approach both the employer and employee benefited. In almost every case, the employer got two more mufflers for each eight hours of pay and a diligent employee could work fewer hours while receiving pay for a full shift. Here is the rub: under the new piecework system employees were completing 40 mufflers in just over four hours. This created tremendous internal dissension because employees who were not in a piecework job did not have the opportunity to receive full pay for less than eight hours of work. Ultimately, the employer went back to the old system to get rid of the internal strife.
There are two points from this example that I want to emphasize. First, in most cases employees are capable of producing far more than what they are currently producing. Further, I believe that employees are happier when producing at a higher level - they have a greater sense of accomplishment. In other words, better performance does not have to occur at the expense of job satisfaction, but rather can be an enhancer. Most importantly, it is the task of management to find constructive ways to bring out the best performance in each employee.
Second, it is not true that if an employee can produce 40 mufflers in four hours, he or she can produce 80 mufflers in eight hours. There is no reason to believe that the pace of work undertaken by the employees during the four hours could be maintained over eight hours. In the book The Power of Full Engagement, the authors focus on the importance of managing employee energy. They point out the significant difference between managing a steady flow of energy and managing short outbursts of high energy. They take the position that short outburst of high energy will generally achieve an increase in outcome. In other words, there can be a regular rate of work, which is not taxing, punctuated by periods of intense effort to achieve a clearly defined outcome.
The critical question involves the methods by which employees can be encouraged to provide the periods of intense effort. Going home early is obviously one reward, and there are many others that can be used. In the construction industry I have observed contractors very skillfully using a "celebration of accomplishment" as a reward at certain milestones in a project. In these cases, the employees were very well aware of the milestone and the push that was necessary to accomplish the work within the scheduled period of time.
I leave you with this thought as we move on to the next point: you really need to be thinking about how to manage for bursts of energy, as opposed to simply maintaining a steady state. A burst can be exhilarating to employees and, if properly managed, will provide a higher level of performance and greater job satisfaction.
Turning to another point, you will find under the recommended reading section of this e-zine my endorsement of the book Execution: the Discipline of Getting Things Done. One of the basic premises of the book is that organizations often spend a substantial amount of time creating business plans and determining action steps only to find that very little happens - there is a failure to execute. Execution is the carry-through of the action steps. The book states:
Execution is a specific set of behaviors and techniques that companies need to master in order to have competitive advantage. It is a discipline of its own. In big companies and small ones, it is the critical discipline for success now. (Page 7)
I see execution as the difference between working hard and getting the job done. I often feel that I work very hard and get nothing done. I would guess that many of you feel exactly the same way. Part of the discipline of execution is having an awareness that we need to be getting things done. Be clear as to what those things are and do not confuse hard work with execution.
One of the ways that I evaluate the effectiveness of my own work efforts is to determine what percentage of time spent was value added. Value added work is work which directly supports a desired outcome. I have found that being conscious of the fact that a significant portion of my effort needs to be value added helps me keep on task and assures that things will get done.
One other point about execution. I once heard a wonderful presentation titled Elephants Don't Bite, Fleas Do. The point of the presentation is that big mistakes aren't the problem with execution. Sure, they can happen and they can create a mess. But, in most cases the real problem is all of the small mistakes that constantly disrupt the flow of work. Thus, one of the critical components of execution is timely attention to the details; get it right the first time. The constant redoing of a task is not value added and it obviously detracts from getting things done.
Finally, I'd like to point to the work by Robert Mager in the classic piece titled Analyzing Performance Problems, or You Really Oughta Wanna. This book would have been my second choice for recommended reading based on the topic of this e-zine. It is an old classic published many years ago and recently completely revised into a third edition. It is full of good ideas on how to analyze and correct employee performance issues.
I want to conclude this portion of the e-zine by focusing on just one of the concepts from the book. Mager gives an example of a dental school that felt its students were performing poorly in fitting dentures to patients. In studying the problem, Mager noticed that the fitting room was on one floor and the lab where work was done on the dentures was down a long hallway and up a flight of stairs to the next floor. Significant improvement occurred in student performance when the lab was moved next to the fitting room.
Conclusion: make it easy for your employees to do the right thing. In my view this is the logical first step in looking for ways to improve the performance of employees. Are there ways to remove barriers from effective performance? Are there ways to make it easier for employees to do what we need them to be doing?
Reader Question
I manage a residential care facility that provides services to the developmentally disabled. Recently I was asked by the parents of a young man (early 20s) if I could move a male employee to another location. The parents thought that their son had developed an inappropriate crush on the employee. They are not accusing the employee of inappropriate behavior, but were worried about the feelings and actions of their son. The problem is compounded by the fact that the employee has openly acknowledged that he is gay. Do you have any thoughts?
There are days when I very much believe that it is much easier to be a college professor, seminarist and labor arbitrator then to manage anything, let alone a residential care facility. Your question potentially involves issues related to involuntary transfer, discrimination based on sexual orientation, good customer service and other less troubling matters. You ask if I have any thoughts, and I do.
First, since I believe in the concept of open management, the initial step should be to involve the employee. I have two reservations, however, about the involvement process. To begin, it is difficult to have open interaction on a touchy subject with an employee if the relationship does not have a history of friendly discourse. If the relationship with the employee is touchy or strained, then I think the communication will have to be more formal and guarded. Hopefully this is not the case and you will have an opportunity to determine whether the employee will positively accept a transfer. After all, the employee may be feeling a certain amount of personal stress over the situation and would welcome a new environment. Even if that is not true, the employee will be involved in a problem solving process.
My other reservation concerns the nature of the interaction itself. Management needs to retain control over the problem and not cede authority to the employee. Yes, you want the employee to be a part of finding a good solution, but the ultimate authority needs to remain with management.
Second, it has become almost trite to refer someone to an attorney. This is one of those situations, however, where you may need to consult an attorney before acting, as the laws in each state with regard to nondiscrimination and sexual orientation differ substantially. This is an area where the law has been changing and you will need the latest information.
Third, having acknowledged the above reality, there are two points that need to be considered. One has to do with the concept of equal treatment. What if the nature of the problem did not involve an employee that was openly gay? What if the individual in question had a crush on a female employee and the parents were concerned about this relationship? The general rule of thumb requires equal treatment of employees unless there is a clear business reason why they should be treated differently. In either case the Employer may see a good reason to transfer the employee or not to transfer. My guess is that the reasoning would be essentially the same for both situations.
The other point deserving of consideration involves the protocols you have in place for responding to a parental complaint or concern. Do you have a process by which to ensure that the parents are fully listened to? On the other hand, my experience is that an organization needs to be careful as to how it responds to complaints. At times, simply listening with a little reassurance will be sufficient to resolve the problem. Or, have the parents actually met the employee? That meeting may be sufficient to set aside any concerns. Ultimately, and this I believe is the important point, the agency must act in the best interest of the organization, even if the action is not to the parents' liking. At minimum, however, the action of the agency needs to be provided to the parents along with an appropriate explanation.
Note: Do you have a perplexing HR question? Send us the question by clicking on thehawthornegroup@msn.com and let us take a shot at answering it. We will select one question each month and research it. Please indicate whether we have permission to publish your name and organization when identifying the question.
Books of the Month
Professional Growth: This e-zine is all about getting things done. What better book then one that focuses on why some organizations accomplish a great deal while others accomplish very little.
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done - Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.
Personal Growth: How often do we do things without knowing that we are doing them even though whatever we are doing has a profound impact on our lives? While the central theme of this book is about our eating habits, the message is far deeper.
Mindless Eating - Brian Wansink
Quote of the Month
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago; the second best time is right now.
Confucius
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