Friday, March 29, 2024

Ability x motivation = productivity

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When it comes to human resource management and people selection a simple maths equation holds an important lesson.
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University of California, Davis, labour management specialist Gregorio Billikopf said the lesson is in the fact ability times motivation equals productivity is a multiplication equation so each factor has to be multiplied by the other to get productivity.

That’s an important point, he believes.

“Productivity isn’t the sum of ability added to motivation. It’s the product of multiplication and what do we know about multiplication?”

As anyone who has done primary school maths knows the answer is that multiplying anything by zero gives the answer zero.

People to avoid

“I hear a lot of people say they will employ someone on the basis of attitude alone,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter if they have no previous experience of dairying. They say ‘I can teach them the skills they need but I can’t teach them the right attitude.’

“But what I’m saying is they need ability as well.”

To get the best productivity you need both.

“It’s not an either or. So it’s not that you either get someone who has a high level of skill or you get someone who is a team player.”

The people to avoid are those who have no aptitude at all, such as those who would walk past a sick cow not because they didn’t care but because they just didn’t see a problem.

“Having people on your dairy farm who have a gift for it – that’s what’s going to boost productivity.”

But having the wrong people on the farm can have the opposite effect and no end of motivation is likely to help. Getting the right person in the first place means effort needs to go into setting up the selection process.

Testing should be an integral part of that and included at the interview stage when the candidate is on the farm. The testing has to be appropriate for the job they’re interviewing for. If they’re a dairy assistant and will spend most of their time milking then taking them into the farm dairy and getting them to cup cows is an appropriate thing to do.

Observe

Give them a set of instructions, show them the written milking procedures and go through it with them so they have a clear understanding of how it’s done on your farm then ask them to step in and milk a row or set number of cows, Billikopf said.

It’s important to observe them to see if they follow the instructions but also to check they feel comfortable and confident around the cows and how they behave with them.

Another test was to give them a chart containing information and see if they could pull the right information out of it to answer some basic questions. It might have cow records on it or paddock and pasture details.

Questions to check basic numeracy skills were also a good idea. Could they pace out a paddock and cut it into thirds, work out what 20% of a figure was or calculate how much chemical was needed in a mix based on directions for a different volume?

If hiring a more senior staff member the testing will need to be appropriate to the responsibilities they will have. It could mean calculating break size and being given a specific example to work out on paper or it could mean driving out to the paddock where the cows are going next and asking them what they think the cover is. It could mean working through the software used to prepare a feed wedge and getting their opinion on the story the wedge is telling – getting them to interpret information.

One management test Billikopf devised included a series of tasks that needed to be done in the correct order with the candidates given enough information to make that clear. In detailing how their morning or day would run it became clear they could organise themselves and others.

Don’t assume

“We gave them an example where they needed a part from town but it would take two hours for it to be prepared and to pick it up,” he said.

“That meant they had to make sure the phone call ordering the part was made ahead of time if the rest of the day was going to run smoothly and all the tasks were able to be completed on time.”

When he’d run this test for a group of candidates only one got that right.

For senior people who will have staff reporting to them it’s important to know how they will treat staff under difficult situations. It might be hard to devise real life tests but using scenario-based questions or asking the candidate to relate a time when they had to deal with such a situation can give an indication of their approach.

“Ask them how they would approach a staff member who is repeatedly carrying out a task wrongly even though they’ve been told how to do it twice before.”

Don’t assume anything when it comes to skills you expect someone should have based on their previous employment or work history. Just because they’ve been a manager before doesn’t mean they were good at it or necessarily have developed the whole range of skills they need.

Billikopf also warned employers not to rely solely on references, particularly if the person is still in the job working for their referee.

“The best way to get rid of someone you don’t want is to sell them on to someone else.”

Tips for managing staff

Look for ability and motivation combined when hiring.

• Use tests appropriate for the job description in the interview.

• Do performance appraisals.

• Put the praise in appraisals.

• Use bonuses only for things over which staff have an influence.

• Talk to people separately as part of conflict resolution, help them with communication techniques then bring them together but stay a little removed.

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