Sometimes, during an incredibly frustrating afternoon, when nothing is going right, you might look upon the high school student operating the cashier register without sufficient effort and feel hopeless. I mean, it’s heartbreaking stuff, right? Minimum wage workers tend to be young, and when it comes down to it,

All of your hard work of building an enterprise trickles down to the person operating the store. That’s your waiter, waitress, host, chef, manager, cashier, hostess. Successful business owners know that years spent working on a project trickles down to your delivery. A small business without strong front-line workers is like a PowerPoint presentation with awesome information that’s too hard to read.

Your front-line, desk-less, hourly, minimum wage workers are your delivery.

Struggling with an Unmotivated Staff? Here are 4 reasons why your hourly workers are unmotivated at work

1. You Haven’t Given Them Anything To Care About

They want to care about your business. No seriously. They do.  Whether it’s an 18-year-old or 25-year-old working in the back, you need whoever is working in your business to be invested in your brand. Employees in the hospitality and leisure industry have the highest turnover rate in the United States industries. Hourly workers are also officially recognized as the unhappiest employee on the job.  It might be tempting to look at your hourly workers as just a part of the team that isn’t as invested, but that’s not true.  Hourly workers want to care about your business; they just aren’t sure where they fit in. 

Upward Mobility is the easiest solution to this problem. Most hourly workers feel as if they will be passed up or passed over for a promotion. If there is no place for your minimum wage or hourly worker to grow within your business, why care about the business at all?

Imagine:  

You rent an AirBnb and while resting leisurely on your rented couch, you accidentally spill a tiny bit of chocolate onto the carpet. You might: 1. Ignore it if it’s small enough. 2. Immediately wipe it up with a napkin or,  3. Dab it away with your finger, then smilingly reassure yourself that no one will notice and continue charmingly with your day or vacation. 

VS. 

You’re resting on the big comfortable couch in a home that you have bought or plan to live in for a long time and spill a bit of chocolate. . You are then. 1. Frustrated  2. Worried about the state of your carpet 3. Extremely efficient at cleaning it up and 4. very careful next time.

Be Honest:

Do you feel like your store is being treated like an air BnB or a home? If you say home, is it treated that way by anyone but you? The simplest solution is to offer upward mobility. Click here to learn more.

2. You Don’t Hold Them Accountable.

How do you measure good talent? Do you have a way to track the performance of your workers?  This is another thing that hinders a worker from working at their full potential.

Performance tracking is normalized among managerial and other higher-ranking execs but for hourly workers? Not so much. Desk-less work is often a group effort, so even the hardest worker might get outshined if there is no clear trackable way to see who has completed what tasks. It could’ve been anyone and that kind of “as long as the floor is clean, I don’t care who did it” mentality breeds discontent among hourly workers who might feel that their efforts are going unnoticed. 

The first step to motivating your employees through accountability is by tracking their performance.

The first step to motivating your employees through accountability is by tracking their performance but you can’t be everywhere at once, so consider using an app like Delightree to track accountability remotely.

3. There’s a Lack of  Communication 

If your hourly workers are lazy, slow, sluggish, this could be a sign that they don’t know you well enough to care about your business. Communicate more with your lower employees.  Introduce yourself and then re-introduce yourself to employees that have stayed with the company. Show up to meetings, throw celebrations for long-term employees and communicate honestly and openly. Participate in training videos and create videos for new employees if you’re too busy.  It’s easy to communicate with all levels of employees now with Tech.

It’s never too late to give some hard thought on how to create more invested employees.  Don’t accept your front-line workers as an afterthought after years of planning your business or expansion. Invest in them.