HR Tips to Promote Productivity in the Workplace
One of the challenges of those in the human resources department is how to keep the employees motivated and engaged. Your prevailing wage workers are human beings after all, and are subject to boredom, fatigue, mood swings, and low energy levels. As a prevailing wage contractor and manager, your task does not end in getting the job done. You have to ensure that your prevailing wage workers are performing their tasks. Performing and engaged workers ensure that you get the job right and increases the efficiency and productivity of your team.
But what if you have prevailing wage workers who are underperforming? How can you even know with certainty that they are underperforming?
Assess your Prevailing Wage Workers’ Performance
You cannot just rely on gossips, your colleague’s opinions, or even your opinion, to assess how your employees are performing. Opinions can be subjective, and are heavily affected by your moods and biases. Get cold, hard facts through the following steps.
1. Have Regular Performance Reviews
Regular performance reviews not only allows you to see who is performing and who is not, it also allows your prevailing wage workers to know how they are doing. Through performance reviews, you get the necessary information and data to assess the contributions of each employee.
2. Find the Cause of Your Prevailing Wage Employee’s Poor Performance
Chances are, there is a reason why your employee is not performing well at work. He may just need a small nudge in the right direction to get his focus and mojo back. Ask yourself these questions before you have a one on one talk with your employee:
Is the poor performance unusual for the said employee? Does his track record show valuable contributions and excellent performance?
If the employee is usually high performing, the slump in his record could have a very valid explanation.
Is the said employee facing some personal issues at home that may affect his focus at work?
No matter how much we’d want to leave our personal issues at home, they affect our concentration and our focus. If your employee is facing some difficult times at home, he may just need some time off to work on his problems and regain his focus.
Is the employee undergoing adjustment issues? Was he given a new assignment that may not be his expertise?
If the employee was assigned to a new role, he could be in a transition period. Find out what are his challenges in his new role. It is also possible that he was placed in a position wherein his skills are not fully utilized.
Was the employee given additional work load? Or was his work load decreased?
Additional work load can cause stress and fatigue. It can hamper his abilities to prioritize his tasks and can cause him to miss deadlines. On the other hand, decreased work load can also make him question his value to your company.
Is the said employee a poor performer ever since?
If the employee just shows a track record of a sub-par performance, then it’s time to consider if you should let this employee go.
3. Make some follow-through’s.
After you have discussed matters with your employee, a second evaluation and review should be done. If he is still not up to his tasks, then it is time to consider termination.
If the employee is showing some improvements, do some follow up meetings to check on him once in a while. He will need your support and encouragement, especially if he is facing some of the challenges mentioned above. You are not your employee’s mother, but as a manager, you also need to nurture and look out for your team. It is not impossible to turn around a poor performer into a valuable and productive employee.
Manage Prevailing Wage Workers’ Employment Benefits with Help from ARCHER JORDAN.
One way of showing your prevailing wage employees that you care is by giving them the benefits that they deserve. We at ARCHER JORDAN, will help you create the perfect benefits plan for you and your prevailing wage employees. We will help you ensure federal and state laws compliance, and at the same time, make your employees happy.
