[ ::: ♥Keep_Mailing♥ ::: ]™ SUREFIRE WAYS TO DEMOTIVATE YOUR EMPLOYEES

8 SUREFIRE WAYS TO DEMOTIVATE YOUR EMPLOYEES

Ever notice how a new employee’s enthusiasm eventually wears off? In 85% of companies, employees’ morale significantly drops off after their first six months on the job, according to a survey from Harvard Management Update.

For the most part, enthusiasm is determined by work environment, and it can be fostered or hindered by you—the boss. Employee motivation experts say the best way to keep employee enthusiasm moving forward is to “first, do no harm.” At a minimum, don’t do anything that demotivates your workers.

Check out eight demotivators below.

1. Public criticism.

Pointing out a worker’s mistake in front of others rarely yields a good response. Though some managers think public reproach keeps everyone else from making the same mistake—it usually just makes everyone feel bad. (Click here to tweet this sentence)

2. Failing to provide praise.

If employees feel like their hard work goes unnoticed, they’ll start to wonder why they’re working so hard in the first place. Be sure to offer praise, both privately and publicly. Even small things, like a thank-you card or a “good job” email work.  (See also: How to Thank Employees When You Can’t Afford a Bonus.)

3. Not following up.

Have you ever solicited ideas, asked what employees think about a policy, or asked your team to draft a proposal? If so, be sure to relay the results, even if the ideas or proposals don’t go anywhere. Asking employees for input without acknowledging it shows a lack of respect. 

4. Give unachievable goals or deadlines.

Once employees realize they won’t be able to get something done, they’ll think, “What’s the point? I’m going to fail.” Provide goals and deadlines that are challenging, but not impossible. 

5. Not explaining your actions or sharing company data.

Just because you hold the cards doesn’t mean you should hide them. Explaining the big management decisions will help employees understand your perspective—and they’ll respect you for it. Likewise, sharing key company data such as revenue and profits validates staff contributions.

6. Implied threats.

If an employee is producing sub-par work, it’s OK to let them know your expectations. But it’s not OK to threaten their job—especially if you’re threatening the entire team in a public setting. A “do this or else” attitude often has the opposite effect when it comes to motivation.

7. Not honoring creative thinking and problem solving.

When employees take initiative to improve something—a company process or an individual task, for instance—don’t blow it off. Instead, take a good, hard look at their suggestion. Don’t ignore it, or you risk losing that employee’s creativity in the future.

8. Micromanagement

Perhaps the worst demotivator is micromanaging. Employees need to feel trusted and valued to succeed—and micromanaging communicates the opposite.

Next step: 6 Low-Cost Ways to Motivate Employees.

DON'T HIRE AN ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEE UNTIL YOU CHECK THESE 3 THINGS

Even in this tepid recovery, at some point you're going to have to decide when is the right time to expand your work force? And how can you know how many employees to add without handcuffing yourself to higher-than-necessary overhead? Experts say when it comes to hiring, it’s a mixture of planning, projecting and, in some cases, more of an art than a science.

1. Consider Your Capacity

The first thing to consider when it comes to hiring is figuring out how much ongoing work you will have to keep a new employee busy, says Andrew J. Sherman, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Jones Day who has advised many small business clients on growing their companies. 

“My rule of thumb is if the employee can be at 60 to 80 percent capacity, then that is a worthwhile hire,” Sherman says. “If someone would be below 60 percent capacity, in these uncertain times it’s probably not worth making the investment. Maybe in a [thriving] economy you’d hire people at 40 percent capacity.”  

If you don’t have enough work for a permanent employee but still need help right away, atemporary worker or contractor may be a better solution until demand for your products or services picks up, he says. (Once that happens, you can offer the full-time job to that temporary worker who already understands the job.)

2. Evaluate the Competitive Landscape

Even in today’s job market, there are certain industries where you may have to snap up great people as soon as you find them, or you’ll lose them to your rivals. (Or worse, settle for someone sub-par.) Manufacturing, for instance, is experiencing a vast shortage of skilled workers right now. If you run a plant in a rural area and find a reliable, technically trained worker, you may have to act quickly—regardless of whether you have enough work to keep them busy in the short term. 

“If you’re in a rapidly moving industry, you have to do a competitive analysis and ask: ‘Do I have to hire at this point, irrespective of demand, so I can stay competitive?’” Sherman says. Of course, you need to have the necessary capital to pull that off, he adds. “You’ll need to have a bigger rainy-day fund in place if you’re going to start hiring people without knowing if you have that demand or capacity.”

3. Determine Your Profit Goals

It’s also important to ensure the cost of hiring workers doesn’t eat into your profits, notes Greg Crabtree, a partner in the CPA firm Crabtree, Rowe & Berger in Huntsville, Ala. 

“It’s about getting the right person at the right pay, at the right level of productivity,” says Crabtree, who also authored the book, Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!, which encourages using financial benchmarks to make business decisions. His firm, which specializes in helping businesses improve profitability, has analyzed the finances of hundreds of small businesses. “I can count on one hand the number of times it was something other than [lack of] productivity that was keeping [a small business] from being profitable,” he says. 

Crabtree recommends that businesses in all sectors look at measures such as gross-profit-per-labor-dollar spent. In other words, if you’re hiring lower-wage workers—generally those whose pay ranges up to $15 an hour—it usually only makes sense to hire if you’ll be able to bring in three-and-a-half to four times the person’s annual salary in revenue to offset it, says Crabtree. For higher-wage workers, such as those a professional services firm might hire, make sure you can generate at least two times someone’s salary in sales. “Every business’ conditions are unique, though,” he adds.

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