We have have a new employee in our department. They have potential, but seems to not want to work fast enough. They are willing do the work but slowly. It's like they know they need to work while on the clock, but doesn't want to do much. They will spend 30 minutes on a slicer, 2 hours washing spoons and pans, 30 minutes cleaning the fryer parts, 20 minutes putting a fryer together, and has to go to the restroom every hour. How to I get this person to work faster without being mean or aggressive?
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Get to your department, get off your phone, and do your job!
Welcome to Management, there't not really any good way to do it. If you tell the associates they are slow, your being mean! If you tell the associates they are not meeting performance levels, they might just quit. With the ever changing associated base, you can only train someone to do a task.....not motivate them to move faster! Most New Hires do not have a Work Ethic and most likely will not, unless they are under pressure from a higher power (Their Mamma, Granny, Judge). We where told to be more personable and build a bond to raise retention levels......
While I dont want to beat a Dead Horse..... ELMS does not give "Being Personable" time...associates barely have time to do the basic job..let along have time to stand around and have a small meaningful conversation.
LOL! EUID Unknown! That is exactly what I was called yesterday. I was told by another employee "Be nice" I didn't know I was being mean. I was just trying to get our new employee to do the stuff so that they could learn how. I then later asked them if they liked their job because they working like someone who isn't enjoying their job. Again I was told I was being mean. I really don't know how I was. I know this new employee has potential, they just need pushed a little bit more.
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Get to your department, get off your phone, and do your job!
Put them on tasks that are more customer oriented and away from doing too much of the other jobs. I know that isn't an actual solution all the time per se. But to be honest with you, that is what I think my DH did for one chick that was new and came into our dept. before we moved into our new store. He moved her and some other peeps that were in bakery down to Deli. And it seems like she has a bit more hustle down in Deli when dealing with the customers more directly(or if you put her on other tasks, make sure it's sweeping or something of that nature. Where you don't need her services that seriously. And yet, she is still doing some necessary work too).
But I'm pretty sure if she had to make anything or do other tasks, she would likely be as slow as she was over in bakery(and when I say slow, I mean well and TRULY. As she would get a box of doughnuts at a time to slack them out when on closing. Or if we had sugar cookies to ice, she would take her sweet time icing each one just so. When we barely get enough hours to get what we need finished in the first place. And I say all this cause I know that I can be rather slow some days, she is even slower than me. Or at least her approach to doing the work is uber slow or like am I really here?).
Other suggestions of tasks that you could possibly get them on is breaking down the supplies or taking out the trash too. Again essential tasks, but not really something you will get uber annoyed at them over doing if they takes their time. As those tasks usually take a bit longer anyway to do. Sorry if that isn't quite the most helpful answer but at times it's best to pick one's battles with such situations too. And at least you can say know this person is at least doing their share of the work that you don't have to.
I almost wondered if this was written about one of my coworkers, but then I kept reading and you are in a different department from me. I have a coworker who sounds almost exactly like this (but not a new employee), who is smart and has potential but seems to drag their feet in every job.... it's like they want to work as slowly as possible so they don't have to do more. They act willing to work, and volunteer to do extra tasks... but whenever you leave them for the day and come back the next day, nothing seems to have been done. It is so frustrating to have people trying to put up a front of "looking" busy but in reality doing as little as they can get away with.
If it's a NEW employee like you said, they might just be unsure of how long a job should take, or not practiced enough to do it quickly, or trying to be extra thorough and careful. I am curious too if there are good solutions to this, but I think that the person above me made good suggestions.
BakerChick25, I like your advice, with the exception that the Deli is fast pace. If I put them on mostly customer service, I would have to do everything else. This slows me down. You are right though. I might just one week have them serve customers, make sure displays are full, (the simple things). Then the next week have them in hot foods, serving customers, and breaking things down. Then the next week have them do clean up. This way I can give them the positive feed back they want and then show them where they need to improve.
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Get to your department, get off your phone, and do your job!
I agree with this. You want people to go faster? Pay them more. Make them feel like their labor is worth it. If I'm being paid the minimum, I'm going to do the minimum. You get what you pay for.
You see, this where I disagree. I hire someone I'm going to start them at minimum wage and make them show me they are worth more, than that. If you want to be paid more, you need to show you are worth it. If you only do the minimum then you don't deserve a raise.
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Get to your department, get off your phone, and do your job!
I think that's the catch then. Why should people be expected to do more than they're paid for? Especially in Kroger, where raises generally aren't merit based. You wouldn't go to McDonalds and expect a filet mignon from the dollar menu, after all.
Let me put it this way. If I'm being paid well and a customer comes to complain about something we got wrong in the deli, I'm a lot more inclined to personally help them out, even if they have a bad attitude. Whereas if I'm being paid the minimum wage and on top of it getting yelled at, I just think "I'm not being paid enough for this bs" and pass them along to someone higher up to deal with.
BakerChick25, I like your advice, with the exception that the Deli is fast pace. If I put them on mostly customer service, I would have to do everything else. This slows me down. You are right though. I might just one week have them serve customers, make sure displays are full, (the simple things). Then the next week have them in hot foods, serving customers, and breaking things down. Then the next week have them do clean up. This way I can give them the positive feed back they want and then show them where they need to improve.
Glad I could help. And could be as Serenity said, that since the person is new, they aren't still quite sure of themselves just yet. I know when I worked a bit briefly over in Deli I was definitely slow about things at times. And I'm sure it irked my DH to no end. But he often tends to forget that he's worked there a lot longer than I or most other employees have. So what isn't "rocket science" to him, isn't the case for other associates. Especially in my case. As I know I don't fully grasp something unless it's done consistently enough that I can just do it by memory.
So yea, your idea of rotating them out on different tasks to help them learn things better and show them what they have to improve on might just help them pick up the pace as well. Fingers crossed that SOME of these suggestions work though.
Listen lady, if you're the department manager, just be honest with them. Tell them they need to do the sh*t or they could be written up for stuff not done, and eventually be moved to courtesy clerk pushing carts in the heat or even terminated if they aren't grandfathered into the union yet. Act like you are on their team too, not like some school teacher witch type with a superiority complex. Be like "let's get this sh*t done so we don't have to run around like chickens with our heads cut off at the end of the night." Make a wise crack about something and joke about stuff every once in a while. You need to laugh off some of the crazy stuff every now and then or you go insane. If you act like some authority nut, especially if it's a ghetto person you're dealing with, u're not gonna get good results and everytime u move people out ur department for bad performance it makes you look like a crappy manager. u'll never move up the corporate food chain if ur career minded at that rate.
