Are you getting tons of interruptions every day? Are you questioning why employees are coming to you when you know that they can easily resolve matters on their own? Grace Bauer shows you how to train your employees to work on their own.
Free up your day so that you can work more efficiently. Have a quick daily individual employee meeting with each employee for whom you're responsible. Save time by using the e-mail system for non-emergency items. Always ask your employee how they would handle something to start teaching them to think like you and resolve problems on their own. Don't forget that emergencies might strike during the day, so you need to be flexible. Keep following these procedures. Consistency is the key. Work in peace, gets lots done, and increase efficiency.
THE INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEE MEETING
If you want to put a stop to all those interruptions from employees, start holding daily 10 to 15-minute individual meetings with the employees who report to you. Inform them that they are to gather all their questions at that time, and that you'll do the same. Make it a point to review every item on their list and yours. Then make sure that they put aside questions or comments until the next day. This quick meeting is a great way to start the day. Employees will feel more important knowing that they'll have contact with you every day and you'll know what's going on and be in better control of the agency. This process will help prevent errors and omissions, limit interruptions, and increase your productivity.
E-MAIL
What did we do without it? E-mail is wonderful. Although it might take a little more time to get a response, the time that e-mail saves is tremendous. If questions come up during the day, use e-mail. Send a note, set a follow-up for a response, and wait for the reply. Get employees to use e-mail as much as possible. In the end it will save you tons of time. The only time I don't use e-mail is when I have to make an appointment. Because I don't want to send three or four messages back and forth trying to decide on a good time to meet, I usually set appointments by making a phone call. That's probably a good thing since we should try to be more personal in our increasingly impersonal society. Use e-mail to save time and increase efficiency by allowing you to work on those items that you want to work on during the day.
WHEN QUESTIONS ARISE
When questions come up, always ask employees how they would handle the situation. If the employees answer the question the same way that you would handle it, then let them go with it. Otherwise, let them know exactly how you'd handle it. They can go from there. This way, they'll always think twice before coming to you for a question knowing that they might be able to handle the situation on their own. Also, they eventually will start thinking like you when you let them know how you would handle the situation. This approach limits interruptions and increases efficiency.
EMERGENCY ITEMS
We all know there will be times when an interruption just has to happen. Accept the interruption, answer the question, and let it go. Let employees know that, “Yes, please get with me if you feel it's an emergency.” Otherwise, if it can wait, either e-mail or discuss it at the next daily employee meeting. Keep your door open. Let your employees feel that you're there for them all the time, but always set the guidelines. This procedure will help you gain the extra time you need to work more productively throughout the day.
OVER AND OVER AGAIN
To keep the momentum going, do it over and over again. It's all too easy to begin a process and then let it slip after a month or so. Something comes up, and we forget all about what we were doing to keep our time to ourselves. Don't stop. Keep the process going, and continue to keep your day free from interruptions.
CONCLUSION
Meet with employees daily. Make them feel more important and protect the agency from that horrible event: An errors and omission claim. Use your e-mail system all the time. Save lost time when calling someone or getting out of your chair to visit with an employee. Get just the answer back and, again, save lots of time. When questions arise, remember to question the employees. Train them to think like you and to handle situations on their own. Keep the door open, and make sure that employees can come to you when emergencies arise. And finally, do it over and over and over again. Stop the interruptions, get lots done, and go home knowing that you had a very productive day.