While our managers tended to think that the workers were loafing, the workers felt that productivity must not be very important if they were forced to leave their work stations frequently to get materials. The fact was that both parties were right but the company was the loser. Our response was to reorganize the work area so that no one takes more than five steps from the work station to get materials or to pass the product along to the next station. We also created a position of material handler whose job is to see that each station is fully stocked with the right materials every day. The net result is that our productivity rose from less than 70 percent to over 90 percent and the employees are much less tired at the end of the day.
Leaders motivate their employees .
The risk of losing ones job is a good motivator until the unemployment rate drops below 2 or 3 percent as it did in Winston-Salem several years ago. Full employment creates as many problems as does under-employment. All of our divisions are labor-intensive which creates an interesting challenge for our managers. From interviews with our employees, we found they are happy with the benefits and the work and loved the family atmosphere, but money was the motivator. They wanted a more direct tie between effort and compensation.