31 March 2010
Improving Employee Performance
So, I’m considering opening myself up to my company a little bit regarding some of the de-motivational factors that are present within my office. I’d like your opinion. When we received our annual reviews this year, the CEO added a new objective to each employee’s list for the coming year.
A significant threat to any successful organization is that over time its employees become too contented, too self-satisfied, even unconcerned. In other words its employees become complacent. To help guard against this happening at [CompanyName], by April 1 please provide me in writing one suggestion of something that can be accomplished within the next 12 months that will noticeably improve your personal performance, your job, or the organization in general.
I’m at the point in my career and at a comfort level with the CEO that I feel that I can open up and not have any adverse repercussions regarding my suggestion, but still feel a bit of trepidation. I have to turn this in, so if you have the time, please read this and let me know what you think. If you don’t like my suggestion, then what would you recommend at your company?
Recommendation: Encourage Creativity and Thinking
If an employee is easily replaceable with a new-hire with few weeks of training, then the employee is not performing. If an employee’s position is set up in such a way that the processes are so defined that year after year, a new employee can easily step in and take over, then efficiency may be increased, but it will lead to a dissatisfied, demoralized employee. No one wants a factory job for the rest of their lives. They want a career that they can grow in, influence, improve and flourish in.
All of the perks/benefits in the world may keep employees around, but will not keep them motivated and growing. A culture of creativity, thinking and employee input will encourage employees to strive for success.
I believe that this culture starts with the company (all the way up the chain) being open to employee ideas, no matter how extreme. Notice that I say open to ideas, not accepting of all ideas. This very exercise is a strong indication of the willingness to do so.
Secondly, I believe that this culture is dependent on the physical atmosphere of the office space. No one will be motivated to be creative when walking into a building and being enveloped by beige floors, beige walls, beige cubicles, white ceilings and harsh lighting with limited natural lighting and views of the outdoors. I think that this could be improved dramatically through the use of more contrast within the office design. The quickest and easiest way to accomplish this would be with a much more liberal use of artwork. Although we have a few photographs on the walls, I have been told that the same pictures have been there for many years. Although not a daily occurrence, there have been times that I have returned from a lunch with my mind swarming with thoughts and ideas only to walk into the office and physically feel the creativity suppressed by the atmosphere therein.
The final ideas related to increasing creativity are a little more on the extreme side. But remember, we’re open to that kind of thing. There are times when I feel like I just need a thinking area, a thinking room with no distractions. There are times when I need to solve a problem and sitting at my desk I know that there are e-mails, phone calls, people approaching my desk and many other distractions that will make it nearly impossible to think through a situation properly. Most of us don’t have offices with doors.
A final idea is telecommuting part-time for positions where possible. Although many companies fear that this will decrease productivity, many have found that it actually increases productivity due to the increased mood and motivation of a person within their own home, or Starbucks for that matter.
So you asked for ONE SUGGESTION. I gave you one suggestion: encourage creativity and thinking. I just fleshed it out a little bit for you.
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