Ways To Avoid Social Loafing

Sometimes when we work together as a team, things just seem to click because we can reach our
goals and come up with creative plans together. But I beg to differ where there are times when we are
on just fizzles. This is when members don’t get their work done that has resulted to the team’s goal
does not reach or succeed. We frequently hear people debating about how to improve teamwork, and
one of the best ways is to eliminate social loafing. To help you deal with this issue, we provide you
some ways that can be used to stay engaged and on track so that you will have less social loafing on
your team projects.

1. create clear assignment

by clearly outlining straightforward goals, objective and duty to manage the workflow more effectively
within a team will definitely help the goals to be reachable. When we gave task within a team instead
of relying on the group to self-regulate, we obviously can sense the accountability in each team
member. Thus, it provides more guidance and motivates the team members to take and be
responsibility for their duties. We should never start a project without having a clear objective because
everyone has a need for clarity. So, leader is responsible to explain and walk the talk afterwards
effectively for the group members to attain the goals that has been set together.

2. increase supervision

when we provide more supervision to the group, it can courage the team members to maintain their
productivity and effort when working in a group setting as we keep reminding each other of
performance expectation, tracking progress and checking in about their contributions to ensure that
everyone is on the same path and does not deviate from the original assigned work. Hence, it is
important to monitor both the overall group output and individual input so that everyone are
contributes fairly and can carry out a higher quality work before submitting it.

3. divide into subgroups

when the number of group bigger, people most likely to assume other members to do the job. Thus, it
is better to keep it small as they know there is no extra help around to contribute more. Each
subgroup can work in specific task where feelings of obligation and commitment among members can
be attain. As a result, the impact of their contributions within a group will give the team members
motivation and provide more effort for the group.

4. provide individual recognition

If we honestly acknowledge all team members contributions and enhancing the visibility of the work
that they did, they will definitely feel more motivated and productive to strive for personal excellent
and be more confident to express their opinion openly since they know the team members are there
to support them. We cannot deny the fact that by giving people a voice, in time they will feel more
connected to the task. So, we must make sure everyone aware that individual actions can create
overall appreciation for each person’s actions.