My topic for today is Productivity and I will focus on our company. As a little introduction I’ll relate an experience I had 12 years ago when I was a Management student in college, a career that I did not like but I decided to study.
Our professor asked us to write an essay about productivity and we had do some research and ask people about it. I decided I did not want to do much because I did not like the career, so on a good day I sat down under a tree and began to write a pretty poem about what I thought productivity was for me. I wrote down everything that made me happy in a working environment. I laughed when finished and waited very happily until the presentation day arrived.
When the time came, I realized that my classmates had worked very hard on that project and I felt ashamed. However, there I was and I had to end my comedy.
The professor never raised his eyes to the students during their presentation. When my turn came, I began my presentation with a phrase that said more or less: “Finding the way to sell happiness is the basis for everything”.
The professor raised his very open eyes as the others started to laugh. I finished my presentation and then the pleased professor said: “Do you know, Carmen, that you wrote something that's very close to the Japanese productivity model?”
After that class, he showed the paper to all his students and posted it on the board as an example of originality and creativity, with a big “A” in red.
Therefore, when I say that “finding the way to sell happiness is the basis for everything”, I'm saying that placing an employee in a comfortable situation within the company is what's going to make that person work his or her best.
An employee that knows who to go to when a problem is going on (as our PDC) is an employee who is going to feel secure in his or her company. Constructive criticism, when necessary, in a nice and understanding manner, will never hurt anyone. Cordiality between boss and employee, employee and employee, a clean and organized working area, efficient system support and easy access to any indispensable supplies needed to perform the job is a good way to reduce stress. All the employees who listen to music while they work – because their employers allow them to do so – feel really happy and at ease.
Knowing what the supervisor expects enhances the ease of the employee. Even though the project the employee is working on is long and hard, he or she will always know what must be done to accomplish it during a specific period of time. Knowing what type of behavior is expected from us reduces misunderstandings and therefore is not going to be an issue to discuss. The opportunity of learning within the company opens new paths in the employee's mind, making him or her feel more confident and even more needed by others. This triggers creativity, which is very beneficial for the employee as well as for the company. Any type of incentives such as congratulations, awards, bonuses or public recognition, are ‘”food for the soul” and will make employees happier.
In summary, these are the main points for better productivity:
Support and orientation for the employee
Constructive criticism
Cordiality between supervisor/employee - employee/employee
Knowing what supervisors expect (task, deadlines, behavior)
Efficient system support
Easy access to supplies
Learning opportunity - creativity development
Incentives
To finish my presentation, I can say that our supervisors and employees really practice these principles and I discovered that while performing a little survey among some of our people with just a single question: “What do you need from this company to feel happier?” Some of them are still thinking, which is a good sign, others said they wanted phone mail but nobody complained about interpersonal relationships which are, no doubt about it, the basis of productivity.
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