THREE (3) SIMPLE WAYS SOLE-PROPRIETORS DISCOURAGE EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY

Arguably, productivity is a key issue in the bilateral employer-employee relationship everywhere in the world. The fact remains however,  that both the employees and their employers contribute, in no small measures to whether the former gives what the latter desires, productivity.

Experience over the years have shown that most employees have high expectations when joining an organization as employees. Most employees come to organizations, ready to sacrifice whatever because they intend to reach the peak of their careers or because they needed to earn in order for them and their families to survive.

Unfortunately, many at times got the first blow of discouragement on their first day at work from no other person than their employer. It is either in the way the organization is ran, that is, the style of management or the prevailing organizational culture.

Are you an employer? The under-discussed are three simple ways you could annihilate productivity in your employees:

1. Lack of Trust In Your Employees
Painfully though, many employers, rather than seeing an employment as a relationship between them and their employees, they see it as that they are lending a helping hand to the employees by providing employment.

A robust employer-employee relationship requires mutual respect from and to both sides. It is important that the employer respects and trust the employee. One of the first step to destroying the productive instincts of an employee is when such an employee realizes that she/he is not trusted either as a person or an employee.
Lack of trust erodes loyalty and faithfulness and kills morale, and therefore, productivity. Besides, it engenders a regrettable situation whereby the affected employee becomes unconcerned about both the company's image and it's facilities. This action hinges on the fact that an untrusted employee feels unappreciated. And no employee is ready to save a dime for an employer who does not trust them.

2. Micro-managing Your Employees
Box your employees in. Monitor and query everything they do. Be sure that you are aware of all the happenings around the workplace. Give them no operational latitude. Dish out instructions to them as if they were primary one pupils. Be no different from a heinous primary school headmaster. Vet everything your employees are doing. Make sure that every paper passes through you and ensure you query every penny spent. Be the one to dictate all of their moves and intentions for the organization. Ensure they call you for solution to every problem that arose in the course of discharging their duties.With these kind of attitudes, you will not only successfully kill productivity in your employees, you will even bury it.

For employees to function optimally, they require some level of freedom. The freedom you leveraged them will give them room to use their initiatives and help their creativities in no small measure. With the little freedom they enjoy, their brains can "roam" instead of being stereotypically stationed to what the boss wants. The freedom you give them will help them develop problem-solving skills. It will help them develop confidence and become more self-reliant, which is good for productivity and therefore, organizational growth.

3. Don't Appreciate Them
What are employees for anyway? Are they not just pests that are only out to look for what they could make out of the organization? How many of the really have the interest of this organizational at heart? Are they not all after their salaries? What are they even doing that I can't do myself? Is their involvement not increasing the right-hand side of my company's balance sheet? Why do I even need to respect them? After all,  I feed and clothe them and their families now! I am their last hope! Without me and my company, they can't even feed, let alone becoming something in life. Appreciate them? Appreciate the people I give orders? Is their contributions to this company appreciation deserving?

My dear employer, with these kind of thoughts in your head, your company will soon become history. The truth of the matter is that you can't do everything alone. You need people! You need ideas for effective running of your organization. And when you have the people, you don't treat them like trash. You've got to know that every human being has their personal dignity as persons, and you've got to respect them for that, even though they are your employees and you feed and clothe them as your thought process suggested. You need to be aware of the fact that they aren't beggars! They have something which you saw and made you employ them in the first place. Therefore, disrespecting them will be at your own risks.

"If they mess up, I'll fire them." That is another terrible thought process and line of thought. Fire them? Do you remember how much, both in kind and in cash it cost you to employ each of the employees? Maybe you don't know that the cost of employing another employee is too great to contemplate.

As employers and managers, we need to appreciate our employees. Be humane enough to inquire about how their families are doing. Tease them about their new shirts, shoes, etc. Attend their ceremonies. Say thank you for every little thing they do. Recognize and commend every little achievement. Talk to them gently, even when they make mistakes; they are your co-partners.  Learn to tolerate and accommodate their excesses; you also have yours! Learn to greet your employees even before they greeted you. Show them respects, honour and love!

When you avoid these three pitfalls, you challenge your employees, not only to want to do more, but to want to go the extra miles for your organizations to the extent of taking risks. Nothing gingers productivity like employee happiness which is actually a pointer to the fact that your organization is an employer-of-choice.

At SALIENT CONSULTING, with our over twenty years of experience in diverse organizations, we have the expertise to help smoothen the bi-partite employer-employee relationship to the benefits of both parties. 

Our services are tailor-made and at reduced cost to your organization.