These 5 Tips Will Help You Get Your Team to Work Overtime
Ashley Wilson contributed to this article
Sometimes, you may need to ask your employees to work overtime if there are tight deadlines. This is not always an easy task.
Your team is under more pressure when you make a request.
Here are five tips to help your team work longer hours to reduce risk and promote a healthy workplace.
This advice will help you to avoid stressing your project team members.
1) Honesty is the best policy
Ask people to work overtime if you are honest and can explain why.
You need to talk to your potential employee about why they should work long hours.
They might also think overtime is the new standard. This won’t motivate them.
Instead, describe what happened, whether it was a deadline that you must meet or a problem that you need to solve.
Your team will know that you trust them and will give them a time frame for the situation.
Tell the team why they are needed and why you chose them. Then let them decide if they want to work. Or when and how they will work those extra hours.
This last point is often overlooked and many people feel unhappy working long hours. Employees do have a say. Treat them as if you were their servants.
If they feel like they have to say yes then your employees will do it, but they won’t be happy.
When you ask for overtime, take their feelings into account and explain how their skills can help your job.
It works!
2) Incentives work best
What advice can you give to someone who asks for overtime work?
While some team members may earn more if they agree to work overtime over time, sometimes money is not enough to allow someone to give up their time. For extra hours, salaried employees rarely get paid.
Consider offering comp time. This will allow your team to swap overtime for days off.
If they have eight overtime hours, let them take a day off. This will be a great perk for those who prefer a shorter work week. Be honest if you are unable to offer an hour-for-60 match. You should also advise that eight hours worth of overtime equals four hours of comp time. It is also important to clarify when they are allowed to take extra time off.
If overtime is done on weekends, create a new policy such as casual attire weekends and complimentary food and drinks in the kitchen.
Find ways to make overtime more fun or more appealing.
You can also give bonuses to employees who work overtime. This will give them an additional benefit.
Ask someone to work overtime. Explain the perks.
3) Employee Well Being Comes First
Before you ask your team members to work overtime, be mindful of their well-being.
While many team members agree to work overtime in order to make extra money, others are already overwhelmed with work.
They are often overwhelmed by too many tasks and are constantly stressed. Therefore, asking them to work overtime puts them under more pressure.
Use kindness and empathy to motivate people to work overtime. Consider your team, their work load, and their daily tasks. If they are already doing too much, you can pick someone else.
Empathy at work is a key factor in 76% of employees’ engagement and effectiveness.
If you are forced to ask your team member to work overtime, let them know that you value their well-being and offer flexibility in other ways.
4) Flexibility is key
Flexibility is key if you need to ask your team to work overtime.
Overtimes should not be considered regular work hours and should not be treated as such.
Instead of asking workers to follow their normal work schedules when they arrive at work on Saturdays, make some concessions.
