So often hourly workers are looked down on, and seen to be invaluable to a company and its worth. But maybe the real issue with an hourly worker is that they are treated as so, treated to be unimportant and replaceable. If you are guilty of this, it’s time to change your ways. Starting now you need to treat your hourly workers as though they’re an essential employee for you company.
Many hourly workers view their pay rate as a measure of personal evaluation. For hourly workers there is always room for a raise, which means the harder and better they work the more likely they are to be promoted. This means that these workers are probably working very hard to do well, which works out for you as the business owner.
Hourly workers need to be assured that they are important to the company. Reach out to these employees and help them reach their full potential while continually engaging them in corporate culture (meetings, lunches, e-mails, etc.) Also offer them incentives and benefits, and remind them often of how important health is- this helps cut back on sick time.
By offering flexibility in schedules and being considerate in times of crisis you create a more family oriented work environment. You can offer variable working hours, educational programs and even a drop-in daycare. Overall you want your employees to be as stress free as possible while they are at work. This leaves more room to be focused on getting work done! Not to mention, the happier your employees are the more likely they’ll want to stick around.
When hiring an hourly position be precise in what tasks are expected to be accomplished and in what amount of time these tasks should be done. This leaves out room for misunderstanding and slacking. Hourly workers only make money based on the work they’ve put it, and this makes it easy to keep track of goal completion and timeliness along with anyone who is falling behind. Hourly workers, just as salary workers play a crucial role in keeping a company afloat. Treat these workers like they’re important and watch them grow, learn and succeed.
