If we use principles identified in The Efficiency Myth, we understand that most problems come from a few employees; tardiness, absenteeism, poor performance, theft, etc. This handful of employees not only wastes an extraordinary amount of management’s time and attention, they tend to drag the good employees down with them. We build a variety of HR systems to improve attitude, attendance, and performance, but the bad employees simply become experts in working the system. The question becomes, how do you motivate this small group?
Problem is, that’s the wrong question.
Bottom line, we spend too much energy correcting issues caused by problem employees. Drucker’s quip on “doing with great efficiency that which should not be done at all” comes to mind. Jim Collins, in Good to Great, said great companies understand three simple truths:
•First, you have to get the right people.
•Second, if you have the right people, the problem of how to motivate them goes away.
•Third, if you have the wrong people, you’ll never be a great company.
Successful organizations spend an inordinate amount of time finding the right people. They avoid using temporary agencies for recruitment, and instead rely on referrals by their own employees. They rarely hire after a single interview. And they consider skill to be less crucial than attitude. A person with incredible technical skills won’t make the cut unless he or she also has the right attitude.
“We don’t want to work with people who don’t take pride in their work,” explained Eric, an 18-year veteran working in a 75-year-old family business. “The people working here are all conscientious. If I do my job right, it’s easier for the next guy to do his job. If I don’t, he’ll tell me about it.”
Communication is vital and begins early. Human Resources Manager Phil explained, “It’s important to tell people the rules from the first interview. There’s a one-year probation. There is overtime and Saturdays, and if they don’t want to work overtime, they can’t work here. I tell people when they are hired, ‘If you’re gonna be late, you’ll be fired.’ And you know, we don’t have an attendance problem.”
The company’s one-year probationary period might seem excessive when most companies have a ninety-day probation, but it is a significant component of their hiring strategy. Why a whole year? It takes time to match the employee to the job. According to retired Vice President Wayne, “If a person can’t make it on a job, we move him to something else. I prefer to have people working on jobs they like.”
Quality Control Manager Jerry explained, “You’re not doing anyone a favor by keeping them on a job they can’t do. We watch new employees for 30 days to see if they look promising, and let them know how they are doing. After another 30 days, we take another look. They get a raise every two months if we see progress.”
This constant level of attention is critical. Wayne said, “The worst thing you can do is forget about one of them. If they know you’re thinking about them, it means a whole lot more. They feel like a part of the company.”
The employees agree. “Anything we say, they hear. Management is flexible to our needs. They’ll bend for us and we’ll bend for them.”
So instead of worrying about how to motivate the problem employee, hire the right people, put them in jobs where they can succeed, and pay attention to them. This is a practice we could all learn from.
We will address motivation more in future articles.