Less-Than-Effective Ways to Bolster Employee Productivity.
Employee productivity in the workplace is always desirable. However, while some methods are quite effective at boosting morale and raising productivity, some methods should be avoided. Here are a few examples of tactics business owners should shy away from.
1. Threats of Pain, Torture, or Becoming Office Furniture.
When prompting employees to do more to improve their employee productivity, often the act of threatening physical harm or degradation is frowned upon. Sure, Gary from accounting may make an excellent workstation, but that doesn’t make it right.
2. Giving Each Employee Half the Company.
Unless you have only one employee, and you are an owner, it is ill-advised to offer any employee half the company as an incentive to increase their work output, much less all of them. Imagine if Bill Gates had used this tactic at Microsoft? Sure, the immediate results might have been impressive — but at the end of the year, there would likely have been some questions raised.
3. Cake.
Cake tends to be a bad motivator for employee productivity at work. Let’s say Jennifer’s productivity goes up 38% this quarter while Bill’s productivity only goes up 8% this quarter. That means Bill only gets 8 reward cakes at a time while Jennifer polishes off 38 cakes in one sitting. This creates an environment of “cake envy” amongst co-workers, and should be avoided – as should allowing employees to consume 38 cakes at their desk.
4. Turning On the Charm.
While you may consider yourself a real “catch,” and know for a fact that anyone of the opposite sex would be lucky to have you, offering your affections to coworkers as an incentive for employee productivity should be avoided at all costs. Doing so could cause such issues as indecision, indifference, rejection, anger from spouses (yours and theirs), and a less-than-friendly meeting with HR.
5. Loudness.
If you feel your employee is not living up to their full potential, rather than calling them into your office and screaming at them until they weep and cannot function, perhaps consider sending them an encouraging note, or take them to lunch to discuss the problem. However, if you feel your loud voice is unavoidable during the conversation, consider taking the employee to lunch where they usually play heavy metal music. You should fit right in, and the employee should feel a bit less embarrassed.