Working at an office can be both fun and stressful, much more if you are working in a big company. Fun because you get the opportunity to meet new people and friends. Stressful as you may have to deal with co-workers you cannot go well with because of their personality, attitude, lack of professionalism, and insensitivity. A typical Australian working environment is almost always never free from office issues that adversely affect the morale of the workers. Thus, the challenge lies in the management’s team as they have to make sure that their employees maintain a non-hostile environment, which promote productivity and positive energy at the office.
According to HR services professionals, managing numerous employees is not easy task as you have to deal with different personalities. Because everyone wants to assert for his or her own self, working environments are typically a melting pot of different personas, which can be difficult to deal with at times. Although there are particular steps conducted by companies like inductive reasoning tests to filter people entering the company, making sure that would-be employees would complement their would-be department and teammates, issues still arise. Many Australian companies make use of psychometric assessments to determine whether or not a particular applicant will be a right fit for the position he or she applies for. However, despite this process, personality clash still happens in majority of Australian offices.
One of the recurring issues in the workplace is about employees who are not productive and do not try to be one. These employees are often called in the employment sector as slackers. If you are a manager or are assigned to manage/supervise a group of employees, chances are, you have experienced dealing with at one slacking employee. If so, were you able to effectively address the issue or failed to do so? If you think it is the latter, you may want to learn few tricks on how to deal with employees who lack the energy to be productive.
Read More: Guide to Personality Tests
Base your observation on facts – If your subordinate claims that his or her co-worker is slacking at work, it is prudent to collect facts first prior to giving sanctions or warning to that particular employee. You may ask other employees about what they observed about that employee. However, it would be best to observe the employee yourself to have better understanding of the issue. You may check his or her time-card, progress report, and other documents that can help you determine whether or not he is doing the job well.
Define your team’s goals – Set your team’s or department’s goals, and let your office mates or subordinates know them. By doing this, you are leading your employees to a mindset of productivity. Some employees are not really slackers but are just lost in the process because they do not know what are the things expected of them to do.
Create a reward system – Some employees are fired up by reward system. As mentioned by HR services experts, if you want your employees to double their efforts, they would need an assurance that their efforts are being appreciated, and this could be done by offering them with rewards. Rewards do not necessarily mean instant promotion or a raise in salary, but can be simple ones like free dinner at a restaurant or free car wash.
Create an environment that promotes healthy competition – Competition can be a key in promoting productivity in the workplace. When there is competition, employees tend to exert more efforts to top that competition. Some employees like to take challenges, and some of them who tend to slack are just looking for some action in the office.
Companies that do not want to deal with slacking employees in the first place should bolster their hiring process, making sure that no applicant with tendency to slack will be hired. This is why it is important to review and update psychometric assessments in order just to hire the best and the brightest.
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