Workplace Tip of the Month

You're welcome to publish our Tip of the Month on your Website or in your newsletters. Please attribute it to WFC Resources and create a link to www.WFCResources.com.  

Tip of the Month for June, 2009

1. Give the gift of trust. Lack of control over one's own work poses a risk to the cardiac health of workers as great as that of smoking. Give employees the freedom to make decisions about the tasks before them and pledge to trust each other in order to do good work and receive the benefits of it.

2. Honor the principle of inclusion at work. Isolation at work such as not getting information, being excluded from meetings, feeling shelved, your work going unnoticed, your suggestions going unanswered, or the boss playing favorites can lead to unhealthy insecurity, a loss of self-esteem and even depression. Replace isolation with inclusion, information and a sense of belonging to the team.

3. Provide time and space. Help employees get off the treadmill at work. Many people are getting ill not from too much to do but from their sense that they have too much to do all at once, all the time.

4. Convey what is expected. Give employees a clear picture of what is expected of them, what their job is, and what priorities they are being asked to observe from one day to the next.

5. Promote job fulfillment. Money is not the only reward people work for. Give them something just as valuable in the long-term - appreciation for doing good work, a thank you for the extra effort, and a realization that what they do contributes to the organization's success.

6. Share success at work. Help employees to see that success is something to share, not own. This requires leadership by example from the management ranks. Share the credit.

7. Call e-mail and voicemail ceasefires. E-mail overload can be a huge source of frustration and anxiety in the workplace. Casualties are mounting daily. Liberate employees from the enslavement of email where possible and try to make this the year you have a real person at the end of a phone line - at least sometimes.

8. Provide the gift of clarity. Set a future direction for the company. Productive employees need this sense of direction. Without it, bad management practices produce confusion, frustration and reduced output. This generates stress on a large scale. Weak leadership is bad for your health.

9. Listen to others at work. Listening is an art form, hearing not only what others say but understanding how they feel and what they need to do their job. Body language means a lot in communication between people and we can't read body language by email.

10. Redistribute workloads wisely. Heavy workloads are one of the major stressors in the workplace today. Employees are worried their workload is preventing them from doing a good job. They worry about quality and about making mistakes. Supervisors and managers must hear those concerns and interpret them wisely.

You'll get tips each month in the WFC Resources Newsbrief and Trend Report. To subscribe and immediately get the May 2009 issue, e-mail Anne@WFCResources.com. And to find out more about assessments, onsite and e-training, and downloadable tools you can use, check out our online store at www.wfcresourcesstore.com or call us at 952-936-7898 or 800-487-7898.