Work Expands to Fill the Time Allotted...and the Time Allotted Must Equal the Work Required.

The following questions are geared towards taking a proactive leadership approach with your most valuable asset.
(As a business owner / executive you are not doing yourself, your shareholders or your employees any justice by either overworking your employees or paying your employees for nonproductive, non value-added time.)
Ask yourself the following:

How many hours a week are you scheduling your employees? Why?

Are you writing schedules based on the hours needed for employee compensation requirements or based on the work that is needed?

When was the last time you measured the amount of work needed based on fulfilling all internal and external customer requirements?

Do your salary employees write daily work planners? How many hours a week are they really "working"? (note: overworked employees and slackers are equally detrimental to your team)

How many hourly employees punch in late and punch out early and do not get “docked” for pay?(a recent study done at a Fortune 500 company revealed this cost to be well over 11 million dollars annually).

Do you allow hourly employees to work "off the clock"? Why?

Think about this….as a leader you need to make decisions on what is best for the team. Successful teams are strengthened by creating a synergy of balanced input from each team member. Demanding too much work from some and accepting less work from others deteriorates that synergy. Ask yourself the above questions one more time...and then take a proactive approach with your "people".