Being a boss means that you are the one that people in your business or organisations will turn to for answers. And how you tackle the complaints or questions will make the difference between your success and failure as a boss.
The 4 common work place complaints are
1. The lack of training
People who have had a lack of training are very easy to spot by outsiders-your customer! They can be from a bad reception, to staff who don’t know the products or to technicians who bosh up jobs. If you offer little training or no training at all you will be inviting failure.
Training is important to ensure that there is no gap between the actual skill levels that people have and the skills that are actually required in order to properly and effectively perform the job for which you hired them for. Training is crucial to ensure that every one you hire will know how to tackle their job well so that at the end of the day the customer will be happy and come back. And your staff will not be embarrassed, feel frustrated or even look elsewhere for work and quit!
If your excuse is that training is expensive you will actually cost the business a great deal more in the end.
2. No or very little supervision
Every work place needs someone keeping an eye on things and it means you are keeping your eye on the ball and making sure that the vision is being realised. A boss supervises to make the most of the talents available so that the vision in the business or work place is realised.
You may have well trained and qualified staff but if there is poor or no supervision no matter the task, it will mean that you as a boss are not keeping on top of things, are not making sure that people have gotten the right instructions, they are not making any errors and they are meeting the targets that have been set to realise the vision.
Supervision is necessary to prevent problems, mistakes, delays and accidents or injuries. Also people who are not supervised will feel that their roles are not an important part of the process and may feel unsupported and not valued by you. This atmosphere may breed disloyalty and employees who are not loyal have no qualms about deviating from the company’s vision. They may resort to their own devices and less than acceptable business practices-which may open your business up to unethical behaviour. Or, they will simply sleep on the job, steal, use equipment for personal things and lie about the work that has been done.
3. No tools for the job
Every job has its own necessary tools, from computers, to task-specific items, and heavy equipment. No matter how skilled an employee may be, they will never be able to function at full capacity if there is a lack of tools holding them back.
The lack of tools in a job leads to inefficiencies and possibly bad results. The result is a potential fall in profit and the very real possibility that you will not get a repeat customer and risk a bad review on social media. And like a good training, giving the necessary tools to your staff encourages them to work efficiently and to use their skills so that they get the job done.
There is nothing more annoying to a customer than have a pick-up pull up with workers to do some urgent work then sheepishly admit that they ‘forgot’ the necessary tools and ask to borrow from the client!
At the end of the day the tools will pay for themselves so do not skimp on tools.
4. A master-slave environ
The needle that may well break the camel’s back or employee morale is the master-slave environs. Which often ensue when people are being too heavily watched and policed, they get the feeling that the company doesn’t trust or respect them and feel disrespected. And then add to that being over-worked and driven like oxen!
When staff feel there is a master-slave atmosphere with all the skulking around and breathing down their backs and the long hours being worked; they will start calling in sick with “malaria-like-headaches”-probably, due to fatigue and continuous irritability from the toxic atmosphere at work.
A master-slave environ will not increase the bottom-line nor save you money. Be a boss that is approachable, that assists, imparts knowledge and one that people will go to if they have questions and concerns. Be it about their tasks, professional ambitions and/or about their family-life.
