It was recently reported that 70 percent of American workers are unemployed. If your employees are disgruntled, unmotivated, or unwilling to move forward in their roles, this is not only frustrating, but costly. Reducing the productivity of separated workers costs $450-550 billion a year.
As a business owner or manager, you are responsible for creating a work environment and culture that encourages hourly employees to speak up when they feel frustrated, unhappy, depressed or insecure about their work.
If you feel that one or more of your employees are chronically unhappy or unemployed, it might be because you have something important to say.
Here are 5 things your hourly employees aren’t afraid to say:
1. “I have a better solution.”
Sometimes great ideas and new processes don’t really work or improve employee performance – they just make things worse.
Your employees may have better ideas about implementing certain processes, making customers happier or selling more products. After all, they’re number one, right? In many cases, they better understand how to improve certain aspects of your business, like increasing customer happiness simply because of the nature of their work. Excellent examples are baristas, officials, salespeople or anyone else who contacts their customers frequently and regularly.
Make sure your employees know they can always turn to new ideas and solutions that can help your business grow.
2. I didn’t learn to do it.
Everything moves quickly in your business and, because of this, it’s not always easy to recognise when one of your employees is struggling. It’s not a bad idea to expect a lot from the people you hire and manage, but if you don’t take the time to make sure everyone is properly trained to do the job, your team will never be as productive or successful as you want them to be.
Let them regularly talk to their peers from time to time to ask if they have help, assistance or have something they are struggling with or feel they can take a little extra training to get their tasks done.
3. “I want to learn and do more.”
Believe it or not, doing the same tasks over and over again can sometimes be a bit tedious for most people. This is especially true for people who work part-time or hourly, but it really applies to everyone. No one wants to be bored at work. If employees seem to be interrupted, it’s simply because they’re not getting the challenge they need to get their work done.
Try to give employees more responsibility and the ability to master new tasks. This is likely to make hourly employees happier, more productive and more willing.
4. “Will I get a promotion soon?”
Since hourly employees receive pay raises more often than salaried employees, you shouldn’t be surprised that your employees are wondering when they will be eligible for a pay raise again or what they need to do to get there. This is especially true if you don’t take the time to explain how your elevator plans work when you hired them yourself.
Make sure you are honest and open with all your employees about how compensation and pay options work in your business from the moment they work for you. Make your pay raise structure less obscure to your employees if you actively communicate with them about it.
5. “I want an easier way to check my calendar!”
There is nothing more annoying or frustrating for employees than not being able to easily understand when they are still working. If colleagues can only see the chart if they physically walk into the business on the weekend, then it’s time to make things easier and better for them and themselves.
Consider using employee scheduling software to plan and communicate with your employees. With scheduling software, you can spend an average of 8 hours a week scheduling time in 15 minutes! Using technology to optimize scheduling in your business can dramatically increase employee happiness, accountability and overall communication.
