When mind-numbing, monotonous work makes retaining employees difficult

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Dear Joan:

I am a front line manager. The work that is performed by my agents is very monotonous. Therefore, after a few days my subordinates get bored and think of resigning or moving on to some other role, which makes the situation very difficult to motivate them. If you can tell me how to motivate them it would be really helpful. I am really running short of ideas.

Answer:

If the work is that boring, you should consider automating it or outsourcing it. If that isn’t an option, and it’s data entry, perhaps you can spread the work among the people outside the department, who generate the data. If none of those is an option, here are some other things to try:

Involve the team in creating a measurement system that you can link to rewards and incentives. For example, perhaps you could create some excitement regarding meeting or beating a production goal each week and/or month. When people have a goal to shoot for—a contest to compete for—a record to break, dull work can be more tolerable.

Goals could be created for the whole group, or for individuals, to mix things up. Different goals can be created by day, week or month. It could involve cases resolved, cases input into the system, customer satisfaction scores, days without an absence, percentage of customer complaints, revenue generated, expenses reduced, or any other thing you can measure.

You may get some ideas by talking with sales managers to get some additional ideas. Sales departments have created many ways to keep their sales force motivated. Sometimes they will have contests that reward results or actions, such as the most sales in a day, or the most cold calls made in a week.

Since you are in an office environment, and bound by the company budget, the incentives don’t always have to be salary related. For example, you could bring in pizza or extend the lunch hour if a goal is reached. Perhaps tokens or points could be earned that would enable people to accumulate enough to exchange for items of value. Many companies now use points or tokens in situations such as this, so employees have something to work towards.

Recognition for good performance is always welcome. Pats on the back are critical and you may want to go a step further and send a letter to an employee’s home for excellent performance-with a gift certificate for the family at a local restaurant.

Sometimes it helps to rotate tasks among a team or across teams. For example, two teams may be able to do some cross training and share duties.

If the duties are so boring no one wants to do them for very long, there is something fundamentally wrong with the design of the position. Speak with your company’s HR department and ask them for advice. In today’s work world, few people are willing to sign up for a mind-numbing job. If that is the situation you’re in, HR should be able to help you re-design the position, or restructure the department, so employees will have some reason to stay.

Does your team need a tune-up? We will conduct a detailed assessment and get to the bottom of the problem.  We will provide you with detailed recommendations and work with you, and your team, to implement needed changes.  We work with all levels within your organization, team or department.  We have an excellent track record of success with teams in a variety of industries.  Call us today for information at (800) 348-1944.