Economic Problems Beget Performance Problems
From the Eye on the Workforce Blog
by Joe Wynne
Workforce management is a key part of project success, but project managers often find it difficult to get trustworthy information on what really works. From interpersonal interactions to big workforce issues we'll look the latest research and proven techniques to find the most effective solutions for your projects.
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Half of those surveyed in a recent poll report feeling stress over financial matters. Just under half say the current economic uncertainty has caused them to be less productive at work. No doubt this is going to affect workforce performance in your project.
Performance affects may be obvious and wide-ranging, or may be hard to pin down as they appear to be isolated incidents:
- Teams don't get work done as they have in the past
- Typically high-performance individuals make simple errors
- Conflict between collaborating groups .
Don't deny the possibility of continued performance problems in your project caused by the global economic meltdown. Support an effort in your organization to maintain continuous communications to workers designed to calm fears and bring a realistic perspective. It is also a good time to remind workers of the employee assistance program.
Posted on: October 17, 2008 07:18 AM |
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Comments (1)
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David Dery
Consultant| COFOMO
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
I agree that insecurity about the economy affect people’s behavior: after all that, isn’t this what Maslow’s theory about!
However, I did not experience the same behavior that you describe:
- the insecurity drives people to either look for jobs elsewhere: the grass is always greener on the other side!
- Or people start making more hours and risks doing a burnout. People take more days to recuperate or take longer absence leaves…
- I did not observe more conflict amongst groups, just more stress, more absenteeism, more turnaround and more burnouts.
I also think it is not just about referring people to assistance programs (although that is not a bad option), but mainly to manage people! People need to be informed more than ever about the intentions of the firm: what is management going to do to pass trough this crisis. In other words: communicate, communicate and communicate!
Isn’t lack of communication one of the biggest complaint and biggest reason why project fails? I think good management practices, more than ever, need to be applied during a crisis.
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