Most organizations work out ways to improve productivity through activities. While it is not possible to always keep the employees engaged, most organizations ban social media and other websites that are not relevant to the work. These efforts are temporarily effective as soon the people find out new ways to waste time. We think that the problem is not with the organizations but the industry itself. People are quitting jobs not because of one reason but many. With growing automation in jobs there is very little for people to actually do. Employers also want results beyond capabilities of their staff and for lesser pay. The system has learned to heavily rely on outsourcing and jobs that really require skilled resources are too few. These may be the major concerns at present and in the coming future that where this might take our institutions and what will be the state of unemployment.
We think that true motivation to work in today’s time comes from ownership of the work that you do. Workplace is irrelevant and so are the organizations that think offices are going to exist in the same way we know them now. Corporates are shrinking. There are empty offices everywhere. Whether people are fired or they quit is of little consequence. The result is, people are gone. Where are they going? Probably, they are leaving to become entrepreneurs. A bunch of people motivated by their own innovation may really work hard and waste little time. Unless older businesses realize that people are not intrinsically lazy or abhorrent to work, they can’t mend their systems. People like to work, but under right circumstances. They just won’t be exploited any more. It is true that they have far too many distractions available now. Yet why is it that startups and self employed people work harder? It is because they do what they like to do.
If your employees really have time to waste in a workplace then it is as much your fault as your employee’s. In that case you should probably fire yourself too. If you really had a vision and people saw you as a leader, they would not have done so. Before looking at the other factors of time wastage, do analyse yourself. Look at your policies. Did you delegate the right work to the right people? Did you give equal chance to everyone? Try to see that whether your employees started wasting more time when you started favouring some near and dear employee over others. Did your employees see you come late and waste your time by doing practically nothing? Hard things to admit, isn’t it!?
No worries! I am sure that you can still improve and change the scenario on your own. Just takes a little bit of digging. For things like social media policies and employee engagement programs, you can probably seek help from professionals who are in the business of helping organizations manage their time better. In that regard, here’s a lovely infographic from Biz3.0 about Wasted time in workplaces.
Marty Huggins
