People working in mundane jobs can easily become bored and less productive the longer they remain in their positions. Motivating these workers requires a commitment to creating opportunities for advancement and an atmosphere that allows workers to feel valued for their contributions — no matter their roles. Instructions 1. Encourage your employees every day. Set daily, attainable goals and acknowledge them with praise, and rewards, when they reach those goals. 2. Make sure that employees are getting breaks. Boring work can make employees tired.
Multiple breaks allow them the time they need to stretch their legs and their mind. 3. Address your employees by name. Let them know they are not just cogs in a wheel. Remember, without them you, as a manager, can achieve nothing. Be sure they know this by what you say and how you conduct yourself. Create a culture where the employees feel respected needed, despite their position on the totem pole. 4. Put yourself at work when the early or late shift employees are working, if possible. Provide positive feedback at that time on what they have accomplished.
Ask them how they think things are progressing with their project or task 5. Ask workers what they want during their performance appraisals. A performance appraisal is a powerful tool for the employer and the employee. It gives the employer the chance to provide positive feedback, to set goals and to find out more about the aspirations of the worker. Employees can also talk about their ambitions and offer suggestions for improvements. 6. Encourage workers to take advantage of opportunities for promotion. Promote from within, whenever possible, so they know that their hard work is noticed and appreciated.
Tips & Warnings * ————————————————- Informal conversations can reveal a great deal if the manager is responsive and genuinely interested. * ————————————————- Make sure that equipment work properly. Broken equipment can lead quickly to frustration. Motivating When Jobs are Dull David Grusenmeyer Sr. Extension Associate PRO-DAIRY, Cornell University Fredrick Herzberg, a motivational theorist, once said, if we want to motivate people to do their jobs better we need to give them more interesting jobs to do.
Both common sense and research tells us that this is true, it’s called job enrichment. The question is, with intrinsically boring jobs like milking, how do we make the work more interesting? Keep in mind that “job expansion” (giving them more work to do) IS NOT “job enrichment”(giving them more interesting work to do). One option, for interested and capable employees, is to allow them to work into record keeping and summarizing certain cow records, then making management recommendations based on those records. If job enrichment isn’t an option, what’snext?
When two or more employees are at the job site together, research shows that women perform better at dull boring tasks than men. “We like it. We don’t have to think about what we’re doing and can talk. We have the most wonderful conversations. ” Having “wonderful conversations” is typically not a guy thing in U. S. culture. However, conversation skills can be developed, so there is hope for the U. S male workforce. Doing a little noise control in the parlor can make it a more pleasant work environment as well as help encourage time passing conversation.
Don’t forget the power of talking with your employees. “Look, this work is dull and you’re bored. It’s a fact of the job and we have to accept that. So what can we do about it that will help make the job more interesting for you? ” By talking with employees you’ll show you care, you may hear ideas you wouldn’t have thought of, but more importantly you’ll hear the ideas your employees think are most critical. Other ideas to liven a boring work environment include: Allowing milkers to swap jobs and take a turn bringing cows in, pushing feed up, checking the fresh cow pen, or even raking out stalls.
Most parlors have a radio available, but how about a tape deck or CD player so individuals can listen to their personal favorite music? Books on tape are a favorite of mine because they engage the mind more than just music and time seems to pass quicker, plus these stories can be exciting, entertaining and – heaven forbid – educational. Books on tape are available from libraries, bookstores, some video rental stores, and even some convenience stores. And, dare I say, decorating the parlor and changing the decorations regularly will help make the work environment less boring and shows employees that you care.
