UF Postings Past: A Challenge to Managers
November 18, 2007 – 11:37 pmDo you know what your people really do every day? I mean *really* do. Here is a challenge for you. Talk to each of your employees. Ask them to identify the three things they must do as part of their jobs that they hate or think is least useful. What are you going to do with that list? That’s the challenge. Look through it. Evaluate it. Look for ways to eliminate at least one task per employee. If you can’t eliminate it, look for a cost-effective way to do it more efficiently. Work with your team to make these things happen.
Why do this? Here’s three reasons, for starters:
1) It’s a big win with your employees if you succeed- it shows that you care about making their lives better
2) If they hate doing it, they probably aren’t doing it well. If the product is lousy, whoever gets the product either will appreciate the improvements made or don’t need the product in the first place.
3) Eliminating tasks frees up your workers to do bigger and better things.
When you’re done, take the results to your management. Present the processes your team have eliminated or improved. Present it to your peers as well, and challenge them to do the same. You’ll be surprised at how much dead weight your company can cut away. It may even start an initiative to clean up by your executive management. Cutting outmoded tasks is an important type of expense cutting that not only recovers manpower and resources for your company, but contributes to employee morale.
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