I work in a large commercial cabinet shop and we have a TON of work. Not a lot of people are working overtime. Nobody cares. I'm not in management, but I'm friends with people in management and they are frustrated. Very simply, how do they (management) get people to work overtime and not get behind in the work?

People have to be invested to care. Also get rid of the trouble makers or ones that seed the hate for leadership people. Once that's done, you can create an environment that's fun and if people know the company also works for them, they will become more willing to work hard. Look up some of the lean videos, that will engage the employees into improving the company but leadership must also buy into it.

When America was an agrarian based country, hard work was taught to a lot more children. When I took my first full time job at Caterpillar in 1972, they gave higher preference to farm boys, which I was. Today, hard work is something many want to avoid. To inspire people, it's good to show them a career is possible instead of just a job. Train them at different stations and possibly provide bonus for those who take classes if a community college has classes that can improve their skills in the shop. CNC classes come to mind.

Dustin & Rich,

Both well said comments, especially hire that farm kid for they know there is no such thing as a free lunch. The kid that served in the military also comes to mind as a wise investment.

Encourage continuing education, for sure.

Make everyone feel that they are a part of a team.

Be sure to publicly acknowledge a job well done. Ask for input on a task: “Hey Steve, how do you think we should approach this project?”

Assign skill-appropriate responsibilities. “Hey Joe, how about taking a run over to the job site and find out if the electricians are done”

If the guy still doesn't seem to care, maybe he would care more if he had to go look for a new job.

Cash incentives for meeting goals and such.

In my younger years, I worked in a boiler factory. Many there were on “piece count” incentives. Great for mundane, repetitive tasks. Not so much where skilled craftsmanship is needed.

Figuring out how to motivate people is the hardest thing for me.

Some people are driven by money. They're the easiest. Do X, you get Y. They'll walk threw fire to spit on their grandma for the right money.

Some do it for the pride of doing something well.

Some like cranking and pounding out product. Weaning waste at every step because they've made it a game. They're my personal favorite. I love lazy people, they abhor hard work and do everything right because they never want to touch it again, and will expel as little effort as possible in the process. I think they're my favorite, because they don't need me. Give them a task, turn em' loose.

I think the younger ones need a constant dopamine flow with atta boys, and confirmation. Ugh.

Leadership is freaking hard. I still suck at it after 19 years.
I've mentioned this before I'm sure, but I was desperate and pulled a guy from an employment agency. He told me he was motivated by money. Great! But he was a dirtbag, a victim, and didn't want to learn the way to push product, which is what makes his paycheck possible. So I asked him one day. "Who do you work for?" He said he worked for me. I told him he's a fool if he works for me. I haven't done anything for him. I am a means to an end. He works to pay his mortgage, he works to feed his family. He doesn't work for me.
I think most employees in any industry think the boss is rich, incompetent, and screw him. When they forget that their employer is a means to an end

Dont take on more work so no one works overtime. Overtime is a serious cash drain for a company and a drain on moral. Make the place run more efficiently.
Second get rid of slackers.
Bonus $$ for improving workflow.

Simple, you don't work overtime. My dad owned a shop for 40 years and early on he would work saturdays when it was busy. He told me it didn't take very long and the employees were throwing hands at each other. Once he figured that out he never worked an hour of overtime again. Worked with another guy in the old days of "the company comes first". He worked all the overtime that THEY wanted him to work. A year before he retired he said he was wrong, the company doesn't come first, family does and I missed out. Every hour you want someone to work is an hour their kids miss out. Hire more people, become more efficient, whatever it takes, but don't work overtime. Thats the reason I started my shop, so I could take more time with family.

In my experience it depends on the employee. Some want OT and some don't. We let them work if they want but we don't force it on them.
I don't believe it actually costs much more because it is making better use of my fixed overhead costs.
Also what Dustin said "get rid of the trouble makers"
Be careful with bonuses. After a while employees might think they earned one but didn't. Can get messy.

Most factories slowly destroy people it's hard to work in a building with no windows, and tedious tasks. Most bosses have attitudes like why are the workers complaining " I DON'T TAKE LUNCH BREAK "
This is just a general description I have no idea what kind of building you have or what size .

@ Gary: I think of overtime the same way you do. It's more hours of (hopefully productive) labor in a given calendar period. If you plan to cover your overhead costs in an 8 hour shift, then any additional hour of labor in the same day costs you the direct labor, taxes, and benefits, and not the overhead. In our case, with a relatively high fixed cost of plant, equipment, and salaried office employees, overtime hours worked on the shop floor are the most profitable hours. This only works if the workers are actually being productive in the overtime hours. Fatigue and the general tendency to waste time are a problem.

Time and a half after 8 hrs per day. Time and a half for Saturdays. Double time on Sunday.
People actually like spending time with they're family.

Employees care about a work place when there is good leadership and good management. A culture of invested employees takes time to build. Little things matter.

My daughter works a s a software developer for a 2000 person company. The main office has a cube farm. There are no offices, just conference rooms. The whole management team has desks out in the cube farm with everyone else. The company schedule is set up around families with kids. For example, everyone has this week off, with pay.

I worked in a ten person wood shop. When I started there, the owner would work with us. as years went by he upgraded his class status. No more talking over lunch, no more helping out in the shop, just boat shoes khakis and pink polo shirts. Stealing sick time, bad dust collection, promote bullies, etc. He couldn't make the effort to get a plumber when we had no toilet for a week. The boss was unable to tell us what was expected, and people would argue over what we were trying to do. Bad hires made the lifer's lives harder. Promoting the bad hires to management was even worse. The good side was they would get fired. We had a 65% firing rate.

The core group had kids, stay at home wives, and no similar work within an hour. We had skills the owner needed.Things got slow in the early 90's we were stuck with the owner, he was stuck with us.

After a few years, we took every opportunity to make his life hell.

Make policy well known and easy to follow, hire slow and fire quickly, know when they are producing and when they are not and make them accountable, and do the work necessary to organize the shop

I hear a lot good things regarding lean manufacturing, The Toyota way is a real page turner, especially how Toyota turned the worst performing plant at GM( with unbelievably bad personnel problems) to the best performing in the US

Wil Sampson has a podcast aimed at woodworkers that offers some insight into this

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS82a
W43c011Ug?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwisqYWEpfv_AhWSie4BHXa7DWoQ9sEGegQIARAN

Re: Harold
That is the story of my 2 kids there is no way there touching my business I can't afford them . The cabinet business is turned into a pyramid-type business run by people with no skill.

What Harold described is a place I worked in the late 90's last job ever working for someone, they were doing 3 million interiors for planes and never saw sunshine all winter . My shop has windows painted drywall.
Love your line "promote bullies" seen firsthand that's the hard truth of the factory-type cabinet shop.
That line I used was from overhearing a conversation from a designer I took to court to trying to get paid 'Why do the workers take lunches I don't "
The money is big at the top of the Pyraim and greed takes over so expect this to not end soon unless customers wake up

Is there anything you can do to improve efficiency and reduce the need for overtime? What are the working conditions like in your facility? Is your facility clean and organized with proper lighting?

Few people, especially the youth, want to spend additional time walking through 6 inches of saw dust working with outdated machinery that makes the job much harder than it needs to be. If the facility is in shambles it reflects on the priorities of the leadership and will deter people volunteering for overtime unless as Karl said, "they are driven by money". I think you will find the youth are driven more by the quality of life than by money, to the point of being unbalanced in many instances.

If you provide employees with a pleasant work environment and modern efficient tools to do their job it won't solve all your labor issues, but it will help and becoming more efficient in how you work will reduce the need for overtime hours as well.

Apply Maslow's hierarchy of needs to get them motivated.

I like all the suggestions here... locating trouble makers sowing discord, paying more, finding what motivates employees. However, I think the best way to motivate people sometimes is giving them ownership because then they have real skin in the game.

My small business employs 6 people and it is employee-owned. They have some equity in the business and depending on how the business does, they receive benefits. Everybody is in the same team and we have the same interests.

Smart

There should be a reward system to get them motivated to work efficiently.

Oh man, that sounds like a tough situation. I totally get how overwhelming it must be with so much work piling up and not enough people working overtime. It's frustrating when it seems like nobody cares about the workload and the impact it has on the shop.

As for your management friends, I can imagine how they must be feeling stuck. Getting people to work overtime can be a tricky task, especially if there's a lack of motivation or interest. They might need to find ways to encourage employees to put in the extra hours without causing burnout or resentment.

One approach could be offering incentives, like extra pay for overtime hours or some kind of bonus or recognition for those who go the extra mile. It might not solve everything, but it could be a good way to show appreciation for the extra effort.

Communication is also key. Management should talk to the employees about the importance of the workload and how their contributions can make a difference. If they can make the team understand the significance of their work and how it affects the overall success of the shop, it might inspire some to step up and help out.

Additionally, ensuring a positive work environment and fostering a sense of camaraderie among the team can be crucial. When employees feel like they are part of a supportive and united group, they may be more willing to pitch in during busy times.

Of course, it's essential for management to be understanding and sensitive to the employees' personal lives as well. Encouraging work-life balance is important to prevent resentment or burnout.

Ultimately, there's no one-size-fits-all solution, but finding the right balance of incentives, communication, and employee support might be the way to go. Good luck to your friends in management; I hope they find a way to tackle the workload and get the team on board without causing too much stress.

How much OT are we talking here? 5 hours? 20 hours?

Time and a half following eight hours per day. On Saturdays, time and a half is added. Sunday is double time day.

To encourage employees to work overtime and care more about the workload, management could try recognizing and rewarding their extra effort, and also ensure open communication about the importance of meeting deadlines for the team's success.

My best suggestion is to pay your employees well and show them that you appreciate them by doing the little things that separate you from your competitors (i.e. hand deliver paychecks every week, pay for lunch every once and a while, don't overwork - give your workers realistic timeframes to finish jobs and don't run them into the ground, and pay them better than your competitors). Hope this helps.