How to motivate staff

[boutiquechoc 10]

I have a team of around 12 people I manage and I am highly trained however, the team do not really want to be at work and are increasingly being disruptive. I am getting complaints from others saying they are being disturbed by gossip, loud noise etc....now, I have to follow procedure and set policies which is sometimes hard to keep them in line due to the protocol I have to follow which sometimes appears to favour the staff.

I can't just move them all to sit on their own as this would be seen as being 'unfair'. I have my procedures and HR know who the bad staff are.

 

I wondered if anyone could give me any new ideas how I can motivate them from gossiping, swizzing around on their chairs and not giving a stuff whether they get caught or not. They have no office etiquette, regularly bad mouth each other and rude to everyone.

These are women of all ages who have worked here for around 7 years and most are in unions. I am friendly but firm and it has worked until now but I could do with some under the table things to do and say to them that won't land me at the Union!

 

Any advice would be appreciated!!

Edited May 18, 2010 by boutiquechoc

[Treatment 10]

Always keep an A4 pad on your desk, where it can be found, and write a couple of their names on it.

 

Works a treat.

 

Also, if a b**locking is required, always do this on a Friday, and preferably before a Bank Holiday weekend. Gives them something to stew on.

[Bonjon 10]

Lead by example and stop posting on forums all day

[John Dory 10]

Some good tips here.http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/21-proven-motivation-tactics/

[Grandad.Malky 11]

Don’t bite my head off but it sounds like weak leadership as let the rot set in.

[boutiquechoc 10]

Don’t bite my head off but it sounds like weak leadership as let the rot set in.

 

I agree it is, I came to this dept in Sept and they had a Manager before me who wanted to be the best of friends with them all so let she them tell her how they wanted to work. She didn't have any confidence to deal with them as she was afraid of them not liking her - this is why she went and I got employed..

 

I go online on my IPhone adnd I can't access the internet from work (my reply to the above post)

I asked for advice on how to motivate the staff not for judgement about my net usage!!!!!!

Edited May 18, 2010 by boutiquechoc
spelling

[Waldo 96]

You need to think about the structure of rewards and punishment systems you have in place; and what kind of behaviour it encourages from people.

 

I guess, they're getting paid to be there, for a certain amount of time per day, and there is no connection between what they get paid, and how well they perform / behave.

 

Such a system is flawed, and the first port of call, could be to address that and look at what changes you need, that will encourage people to do what you want them to do.

 

In short, link reward and performance.

[Grandad.Malky 11]

New broom sweeps clean and all that, it looks like its time for some changes the first being no mobiles.

[masbrolass 10]

You don't say if the work gets done which is most important. They obviously don't have enough to do so transfer one and that will motivate them. Give them work with deadlines and make sure it's done. They have worked together a long time so it sounds normal. Have a team meeting and tell them people are complaining so just keep it down please.

[kenny gray 10]

do what most employers do just sack them.

[smithy266 21]

do you expect them to do jobs that you will not do?

[medusa 16]

Is there any scope in your job for making a specific measurement of who achieves the most in your team? If there is then the first thing I'd do is to bring in a weekly or monthly personal bonus for either the highest achiever or the most helpful member of staff or similar and I'd ask your boss if there's the potential for a budget for you to provide this. If not then I'd probably stump up for it myself- nothing huge, just a little Amazon or high street voucher, pair of cinema tickets or something every month.

 

One of the purposes of this is to reward the most productive member of staff in your team, another is to make sure that everyone is aware that you CAN measure their productivity and if you can work out who is the most productive then you are therefore also aware of the LEAST productive member of staff. It's also a good personal team bonding thing that it's your bonus, not a company bonus (if that makes sense).

 

Once you've got that measuring process set up I'd send around a memo telling them that there have been a number of complaints about the noise/attitude of work affecting other staff members and that you're coming under pressure to reduce these complaints and that you are logging complaints which name individuals for future action.

 

This should then allow you to compile a code of good conduct which you negotiate with your team, then start a gradual process of infractions and warnings, all of which are recorded properly and lead up to formal disciplinary action after a set number of warnings (with a set number of infractions leading to warnings IYKWIM).

 

Do I sound like a draconian manager?