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RESPECT THEM!
At the opening of the Head Office of Demerara Bank, the Chairman of that bank said something that perhaps many managers will agree with but not give a second thought to. I want, however, through this column to ensure that it is given a second, a third and a fourth thought.
The Chairman said you should treat your people (staff) with value. If you treat them well, he said, you will get the world out of them.
There are many managers who claim to value their staff; they know that these persons are important to them, yet they do not treat them well.
I have seen managers physically assault workers and when I advised these workers to go and make a report, they refused because they actually felt that they deserved what they got or were afraid of losing their jobs.
I have seen employers insult their staff. I have heard some terrible things being told to employees by their bosses.
A recent study which has been published indicated that much of this behavior may be unrelated to work. It may be a case of the boss bringing his home problems into the office.
That, however, is no excuse for treating people badly. It is a sign of weakness for boss to bring his home problems into the workplace.
Workers are subject to a great deal of abuse, both physical and verbal. They are treated with value and though many are unhappy they continue because they need the job or they have been brought up to accept such abuse.
The vast majority of staff does not wish to be treated well only by being paid well. People want to be respected. More importantly, they wish to be spoken to in a manner that respects them. They do not wish people to look down on them no matter how low they are in the organization.
When it comes to treating people well, how you speak and relate to your staff is far more important than how much you pay them. You can pay a man well above what he should be earning but he will not be happy if you are speaking to him in a rough manner or if you are condescending towards him.
I know there are many people who will disagree with this assessment. In fact, a recent study in the United Kingdom, the findings of which were published in The Telegraph this week, showed that money is the best motivator of workers, yet many employers are not paying bonuses to their workers.
I disagree. The best motivator is how you speak to your employees, how you relate to them on the job, how you accommodate their mistakes.
People will make mistakes. They cannot always get things right. Any employer who wants to have a have an employee that does not make a mistake should go and get a robot. When people make mistakes, when they fall short of expectations, there has to be a certain level of understanding. They have to be encouraged to correct their mistakes and do things better.
But what you find in Guyana is that there are employers that are intolerant of mistakes; who feel that their staff should be perfectionist and who abuse their staff verbally when they make mistakes. You are not going to get the best out of your staff when you do this.
On the other hand there are some employers feel that the best way to get the best out of their workers is to over pay them, to bribe them with rewards and gifts, to condone sloppy work. This is the reverse of abuse and will create more problems than it solves.
People want to be treated well. They want to be valued. As the Chairman of Demerara Bank said, if you treat you staff well, you will get the world out of them. They will go the extra mile for you because you respect them.
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