Dealing with apathy at work?
Discussion
Bit of a general question here, but if you work in a service department where you're constantly working to improve things, how do you go about getting people interested in the changes that you've made?
For example if I bring in a new facility I can fire off an email to everyone who works at the company (few hundred) and get pretty much f
k all interest back.
I could put something on the Intranet and get pretty much fk all interest back.
And so on.
Appreciate it's a fairly open question to begin with.
For example if I bring in a new facility I can fire off an email to everyone who works at the company (few hundred) and get pretty much f
k all interest back.I could put something on the Intranet and get pretty much f
k all interest back.And so on.
Appreciate it's a fairly open question to begin with.
I skim read emails if I'm not in the "to" field, or if it's a broadcast to a distribution list. I get a fair amount of email every day and having to go through every one of them thats not always relevent takes too much time.
All Hands or Dept only calls are a different matter
You might do better announcing it to small groups to start with
All Hands or Dept only calls are a different matter
You might do better announcing it to small groups to start with
Implement a performance reward (punishment) framework whereby it becomes a performance indicator, measure on how many of your rvsp emails they action. I'm sure staff morale and response will change dramatically after this... 
If you have lots of other competitor service provider companies in you catchment area you may also be able to measure a change in staff turn over rates as well. This may help with credit crunch downsizing obligations if you have any. HTH
If you have lots of other competitor service provider companies in you catchment area you may also be able to measure a change in staff turn over rates as well. This may help with credit crunch downsizing obligations if you have any. HTH
Edited by fredd1e on Wednesday 12th November 19:18
Over-used term but "buy in" is appropriate here. You need to get key people enthused with the idea and the delegate the spread of that enthusiasm down their teams. Not easy as in most organisations people don't like change, even when it can be demonstrated to make their lives easier.
ewenm said:
Over-used term but "buy in" is appropriate here. You need to get key people enthused with the idea and the delegate the spread of that enthusiasm down their teams. Not easy as in most organisations people don't like change, even when it can be demonstrated to make their lives easier.
I'm already working on that part as I have a group of "usual suspects" who do show an interest in the stuff we're looking to bring in (I work in the dreaded IT but you'll have to trust me on this, we're the good sort not the evil sort who think we run the business).I take the point about people not liking change, the annoying thing is that usually when we show people what we're doing they're enthusiastic because they realise how they could benefit from it - the stumbling point is how to get them to see the demos and make them aware what we can actually offer short of physically dragging them into a room, locking the doors, and showing them.
Last Garage I worked at the Techs were all a littlel jaded by the previous non performance, the empty promises and lack of bonus eared.
When I turned up saying that we could sell more labour and that I was going to improve things there was an air of " yeah, yeah, heard it before, it can't be done."
I quickly spotted the big cause of under performance and had a battle to get the guy responsible to change his was. ( it did get ugly but in the end I had to explain that it was my way or the highway so to speak)
In the end the guys could see a change and made sure that I posted the daily labour sales of the previous day every morning so that they could see if they were ahead or behind target.
Alsdo I posted every tech personal efficiencies ( and no one wants to be bottom
)
Evenntuall the guys saw a difference in the performance, profitability and their wages and actually started to come to me with suggestions, questionsa and took a genuine interest.
I guess your situation will be different but I would suggest that you target a few people and make your changes relevent to them and making their life different for the better.
If you can get some of the staff talking about the things you do in a positive light to their colleagues it will gain its own momentum
Once one group are chuffed with you do something for another group etc.
When I turned up saying that we could sell more labour and that I was going to improve things there was an air of " yeah, yeah, heard it before, it can't be done."
I quickly spotted the big cause of under performance and had a battle to get the guy responsible to change his was. ( it did get ugly but in the end I had to explain that it was my way or the highway so to speak)
In the end the guys could see a change and made sure that I posted the daily labour sales of the previous day every morning so that they could see if they were ahead or behind target.
Alsdo I posted every tech personal efficiencies ( and no one wants to be bottom
)Evenntuall the guys saw a difference in the performance, profitability and their wages and actually started to come to me with suggestions, questionsa and took a genuine interest.
I guess your situation will be different but I would suggest that you target a few people and make your changes relevent to them and making their life different for the better.
If you can get some of the staff talking about the things you do in a positive light to their colleagues it will gain its own momentum
Once one group are chuffed with you do something for another group etc.
69 coupe said:
Why not send an embedded small video clip of what your new widget can do and how to implement it thus making their daily work routines so much easy/er.
They can then play it over and over to their hearts content.
To be honest a video wouldn't be especially applicable, and it's more of a general issue. Don't get me wrong I appreciate not everyone will be enthusiastic/interested in these things, much the same as I don't get too excited when they tell me the toilets are being painted - guess my question is how to get that initial interest.They can then play it over and over to their hearts content.
Already know the WIIFM principle but when you've told them and still don't seem to get any signs of the penny dropping you do start to question if you're doing it right.
paddyhasneeds said:
69 coupe said:
Why not send an embedded small video clip of what your new widget can do and how to implement it thus making their daily work routines so much easy/er.
They can then play it over and over to their hearts content.
To be honest a video wouldn't be especially applicable, and it's more of a general issue. Don't get me wrong I appreciate not everyone will be enthusiastic/interested in these things, much the same as I don't get too excited when they tell me the toilets are being painted - guess my question is how to get that initial interest.They can then play it over and over to their hearts content.
Already know the WIIFM principle but when you've told them and still don't seem to get any signs of the penny dropping you do start to question if you're doing it right.
Subterfuge,
Accidentally let it be known there is a secret way of doing XYZ, but the users are not meant to know about it.
They'll soon find out the secret, they'll pass it on to each other, weeks later everyone's using your secret method that only the "nudge nudge managers" should have been privy to use.
Beaten to it by Tyre Tread
Accidentally let it be known there is a secret way of doing XYZ, but the users are not meant to know about it.
They'll soon find out the secret, they'll pass it on to each other, weeks later everyone's using your secret method that only the "nudge nudge managers" should have been privy to use.
Beaten to it by Tyre Tread
Edited by 69 coupe on Wednesday 12th November 20:52
Subterfuge is certainly an option, obviously under the guise of a "pre-launch testing programme".
I suppose I'm at risk of sounding like I'm simply mewling but it grates a little when, in the current climate every single bit of business counts, every single bit of money saved counts, and you're trying to simply get people to look at a service you can offer that will save them money and could bring in business yet few people seem to give a st.
I suppose I'm at risk of sounding like I'm simply mewling but it grates a little when, in the current climate every single bit of business counts, every single bit of money saved counts, and you're trying to simply get people to look at a service you can offer that will save them money and could bring in business yet few people seem to give a s
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