Wasted Time on the Job

My friend Michael Ballard sent me an interesting set of statistics compiled by On-Line Schools, about wasting time on the job. It is a great graphical layout of the stats so I highly recommend you click on and visit the link.

It seems the average American worker wastes 1.7 hours per work day. Please note that is not per week but per day!

What do these employees spend their time doing? The answers may or may not surprise you.

44.7% Distracted by the Internet
23.4% Socialized
6.8% Handled personal business
3.9% Spaced out (and they actually admitted this!!)
1.3% Applying for other jobs
19.9% Other

Employers in the U.S. end up paying out $759 Billion dollars per year for work that isn’t actually performed.

Remember there are only seven reasons why people don’t do what you want them to:

1. No Expectations
2. No Feedback
3. No Training
4. No Resources
5. Reward Wrong
6. Punish Right
7. Ignore Either

No Expectations: If you don’t spell out what you want people to do and why they lose focus and of course get distracted. Tell them what’s expected of them and then get out of their way.

No Feedback: OK. So you told them what you expected of them. Now, how are they doing? People want to know how their performance stacks up against others. If they are on track tell them. If they need a simple course correction, coach them along.

No Training: How can we expect people to know all the skills, competencies and abilities to do the job perfectly? We may need to provide education and training, job shadowing and mentoring. Show them what to do.

No Resources: Nothing is worse than being told to do a job and you’re not given the proper tools or equipment to do it right. Make sure you provide people with the software, the hardware and the knowhow to do what you need them to.

Reward Wrong: Looks like many companies are rewarding employees with the opportunity to waste almost 2 hours a day at company expense. The leadership, management and systems in place are allowing this negative behavior to be rewarded – and in cash too!

Punish Right: Someone might try to speak up against wasting time and be shot down by peers with lines like, “well everybody does it!”, “Trying to be a goody-goody?” We need to create an environment where employees can bring up concerns and issues without retribution.

Ignore Either: Occasionally negative behaviors are totally ignored. They are neither directly rewarded nor purposely punished. Managers simply ignore what’s going on and when the cat’s away the mice do play.

Let’s be careful with allowing wasted time to eat away at productivity. We must ensure employees have a clear purpose in their work and that it’s meaningful for them. We must ensure their actions and results are valued and they can see how they are making a contribution.

Now stop reading this blog entry and quickly get back to work!!

Don't Forget Volunteer Appreciation

Just got back from vacation where my wife and I volunteered for 11 days at one of our church’s historical sites. We fast learned the value of seeing volunteer appreciation and recognition in action both from our volunteer coordinators as well as with our fellow volunteer couples.

Here are some things we saw and learned:

* Provide both a general and a specific orientation session to review duties and responsibilities. This gets you at ease with all you will be doing and irons out the unasked questions or chance to ask those not addressed.

* Provide an orientation booklet with a list of all contact information of coordinators, volunteer schedule, and their assigned responsibilities. Sometimes you forget things so having this resource to refer to is so helpful.

* Hold a pre-shift meeting each day and each time thank volunteers for what they have done previously and what they will be doing that day. The faces may change but what a great way to connect each day you’re on shift.

* Assign volunteers to participate in pre-shift meeting in some way if only to give an inspirational or motivational thought for the day. For newly assigned volunteers to be involved in some way when everyone is together is just a nice way to feel important.

* Give any kind of report to show progress whether number of visitors or individuals assisted based on the services provided. Knowing how volunteers are making a difference by whatever metric available is important.

* Have some snacks and drinks available in the volunteer break room and invite volunteers to add goodies as they can. We noted the gamut from healthy fruit to sweet tooth homemade and bought candies and cookies.

* Take photographs of individuals during service and where possible arrange to take some group shots as a keepsake. Life can get busy as volunteers so stopping to capture these photos is a great memory maker.

* Go the extra mile and get a photo album and not only include the individual and group photos but take some of the site locations so they won’t forget their experience. These days we tend to send things electronically to one another so the tangible album with compiled photos was a great WOW ! moment.

* Include a photo guide to show the names of each individual. Some people’s names are easier to remember than others so having a coordinator make time to create a legend was a wonderful gesture.

* With permission include the contact information of all volunteers so people can stay in touch with one another. Friendships are made very quickly with other volunteers so having each other’s contact information is lovely to stay connected.

* Provide a small gift to thank volunteers that will be a memorable reminder of their experience together. When you volunteer it is choice, so receiving a thank you gift for service given is far from expected but graciously appreciated.

* Have a small celebration with all volunteers at the conclusion of the term of volunteering. One never knows when one will be back together with the same people you served with so take some time out to say farewell and give hugs and handshakes together.