The work of a startup is never done, is it? When a business is only so large, it can feel that it is teetering on the brink sometimes. As the business increases its scope, it needs to cope with more demands being thrust upon it. And one of the factors that are generally overlooked in some aspects are the people themselves. Your staff, employees, or co-workers. These are the key cogs in your wheel, whatever your area of business. There are some businesses where the employee is at the forefront of the company, such as sales or a contact center. And then there are some industries where the employee can be a lot more faceless, such as in a factory environment. Motivation in that type of environment is something that can be difficult to enforce, due to the amount of staff or the actual environment itself, as a factory can be a cold, segregated environment. So, what can you do in those places to get your co-workers or employees prepared and focused each and every day?
Add Meaning To Their Work
In studies conducted around hourly workers, three values crop up time and time again.
Meaning: where every job has a meaning, is important, or is deemed necessary for work. From the bottom of the ladder, all the way up, each role needs meaning and purpose. For those sat at the conveyor belt, this has to be enforced a lot more than the high-flying exec.
Dignity: this is how an employee is treated in their work environment. Productivity is hampered if a colleague suffers abusive behaviour. Not only that, but that individual’s relationship with their employees/company is altered for the worse.
Self-determination: a person’s freedom to chose the method of completing a task. If a person feels less of a cog and more of a person with an important goal, this will give the employee a sense of satisfaction.
Treat Your Employees With Dignity
Having startup issues will always mean that, as a leader, you feel you will feel the burn a little bit more on occasion. If a staff member comes to you with a problem, you might find that you don’t have time for them. Staff can feel somewhat sidelined depending on the circumstance, for example, if you outsourced a company such as puwer assessments to inspect the machinery, this is another way that people at the “bottom” can feel somewhat unimportant. It’s about keeping a fine line and treating everyone the same. Treating staff the same, regardless of their role, and giving them more room to be creative and having more open dialogues will be more productive for everyone.
Change Your Leadership Style
What style do you have? Are you dictatorial? Or are you collegial? There are many different styles in between, but these two are essentially two sides to the same coin. You can either be above them or the same as them. Understanding how you lead could be the key to understanding your workforce productivity. Learning to lead a workforce to victory, whatever the industry, is a battle in and of itself, so understand what you can do to change it for the better.