Never have so many accomplished so little with so many resources as
today’s employees. Temptations to slack off abound as never before.
There are hundreds of ways in which unmotivated employees can fritter away time and kill productivity. Some of these time-wasting pursuits are cutting-edge, such as Internet gaming or gossiping via instant messaging. Others are as old as hanging out in the break room.

In this era of doing more with a streamlined workforce, managers
can’t avoid dealing with low productivity for very long. Other employees won’t carry slackers indefinitely, and no good manager should expect them to try. Tolerating one employee’s low productivity is like admitting a virus into the workplace: Morale deteriorates, and the productivity of strong producers begins to decline. You need to stop this problem before it spreads.

HOW TO DIAGNOSE A PRODUCTIVITY PROBLEM:
WHERE SHOULD A MANAGER START?
Never underestimate a person’s ability to come up with a totally new
way to shirk work or to slow down and reduce his or her productivity. As long as there are salaried employees, there will be new ways to be unproductive. What can you as a manager do to stay on top of this silent but costly problem?

Interventions
• Set benchmarks. Which employees are very productive on a certain
task? Set that as the standard. As technology or resources improve, set the standard higher. If the task becomes more complex over time, adjust the standard down a notch or two.

• Understand how each of your employees works. When is the
employee’s peak performance time? What should the employee’s
work routine look like?

Years ago, a large consulting firm started each supervisory training course with a startling exercise. The instructor would ask each supervisor in the class to describe his or her responsibilities. The instructor would then say, “So, you plan, assign, and follow up on work, right?” “Yes,” the supervisor would say confidently. “And you feel you have a handle on what your people are doing?” “Yes,” the supervisor would always affirm. “So, what are your people doing now?” the instructor would ask.

Each supervisor would then be asked to fill out a sheet saying what each of his or her people were doing at that moment. The task sheets were given to other consultants, who went out into the workplace to see if, in fact, the employees were doing exactly what the supervisor had planned. They rarely were.

Taken From: 201 Ways to Turn Any Employee Into a STAR Performer