Whether you are operating a new startup or running an established enterprise, employee productivity is one of the top priorities for all business owners. Productive employees complete tasks faster, deliver quality, and drive profitability for an organization. They serve as long-term assets that contribute to the growth and reputation of the business.
Going the extra mile to boost the productivity of your workforce, therefore, makes sense. Fortunately, making your people more productive does not cost a fortune, and neither does it require a massive effort, provided that you take the right approach. Here are some actionable ideas that you can implement to get the desired results.
Set clear goals and communicate them
Teams and individuals do well when they have clear goals and instructions. It is imperative for business owners to start with defining the goals for employees and teams to help them get straight down to work. Let them know your expectations and also give them tasks that are relevant to their profiles and capabilities.
Establishing goals is only half the work done. You need to give people the direction,
and communicating these goals to the workforce is critical in this context. Regular
interaction with managers helps as they can pass on the instructions to individual team members and monitor their performance to ensure that it is on track.
Keep the deadlines realistic
When you set goals for employees, there will be deadlines for achieving them as well. Keeping them realistic is the key to securing productivity because unrealistic deadlines will only stress people and steer them off-track. They can even lead to disputes and have a negative impact on employee loyalty and retention in the long run.
Follow a meticulous approach to divide tasks into realistic milestones, defining steps to achieve them, and getting them across to the responsible workers. If people come ahead with problems, listen to them, and be open to realigning deadlines for addressing genuine concerns.
Bring accountability in your systems
It is vital to fine-tune your systems and bring accountability to them. It means setting expectations for individuals and having meaningful consequences in place. Consequences could be positive and negative- positive ones include increased responsibility, constructive feedback, and incentives, while negative ones include working overtime to fix the issue, not giving them performance bonuses, or denying a promotion.
When every person is accountable for their responsibility, they will do their best to fulfill them and secure positive consequences. While you set accountability for tasks, ensure that you also give them the authority to complete them, or get help where they need it.
Provide the requisite tools
Productivity doesn’t depend only on the efforts that people make. Rather, it requires the right kind of support too. Unless you empower the team with the requisite tools, you cannot expect them to deliver. To start with, ensure that they have the right kinds of devices with the specifications needed to handle their tasks.
Macbooks are a great choice for business users because they come loaded with high-end productivity features. Your employees can even connect Macbook to monitor if they want to work on a bigger screen. Consider investing in mobile devices like tablets and smartphones for people who work out of the office.
Empower employees with productivity apps
Apart from providing your employees with the right hardware tools and equipment, you can also empower them with productivity apps. There is a host of them to explore for handling different aspects of workforce productivity. Consider investing in tracking tools if you have people working remotely.
Project management apps, communication tools, and task management software are some other applications you can integrate into your work environment to help your people give their best.
Create a positive workspace
A positive workspace motivates people to go a notch higher in terms of quality and
completion of tasks. While creating such a workspace takes some investment, it is
completely worthwhile. Invest in one that is appealing to the eye and makes people
comfortable.
An open space always gives positive vibes, so make sure that it is not cluttered with useless furniture and knick-knacks. Good lighting makes people feel more energetic and impacts their performance as well. Add the green element to the office to add extra energy. Apart from physical aspects, work on having a positive culture and environment as well.
Steer clear of micro-management
When it comes to having a positive work culture for your business, you cannot overlook the importance of steering clear of micro-management. Although you may want to keep an eye on the performance of the team, going overboard gives a negative impression and breeds distrust. Let them do their job, and they will probably be more productive than when they are always micro-managed.
A healthy management style is all about keeping a check on the milestones and ensuring that they are being met, but not following every single detail of the project. Micro-managing will only increase your workload and employees’ stress, which means that everyone will end up losing on the productivity front.
Prioritize workforce engagement
Even as workforce engagement is a subtle factor, its impact on employee productivity
cannot be overemphasized. A happy and satisfied worker will make a conscious effort to do the best for the business. You can expect them to deliver the best quality and volume of work by being more productive, so workforce engagement should be the top priority for any business owner.
Appreciating performers with motivation and rewards will motivate them to get better and inspire others to make efforts to reach the same standards. Also, ask for employee feedback and do everything possible to address their concerns. Show them that they are valuable to the business, and you will reap the rewards of loyalty and productivity.
Employee productivity requires support from managers and business owners. But the investment is worthwhile because it gets your organizations on the growth route. Productive workers have the potential to be the growth catalysts that any business needs to surge ahead. Following these tips can surely help with achieving the top levels of productivity for your workforce.
