· The notion of personal responsibility seems to have lost its importance.
· Time off is a great benefit – but only if managed appropriately.
· Flexible schedules may be part of the answer.
Ask any manager about his or her biggest problem with today’s workforce – it’s not so much that they can’t find employees, but rather that the ones they have often don’t come to work. While many grumble about the problem, nobody seems to know what to do about it. I don’t begrudge people wanting time off, but without flexibility in scheduling, it’s a logistics problem that’s only going to get worse as the age of the workforce continues to decline. While skills and abilities factor into scheduling, more emphasis could be put on continuous training and coaching to limit the substantive differences from one employee to the next. If some level of parity is achieved, managers could consider posting schedules on a bi-weekly basis and letting employees choose each time. Additional staff could also help: these would seem to be better than the disruptions of unexpected absenteeism. When recruiting for new employees, discuss the concept of responsibility in showing up when scheduled, and get their opinions and understanding for how you plan to manage. I’m only scratching the surface on this issue, but it’s one that needs to be addressed and resolved if production and service standards are to be maintained. Start talking to your employees about their responsibilities today.
Stewart Brand (born 1938): American project developer and writer, best known as the co-founder and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog.
No comments:
Post a Comment