1) They Feel Easily Replaceable
For a lot of people, especially in lower qualification jobs, employees will get the feeling that they are easily replaceable, so if the boss doesn’t like their work they can just find a new one. This is an extremely self-destructive mentality and you can’t afford to make it the norm in your workplace. You have to show the employee’s effort that they do have value and you want to have them stick around. Perhaps you can make this shown by offering them the potential of progressing through the workplace hierarchy or by investing in their qualifications. If you are willing to invest in an employee’s education or background, it will make a radical difference in their mentality. A person who is willing to invest in an employee’s future is a person that is held in high regard by that person and those around them. Not to mention, if all things go well, the employee will be eternally grateful for the opportunity that you have secured them and will actively work to meet your expectations of them after the education/training is completed.
2) A Lack of Engagement
A clear show of whether an employee is giving their all is how engaged they are with their work. Usually, it falls upon the manager to fill this role and show them why they should be more engaged. This would require the manager/employer to play more of a leadership role than a static bureaucratic role. The leader figure has to be a balance of friendly and approachable while also holding a position of authority and respect. This is by no means an easy thing to accomplish, and many fail to balance it out properly. Sometimes it’s not even the leader’s fault, it could be due to personal matters that the employees are disengaged. Perhaps the stress of having recently relocated is clouding their minds too much and it is spilling over into their work life. So, try to be more understanding about these things while inspiring the workers to give their best.
3) They Don’t Feel Valued
Contrary to popular belief, pay isn’t everything. If a person doesn’t feel valued in their work, they will never pour in 100% of their potential because why would they? Not like the higher-ups will notice. This is the main reason why you can’t take your employees for granted, they are human beings and they will realize it almost immediately. They can feel neglected from multiple aspects, whether it’s about attitude, obvious disinterest, or poor working conditions, they will feel destimulated to actually pour in maximum employees effort.
If the employees are aware that they are risking their lives or are in any way exposed to the potential harm they will want to at least feel valued and acknowledged for the fact that they know this and are still coming to work. You can give them a boost in morale by acknowledging this fact and getting a workplace risk assessment to show the employees that you genuinely do care about them and their safety.
You can fix this by offering benefits or rewards to employees work who actually do pour in the extra employee’s effort. There’s a reason why an employee of the month reward is a popular cliché, it is the easiest way of showing employees’ effort is noticed.
4) There’s a Lack of Team Spirit at the Work Place
Team spirit can be a large contributing factor to why your employees aren’t contributing as much as you would like them to. It can always be difficult starting out in a new environment, especially when you don’t know anyone there. With this in mind, you need to find ways how to make people feel comfortable around each other. Everyone is able to accomplish a lot more when they feel comfortable in their environment. You can accomplish this by promoting teamwork in order for people to bond with each other, and by making sure everyone is doing the job they are best at (or at least good at) so that people feel like their voices are heard and it also gives you a chance at observing them working on different tasks and to see what they are more efficient in.
Another way of bolstering team spirit is by not draining the employees completely. Buy your employees ergonomic chairs from Ergo Tune AU to boost morale and productivity in the workplace Make sure that they have periodic short breaks to get their morale back. Research has shown that promoting small breaks has a positive influence on employee productivity and leads to a reduction in stress levels.
5) They are Simply Not a Fit for the Job
There are a lot of factors that contribute to a worker’s performance. Just because someone is good at a particular thing does not mean they will automatically work to their highest potential. There can be many barriers that prevent them from achieving this. It can be due to cultural differences, a different workplace environment, the role of the job, personal matters, etc. This means that some organizations simply aren’t right fits for some people and unless they radically change their ways, they never will be. It’s not without reason that most successful companies like to present themselves as being more inclusive and friendly than they actually are. It’s all for the sake of luring in young and promising talent. However, maintaining them and having them work to their highest potential is a whole other story…
