What to do about extremely low employee productivity in e-commerce companies? A complete analysis from causes to solutions.

yourE-commerceThe company didn't die from market competition, but from your rampant and cheap "benevolence".

Do you feel particularly tired when you open your eyes every day?

I watch over the employees clocking in at eight o'clock in the morning, afraid of being even a minute late.

I spent the morning watching customer service replies, afraid of missing a single customer inquiry.

In the afternoon, I had to go to the warehouse in person to check on the shipments, afraid that a single label might be mislabeled.

When I got home at night, I still had to deal with various group messages, and I was busy until 2 a.m.

You think you are the most hardworking boss in the world.

You feel that you have moved heaven and earth, and even moved yourself.

But when I picked up the financial statements, my heart sank.

Human efficiency is pitifully low, profits are as thin as a cicada's wing, and cash flow is always at risk of drying up.

what is this?

Why do you put in twice the effort but not get half the output of your peers?

I want to tell you a cruel truth.

This is not because the overall environment is bad, nor is it because the period of high returns is over.

There is only one core reason: your "business operating system" is still stuck in the primitive agricultural era.

You have fallen into a terrible "low-level diligence trap".

You are using tactical busyness to mask strategic laziness.

Now, I'm going to peel back this veil and thoroughly dissect this problem from three dimensions: management, organization, and funding.

If you don't unlock these three key points, you'll work yourself to death and still not make any money.

On management: A kind heart cannot command an army; use "emotion" instead of "rules".

Many bosses have complained to me that their teams are difficult to manage.

Especially those long-time employees who have been with me for several years, their abilities are clearly not keeping up.

Low output, lots of complaints, and a penchant for spreading negativity in the company.

But the bosses always say, "Oh, we've developed feelings for them, we can't bear to do it, let's give them another chance."

Please stop this womanly compassion immediately.

In the business arena, remember this ironclad rule: mercy to the mediocre is cruelty to the strivers.

Do you think keeping a mediocre employee is just a matter of paying them an extra salary?

Big mistakes.

In an organization, mediocrity is not zero; mediocrity is a negative number.

A mediocre employee has taken up a valuable position in your organization.

He drains your management energy, forcing you to constantly monitor him to prevent mistakes.

What's even more frightening is that he'll be like a rotten apple, corrupting everyone around him.

If you don't conduct a talent tiering and inventory and resolutely eliminate the bottom performers, where will you get the budget to raise salaries for top talent?

This is a very simple math problem.

If you give roughly the same pay to those who slack off and those who work hard, there will only be one outcome.

That is the famous "bad money drives out good money".

Truly outstanding individuals have discerning eyes.

They will feel it's unfair, they will feel there is no hope here.

In the end, all the capable people left, leaving only the slackers you couldn't bear to fire.

At that point, you'll really have to work yourself to death.

True management, in essence, goes against human nature.

What we need to do is to use mechanisms to ruthlessly remove resources from inefficient processes.

Then these resources are concentrated on feeding high-output talents.

The premise of allowing some people to get rich first is that the other unqualified people must be kicked out as soon as possible.

This may sound cold, but it is the greatest responsibility one can have for the survival of a company.

How to conduct a talent inventory?

You must establish a digital talent assessment system.

Don't rely on feelings, rely on data.

Who has higher output?

Which one has a higher conversion rate?

Who has the highest customer satisfaction?

Put everyone into a table and rank them by performance.

The bottom 20% of people, no matter how many years they've been with the company, no matter how many times they've drunk with you.

Those who need to be talked to should be talked to, and those who need to be persuaded to leave should be persuaded to leave.

Once you cut these negative assets, you'll find that the company atmosphere instantly improves.

Those who stayed saw hope and saw fairness.

Human efficiency will naturally increase.

Regarding talent: Don't complain about the difficulty of recruiting; it's because you don't understand "asset reuse."

Many business owners in second- and third-tier cities are always complaining.

"Our area is too small; we simply can't recruit experienced people."Internet marketingAn operations expert.

"I want to find a skilled trader, but no one wants to come."

This is also a huge misconception.

You're recruiting with the mindset of looking for a "savior".

You're looking for an operations director who brings their own resources, knows everything, and can dominate the entire operation as soon as they arrive.

This is essentially "gambling on luck".

A company's core competitiveness should never be built on "relying on geniuses".

Geniuses are not only expensive, but also extremely unstable.

If your company can't function without one particular person, then you're not far from going bankrupt.

True masters are those who build "systematic capabilities".

Don't go searching the world for a "sharpshooter" in the market.

What you need to do is build a modern arms factory.

You need to solidify all your experience, your tactics, and your processes.

Turn them into standardized SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).

Every action, every word, and every step must be written down clearly.

Once you have this system, your hiring standards will completely change.

You don't need to hire those arrogant so-called "experts".

You only need to look at two indicators: "learning ability" and "execution ability".

As long as you're quick-witted and willing to work, that's enough.

Throw him into your arsenal and train him according to the SOP.

A soldier who can learn the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in three days is a qualified soldier.

No matter how much experience you have, if you can't learn it, you're not qualified.

This is true industrial thinking.

Let ordinary people do extraordinary things

When your company has a complete knowledge base system, miracles will happen.

Even a recent graduate from a small town can produce 80% of the required performance if they follow the procedures.

This is the secret to how KFC and McDonald's have spread all over the world.

Have you ever seen a McDonald's chef who has a Michelin three-star rating?

No, they are all college students working part-time.

But the burgers they make always taste the same.

That’s the power of the system.

You need to turn this ability into a company asset, not your personal property.

When your skills are "assetized" and can be "reused," your productivity can grow exponentially.

Otherwise, you'll always be using expensive human resources to fill the gaps in your processes.

Regarding capital: Profit is an illusion; cash flow is the lifeblood.

The last misconception is that many business owners simply can't keep track of the accounts.

I've seen far too many companies that look great on paper.

The boss showed me the report and boasted, "Look, this order has a gross profit margin of 30%, and that order has a gross profit margin of 40%. Doesn't that look impressive?"

I simply asked him, "Do you have any money in your account at the end of the year?"

He was stunned for a moment, and stammered, unable to say anything.

why?

Because all your money has become inventory, sleeping in a dark warehouse.

What is the scarcest resource for small and medium-sized enterprises?

It's not profit, it's cash.

Profit is just a number on the accounting books; it's fictitious.

Only cash that lies in a bank account and can be accessed at any time is real.

You must re-examine your business from the perspective of "capital turnover rate".

If you do a business deal with a gross profit of only 10%, but you can turn over your money once a month.

Over the course of a year, your return on investment is 120%.

If you do a single business deal, you can make a 50% profit margin, but you can only turn over the money once a year.

Then your annual return rate will only be 50%.

Although the former may seem like a tough job, it actually pays more and carries less risk.

How to improve turnover efficiency?

Extremely strict inventory management is necessary.

Any inventory that exceeds a certain period is a cancer to the company.

We must remove it at all costs.

Discounts, promotions, or even selling them as scrap.

As long as you can get cash back, it's a victory.

Don't be stingy with sunk costs.

Having inventory stuck in your hands not only ties up your capital, but also incurs storage fees and raises concerns about devaluation.

Turning goods into money, even if you lose a little, as long as the money is circulating, there's a chance to make it back.

This is why many large companies pursue "zero inventory".

Every inventory turnover represents an increase in wealth.

If your efficiency is low, it's most likely because your cash flow is also slow.

Everyone is busy moving unsold goods. How can that be efficient?

Conclusion: The Harsh Truth of Business Evolution

In this era of dramatic change, any form of stagnation is essentially a regression.

We must acknowledge that the business world operates on the coldest law of the jungle.

The law of entropy increase tells us that closed systems are bound to descend into chaos and destruction.

Only by introducing external energy and breaking the old balance can the system achieve a leap forward.

The pain you are experiencing now is actually the growing pains before a cognitive upgrade.

Don't try to discover new lands using old maps.

When you can look at your company from a creator's perspective, you'll find that all problems, in the final analysis, are mathematical problems and human problems.

Let go of those false emotional entanglements and return to the fundamental logic of business.

Use extreme rationality to build systems, and use swift and decisive methods to manage them.

This is the greatest act of kindness towards employees, families, and society.

Hopefully, this in-depth review can act like a scalpel, cutting open the abscess in your thinking.

It allows you to awaken amidst pain, and to be reborn in that clarity.

Final Thoughts

Finally, let's review today's key takeaways:

the first,Management must be ruthlessEliminate mediocre employees, don't let bad money drive out good, and allocate resources to top talent.

second,The system needs to be strongEstablish a standardized SOP arsenal, no longer relying on individual geniuses, and realize the asset-based reuse of capabilities.

third,Fast turnover is requiredShift focus from gross profit to capital turnover rate, eliminate inventory problems, and ensure healthy cash flow.

You can hear a principle a thousand times, but if you don't put it into practice, it's still worthless.

Starting tomorrow morning, I suggest you do three things.

The first thing to do is open your employee list, circle the worst 10%, and resolve those issues within this month.

The second thing is to personally write your core business processes into a foolproof Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

The third thing to do is to go to the warehouse and clear out all the goods that have been sitting there for half a year.

Let's take action.

Even if you only change a little bit, you're already ahead of 90% of people.