If you’re a business owner, chances are you’re somewhat of a go-getter. You have passion for your work. Your business is your baby, and you’d do anything and everything to make sure that it thrives. The lucky business owner has a team of employees that share some of their passion. These employees believe in the work their doing and are dead-set on doing it right.
However, this often isn’t the case. To many, a job is just a job and as long as they’re getting paid, they just don’t care about the quality of their work and the effects this has on the business. The lazy employee is any business owner’s worst nightmare, but there are some ways to tackle this issue.
Here are five best ways on how to deal with lazy employees:
Step 1 – Documenting indiscretions of lazy employees
If you plan to confront an employee over their less-than-stellar performance, it’s important to have something to back up your assertions. Coming into a situation like this unprepared is a bad idea. The employee might very well flip the script onto you. One tried-and-true method is the time card. If one of the issues you have with a lazy employee is their punctuality, incorporating some sort of time recording is the simplest way to deal with this.
By having employees clock-in and clock-out, you’ll have documented proof of anyone coming or going when they shouldn’t be. Having a sign-off sheet with specific duties for your employees is another good piece of workplace documentation to have. By having employees sign off on and record the time certain tasks are completed, you can form a very accurate picture of what’s going on in your workplace and how to manage your workforce.
Step 2 – Supervisorial presence for lazy employees
The issue with employees who aren’t performing adequately is often that they feel compelled to do as little as they can get away with. Employees who work unsupervised sometimes cut corners and/or over-report worked hours. Though this won’t always be the case, it will for some employees. While it’s every employer’s hope that the honesty and goodwill of their employees will guide them onto the right track, this just isn’t always the case. By maintaining a more consistent presence at the office or work site, an employer can exert more pressure on their employees to get the job done properly and on time.
Try walking the floor more often, leaving the door to your office open – anything to make it clear that the boss is in the house and will find out about anything that shouldn’t be going on. This can also have a positive effect on less troublesome employees, who will find their employers’ involvement in the day-to-day operation of the business uplifting.
Step 3 – Keep the lazy employees challenged
While many lazy employees might just be lazy, they also might just be bored. If work is routine and too simple, even a devoted employee might quickly become indifferent to their work. Introducing new challenges and responsibilities to your employees might be the solution to this problem. Taking a greater interest in the progression of your employees can greatly increase their enthusiasm for their work. By making it clear that high quality work is rewarded by advancement, this can prevent good employees from going bad.
Step 4 – Communicate with the lazy employees
In order to deal with lazy employees, communication is key. It’s easy to formulate your own theories about why things aren’t working out with your employees. A more fruitful endeavor might be to just ask them what’s wrong. Discussing issues about work performance with your employees is something a lot of employers just don’t want to do, and this might be what’s holding their businesses back.
By engaging in frequent and meaningful communication with your employees, you can develop a better understanding of the unique issues affecting them and their work. Employees will also feel more welcome in a workplace with open communication. The efficiency of any business can be improved through greater communication between the employer and employees.
Step 5 – Use the SMART approach with lazy employees
The SMART approach is one of the best ways to deal with lazy employees. Goals are an incredibly useful tool for any business. They provide something for employees to work and strive towards. However, it’s important to make sure that you’re setting the right goals. A good way to do this is to make sure that your goals are ‘SMART’ – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.
By ensuring that your goals have all of these traits, you guarantee that the goals you set will have a positive impact on your employees’ performance. Goals need to be specific in order to avoid discouraging your employees.
An employee who doesn’t understand what it is that they’re supposed to be doing will quickly lose interest in their work. Measurable goals help track progress. You don’t want your goals to simply be “do better”. It’s important to set goals that are achievable to your employees. Setting them up with impossible tasks is only going to hurt performance. Always make sure that your goals are relevant to the long-term objectives of your company. Time-based goals help motivate employees through the use of set deadlines.
