I expected two diametrically opposed view-points when I discussed the prospect of four weeks of public holidays with delegates who had been attending recent workshops with Staff Training.
My understanding was that the ‘worker bees’ would relish the time off, whilst management would panic, given the resultant loss in productivity.
Well, I was wrong. A surprisingly large percentage of delegates polled, regardless of their positions, were
anxious these short weeks would impact negatively on their companies and themselves.
Don’t get me wrong, everyone was looking forward to the time off. And justifiability so! But overall, the consensus was that we needed to
boost productivity on the days worked in order to mitigate the myriad issues which have arisen around the load shedding etc.
I found this approach really heartening because it illustrated a level of
engagement which many employers and employees aren’t aware exists.
We need to be
capitalising on this level of accountability wherever possible.
Firstly, we need to
recognise it. Identify and formally recognise people who display this emotionally intelligent approach to work and life in general. In addition, we need to introduce policies and procedures which
promote growth in these areas of our organisation – we tend to spend a lot of time calling out those who aren’t as engaged as we would like. Let’s change that. Let’s pay attention to the positive input all around us and feed that.
Understand, I’m not advocating for an ‘Ostrich head-in-sand’ approach to the very real problems experienced with when faced with a low level of employee engagement. Having worked in business and trained on all aspects thereof, I’m more than aware that we have problem areas which must, at all costs, be addressed and resolved. Rather, what I am advocating,
is the need for us to give as much attention to our super stars as we give to their less effective brethren.
In order to provide tools to foster employee motivation, we developed our very popular workshops called
How to Lead a Team to Productivity and
How to Engage your Team. In these workshops we focus on what actually promotes personal accountability and how we each impact it positively whilst acknowledging where it’s lacking and developing solutions around those issues.
If you would like to find out more about our workshops, just email us at
info@StaffTraining.co.za or give us a call at 0861 996 660
We can’t wait to see you at our next workshop!
Staff Training is a South African soft skills training provider with more than 60 workshops on offer. Email us at
info@StaffTraining.co.za for more info or give us a call at 0861 996 660
