Managing the different personalities that are an inevitable component of a diverse work environment can be frustrating. Everybody has individual needs and a preferred approach to a task. Maximizing productivity requires skill and patience. Creative require room for innovation, team collaboration, and allowance for failure in their experimental endeavors. Other personality types prefer to follow clear patterns and rules in their daily routines. Here are some recommendations to help you motivate each of your staff.
- First, understand your own personality and prejudices. It behooves any organization, including management, to provide diversity and sensitivity training. It can promote the understanding and appreciation of the value that each individual can bring to the workplace. Everybody possesses prejudices of some sort, depending on their background. Understanding your own can help you manage those of others.
- All employees work differently, which should go without saying. Much like the tortoise and the hare analogy, some employees might work quickly, getting through assignments in a quick manner, whereas others work in a meticulous fashion paying extra attention to the fine details. Understand your employees and attempt to provide the work environment that suits their working style; a team dynamic, or projects that they can tackle on their own.
- Build a relationship with staff. Openly communicate company strategy and goals. Request feedback from staff and incorporate their suggestions. Individuals are more likely to cooperate and give their best if they feel that they can affect the workplace. Employees have direct contact with clients and customers and often provide valuable information. Facilitate communication that leads to positive change and staff morale will increase.
Blackberry recommends understanding what is important to your employees and meeting those needs. Older employees may require flexible working arrangements to balance work with childcare or older parent care. Generation Y may require a culture of teamwork, career development, and the opportunity to “make a difference.” Provide a measure of autonomy, but expect accountability and responsibility in return. Contact a Staffing Services USA professional for your full-time and temporary hiring needs.