Business Owner's Nightmare

[guitarmax42]

I agree with everyone here, but I think you should go with the 30 day rule. That puts some stress onto them, which they obviously dont have. If they want to support their families, they'll start to produce quality work. Now I don't know how you run your business, but it sounds like they're taking advantage of your personality. Sometimes you just have to be aggressive(not violent, but aggressive) in order for them to understand that you pay them to work, not to sit around and piss you off...

[Renata]

What are the consequences for mistakes?
Do you have regular meetings?
How would your staff know your job requirements?
Did you think of hiring a manager to deal with the issues?

[loanboy0]

I can see that you really have a big problem.. Here's my advice, Try to talk to them in a nice way and ask them what is the problem with them.. or if your really desperate.., Fire one of them and tell him/her why you have to that.. And it is because of their performance..

[mightyventures]

Let me share to your readers some of these recruitment mistakes, somehow would be of help to make better future hires.

1. Mismatching people and positions or skills and responsibilites.

2. Hiring people based on potential and promises, instead of track record of results.

3. Interviewing the resume instead of the person.

Which is why I want to tell you about the STAR method for recruiting. I’ve distilled it down to its essence. Hope this helps you make better hires.

Situation: They’ve done the job or not. If hiring a housekeeper, have they cleaned a 4,000 square foot home before? If yes, move on to the next step. If no, b'bye.

Tasks: Do they do laundry in addition to all the other chores involved in cleaning a home impeccably? If yes, move on to the next step. If no, b'bye.

Actions: They say they've cleaned a 4,000 square foot home, they say they do laundry, do they fold it and put it in the appropriate drawers? If yes, move on to the next step. If no, b’bye.

Results: Can they clean the home in 5 hours or less 2x per week? Have they done this before? If yes, welcome aboard! If no, b'bye.

Past behavior, past experience predicts future behavior and ability to succeed in the job at hand.

[Anca]

Actually, I have just wrote an article about why do employee waste time at work and what can employers/managers do to stop this phenomena. In your case, I think that you are too permissive.

if you are interesting in reading the articles you can find it on http://blog.cyclope-series.com/2009/...ers-stop-them/

[Mikeyj47]

Training your staff in what they are supposed to be doing is a good start, also what are your expectations of the staff? they need to know that if they don't they will simply make up their own.
Try putting together a staff manual and a job description and expectations for every position in your organization. If the staff member does not meet what is expected get rid of them and get someone who will.
Cheers

[CompareCareHomes]

Gene,

I really like your response, there are some nice tips there.

[zmonique2007]

First, you need to set a good example to your team. Always be an encouragement to your workers and let them feel that they can rely on your management skills and abilities. Also, it is important that you set definite goals for your staff. Their tasks and objectives should be clear. Be frank and tell them your expectations. After doing all this and you see no improvement, then you can give that staff a 30 day notice.

[Lucas_gm]

First I suggest you up focused on two fundamental things:

1) Deliver more feedback formally, setting deadlines to impruvement, it is very useful to implement a performance evaluation program (I saw taht in practice) If u need I know sb who can do so at low cost and outsourced.

2) Encounter if you need to change the working culture of staff and develop a plan for change with concrete actions.

greetengs
Lucas.-

[Scar Tissue]

Performance appraisal is a good way, especially employees eee the appraisal in action.

[LSnyder]

I agree with zmonique. My suggestion is to have an "off the record" meeting with your employees, sort of an open forum where everyone can say what is on their minds without the threat of losing a job or having it held over there heads. After, tell each employee something positive about their work performance.
You should go to work each morning expecting the best, a positive attitude. Give them a reason other than a paycheck to really want to do their job to the best of their ability.
What about a treat of bagels n coffee in the morning, throw together a potluck lunch 1x a month and let everyone contribute and take some to sit, eat and relax together.
Incentives are great. If one of your employees goes out of their way to do something, offer something in return, a set of movie tickets or a dunkin donuts gift card.
As the leader it's expected that you want respect, but your employees want to know they matter and are appreciated to.
No matter what, your employees should be performing their responsiblites in the best way they can, maybe something simple will truly motivate them and look at you in another light as well.
Good luck to you.

Lisa

[GJMiller]

Here is my suggestion,

You need to first define the problem. Are the employees not motivated or is it do to a lack of training? Find the root of the problem and this will help with solving the problem. When talking to the employees about the issue be congruent about the issue, not how you feel about them personally. After getting to the root of the problem generate and evaluate all possible solutions, do you need to have quarterly performance reviews? or cut hours and give performance base raises, saving you money and encouraging them to work harder. Finally implement the solution and make sure you follow up. Often you will not seen instant progress but over time track performance. Running a company is not easy you will have your fair share of problems, but thats why not everyone can be there own boss. Hope this helps

[dfveteran]

Here is my suggestion,

You need to first define the problem. Are the employees not motivated or is it do to a lack of training? Find the root of the problem and this will help with solving the problem. When talking to the employees about the issue be congruent about the issue, not how you feel about them personally. After getting to the root of the problem generate and evaluate all possible solutions, do you need to have quarterly performance reviews? or cut hours and give performance base raises, saving you money and encouraging them to work harder. Finally implement the solution and make sure you follow up. Often you will not seen instant progress but over time track performance. Running a company is not easy you will have your fair share of problems, but thats why not everyone can be there own boss. Hope this helps

Great advice. I just want to add this as well; When you get personal things go wrong 100% of the time. You have to be professional. Put your foot down and be a boss, not a friend. I know it may be hard. But, it's your business and you need to treat it like a business.

[Encrypted]

What am I supposed to do?

I've been reading business books on developing good process systems. My currently system is well developed.... yes... for people with brains. But for most staff who don't seem to give a crap about what they do, they're not even using my system.

I'm so so frustrated. It's easy to just do everything on my own.

Everyday I come into the office to work on ALL the tasks, explain ALL the errors made by the staff, do ALL the work, be told by my staff what I have to do.

I am dying. Can someone help me?

Here's my suggestion.. FIRE THEM! and hire someone else.

[Aletheides]

You can read all the books you want on systems but its not going to magically grow a backbone for you.

It sounds like you need to exercise some of that authority.