Keeping score is good for business

“Measure everything of significance. Anything that is measured and watched, improves” - says Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy, quoted by Entrepreneur Magazine. Therefore, if you want to improve your team’s performance, you must persuade your colleagues to start keeping score of their own achievements.

Why to keep score?

• Firstly, without score there would be no winning or losing. Which means there would be no possibility of success and no reason to feel proud when a great job gets done.
• The score is a result of competition. No score means there is no competition - not with coworkers, and not even with yourself. That’s actually bad, because healthy competition is a way to increase motivation and productivity.  
• People need to feel they’re making progress to feel content with their work. No one likes to do the same thing over and over again without seeing results, as behavioral economist Dan Ariely explains in this video.

Let’s say you offer courier services. Your team should measure how fast they can get to a client and how many deliveries are made in one day. Maybe you are managing a sales department. How many leads do your salesmen bring every month? Can you do anything to achieve better results?

The first thing you should do is learn how the business actually works. How everyday activities of your employees develop? Do your colleagues operate well as a team? How satisfied are your partners with the services you provide and what claims do they have? You must analyze all that information and generate accurate reports to see the flaws in the system. There is a bunch of software application to ease your work.

Then, have a meeting to discuss with your coworkers and put up a plan to streamline activities. You want a boom of enthusiasm? Every month, show them how well they did and offer incentives to those who improved their performance. 

Why GPS Tracking mobile phones gets employees more committed to their job?

More and more managers choose to implement a system to monitor their employees in the field. The benefits of doing that are many, but I won't make a list here. Still, a certain scepticism continues to exist towards these solutions that can develop a strong resistance to change, because people might feel distrusted or constrained.

I'll just say it right now: if you don't have the essential leadership skills, not a single innovation in the whole wide world will do the job instead of you and lead employees on the right path.

The key to increase the commitment of your team is engagement!

So how do you do that by GPS Tracking employees mobile phones?

Engagement implies being friendly, treating people as equals (without becoming their best buddy, though), teaching them, communicating efficiently and being transparent. As I said it before, just being an annoying supervisor won’t get you very far: instead of improving their work, people will spend more time trying to find out a way to trick you and the system.

Start by being transparent! We think it’s best if you notify employees about their phones being monitored. If you don’t, they will eventually figure it out and feel cheated. Our advice is to use the system to guide each of your people through their daily activities, assign tasks and give constructive feedback when necessary. That’s why Nexus Locator has a chat embedded.

How to deal with team’s resistance to change?

Resistance to change is a natural reaction and you should expect it to happen. So get ready to face it with some strong arguments! First, start by explaining to your team why you chose that solution for the company - maybe you need a better perspective of your business or you think that better coordination will ease everybody’s job!

Then, explain why there’s nothing to worry about. First and foremost, people fear their privacy will be violated! Assure them you won’t do such thing, or that you’re not even able to do it - and here I talk strictly about Nexus Locator application, which is a tracking software created to improve business flow, and not a spying tool. That means the app is visible on the phone and can be closed whenever the phone’s possessor wishes.

Another fear people have is that they won’t catch a break with a monitoring system on their phones. Discuss that matter with your team saying that you don’t want to over-stress them, but neither to let them skip work. That’s fair, isn’t it? You can even establish a timetable: let’s say 5 free minutes every hour and a 30 minute lunch break... or whatever suits your business.

The win-win situation

If you keep your demands reasonable, properly communicate with your people, fairly appreciate their efforts made for the company, and you won’t abuse your power under no circumstances, they will also repay you by being more committed.

Now that your employees understand your need to monitor their activities and feel less threatened, it’s time to reveal the advantages they get by using the system:

• They work better as a team, with you getting more involved and coordinating their activity from the office.
• They are being treated equally: appreciated and rewarded for jobs well done, or admonished when they fail. It’s justice for all!
• By respecting a strict schedule they will look more professional when meeting clients or business partners.
• They will get explicit instructions on how to solve certain pressing problems.
• They will improve their efficiency.

You can improve services and grow your business by choosing the smart way to use the monitoring system for mobile phones. So don’t forget this article and come back with any question you might have!

Dedicated employees get you more money!

Think of your employees as your company's interface with business partners. You seek progress? - Make sure your people do their job right! But be careful, the solution is not to constrain and over supervise them. You must be a leader, not just an annoying boss!

So which are the best 3 practices to keep employees on the track?

1. Let them get involved.

Well, people like to feel their work matters and to take responsibility at their job. If you don't give them the freedom to make decisions and implement them, they will get used to being permanently coordinated and pushed from behind. You don't want that! It's proven that passive employees are less productive. You must find a way to guide them towards fulfilling your objectives without interfering too much in their job (except when it’s absolutely necessary).

2. Find and hire people dedicated to their career, not to the company.

Start right! Don’t bring in anyone and then expect marvellous results. Make sure people you chose are compatible with requirements and values of your company. You need a common base to collaborate properly. But don’t stop at that. In fact, if you chose a person just because she agrees with everything you say, you have pretty good chances to confine your business growth.

3. Money are important, but not everything.

As the video below explains, when one task involves only mechanical skills, the higher the pay, the better the performance. Once the task calls for even rudimentary cognitive skill, a larger reward lead to poorer performance. Still, don’t get too stingy!

GPS Tracking employee’s productivity

It’s not easy to keep your business partners and customers happy. But here’s a tip: try to listen to what they need and deliver exactly the same, or better, in the shortest time. They will definitely appreciate your effort. The next question is how to get your employees to share your philosophy, be dedicated to the company and get the job done right?

Well, you can show them you value their work by getting more involved in the process.

Nexus Locator is a tracking Android app that converts any smartphone into a tracking device, so you can constantly keep in touch with your people in the field. You can assign tasks and communicate with them via mobile, see their position anytime and monitor all activity from your desk. Don’t forget to give a positive feedback for every job well done!

How does it work?

With Nexus Locator installed on your mobile network, data is sent to the Nexus GPS Tracking system, which conceives monitoring reports and notifies authorized persons about each employee’s route. You receive information about speed, departure, stationing periods or achieved points of interest (hot spots) in real-time. The maximum registration error is of just 25 meters. Also, the application does not require a permanent connection to the GSM network. The data can be sent to the server when the device is connected to a WiFi network. The most important features are: (1) the last location (2) summary of activity (3) speed alert (4) alert at departing (5) alert when stationing and (6) crush alert.

 What will you achieve?

To begin with, your employees will be motivated to get more done during working hours, therefore their productivity increases. And also their safety when in remote areas where they can get lost or are at risk. Costs are reduced, time is optimized and spendings on overtime hours decrease.

You can access your gpstracking.ro account from your laptop, tablet or smartphone and obtain in seconds a wide perspective on your human resources and even on your fleet, if you also use the GPS Tracking for the cars in your company. This simple and easy to implement solution will eventually translate into business progress.