Why Your Employees Aren’t More Productive

If you’ve noticed a marked lack of productivity among your employees, or if you feel that you’re not getting an adequate amount of work in exchange for the salary you pay your employees, there could be many issues involved. One of the biggest challenges that business owners and managers face in today’s business climate is making sure that their employees aren’t wasting time on the Internet each day. As it turns out, they have good reason to worry.

Many recent studies have been done on Internet use during the workday. Those studies have found that an alarming number of American workers spend as much as two hours per day wasting time on the Internet. In an effort to resolve the issue, many employers have turned to computer tracking software. This type of product, often referred to as “spyware” for obvious reasons, provides a manager with information about which sites employees are visiting and how often they visit them. While there’s no doubt that Internet tracking software might possibly have a use in certain situations, if you’re really trying to discover why your employees aren’t more productive, it’s not the answer.

Many employees would consider computer tracking software as invasive, to say the least. Once one employee becomes aware of it, it’s only a matter of time before all your workers know that you’re using it. From there, things only get worse. Your employees will likely feel that they’re being spied on, which will lead to resentment, which in turn will lead to an even greater lack of productivity. Internet tracking software will actually make your problem even worse.

The real reason why your employees aren’t more productive goes much further than misuse of the Internet: the real reason is that they simply lack motivation to do a better job. As an employer, your primary goal in this situation is to find out why. Are your workers bored? Do they feel that they’re not being paid enough? Are they unhappy with their working conditions? Talking with each employee is a great way to start, but that may not uncover the real truth since some workers may not feel completely comfortable talking to you face-to-face about what the real problems are in the workplace. Another option might be to give your employees the opportunity to complete anonymous questionnaires, which would allow them to honestly tell you what needs to change in the work environment.

Only when you discover why your employees lack motivation can you begin to develop a plan to resolve the problem. The first and most important part of the process is to find a way to give your workers the chance to express their true feelings without fear of retribution.