Lack of recognition is a huge barrier to employee productivity

Posted on 17. Mar, 2009 by admin in Productivity news

A recent poll carried out in the Middle East by the folks at www.bayt.com found that lack of job recognition in the workplace is the biggest barrier to employee productivity. Over 8,000 people were surveyed in January 2009 and we have to say the results aren’t unexpected.

41% of the respondents said that lack of credit for their efforts meant that their morale reduced and productivity lowered. 14% felt that having no say in the decision making process negatively affected their employee productivity.

In a different, but linked recent survey which Bayt.com carried out into performance appraisals, they found that while 71% of all workers receive regular appraisals, 50% of employees stated that they had no feedback on how they were doing – effectively rendering the appraisals meaningless – if not worse. Providing no feedback is demoralising as criticising someone without good reason in our book.

11% of those surveyed in the employee productivity poll stated that the difficulty in finding a good work/life balance prevented them from being more productive, despite the issue being recognised as an important one by employers.

There are some lessons to be learnt here – whilst this is a survey from a single region – we can see similar poor practises going on around the world. Even in turbulent financial times, you will only get the most from your employees if you engage with them… if you listen to them and if you treat them with respect. Respect is all about feeding back to them on how they are performing, which clearly isn’t happening as a norm. People generally are in business to learn, to develop, to grow and if they are effectively shoved into a corner and told to get on with it – you will not get the most from them.

The polls additionally asked what significant motivating factor would encourage respondents to be more productive. Salary increases will always be at the top of such a poll, however 25% of respondents felt that it was important that they receive recognition for their efforts and accomplishments to motivate them in their work. Providing that recognition is simple and doesn’t cost a business financially.

When was the last time you motivated your team, trained them or gave them something to look forward to? None of these techniques have to cost vast sums of money.

Make sure your managers lead by example by really managing and coaching their teams and employee productivity will soon follow…