Motivating your staff to increase workplace productivity is not about telling people they have to do more. Admittedly, that might work in the short-term, but in the long run, it often leads to burnout, discontent employees, and a complete lack of satisfaction regarding their tasks, which benefits no one.
If the solution was that simple, this would not be a challenge many companies struggle with. Bear in mind that growing a productive team is a multi-faced matter that goes deeper than input vs. output in which is categorically worth delving into.
Increasing your staff productivity level covers a wider array of benefits from increased revenue and lower overhead,faster time to market your services, or products to higher customer satisfaction. Improving productivity also means you have to stimulate employee engagement and reduce turnover, which in turn takes the load off your business and propels growth.
Why isn’t your staff more productive?
Even your most committed employees can be unproductive, but such issues arise when productivity diminishes across the entire workplace. Lack of productivity leads to low output, performance, and profit and can also affect morale and cause the working environment to become a toxic one.
Some of the most common issues that trigger loss of productivity in a company are lack of recognition, no growth opportunities, lack of communication, no work-life balance, and most often lack of tools. As a business owner who hopes to motivate your team and increase productivity, you should first understand the underlying issue of your employee’s behaviours and apply common reasons and necessary tools to motivate them. It goes without saying that a company that doesn’t address the human motivation behind productivity will continuously be at war with itself, struggling to gain terrain on the market and increased revenue while continuing to lose valuable employees who could make that happen.
Increase productivity with training
Typically, the most common issue causing low productivity is when your employees don’t have sufficient training on software, technology, machinery, and other systems. These “though skills” can be easily addressed with proper training.
Proactive organizations with a learning culture see high productivity and performance. They have developed a training program that addresses certain skills helping their employees to improve the immediate needs of the company. However, when it comes to overcoming typical business challenges like losing competitive advantage or having a low productivity level, a robust and modern training program can offer your company long-term solutions.
Invest in project management and time tracking tools
If you are avid to increase your team efficiency, you are likely to know that with the right tools and applications that can be possible. Hiring skilled workers will not pay off until you decide to provide them with the right tools.
Indeed, providing your staff with all the necessary equipment might come along with additional costs, but this is actually a smart investment regarding the future of your company. It goes without saying that with better tools, you’ll gain productivity, better customer service, higher profits and more satisfied employees.
Because for your employees it gets quite common to feel disorganized and overwhelmed when working and managing specific projects, investing in smart management software can help them keep things organized, communicate more efficiently, and increase accountability with no stress.
Productivity tools are all about lost time and their equivalent in gold. Thus, it makes sense to consider an online portal for timesheets where you can manage your team projects more efficiently with in-depth analyses of your team’s expenses and time. Simply put, these applications will allow you to measure the number of minutes or hours that your employees spend on a certain task. Doing, so you can effortlessly hinder them from procrastinating while ensuring that no productive time is wasted on unofficial tasks.
Offer Perks and Benefits
Are you providing your employees with the benefits and perks they want and deserve? Benefits make for satisfied employees, and satisfied employees are naturally more productive. There are numerous studies backing this up, and research that involved 700 employees by the Social Market Foundation in Britain showed that happy employees who were given “happiness shocks” ( perks like snacks) and then performed a task were up to 20% more productive than other groups who were not given the perks.
Where should I start? To decide whether the perks are increasing your productivity or not, you should start by assessing your current employee productivity level. Before you modify benefits to skyrocket your productivity, make sure you have current and fair standards in place to assess the productivity level on every position. But what benefits should I offer? When asking someone to name a few employee benefits, basic health care and sick day are on top of the list. While some of these benefits are legally mandated by the state in which you have your business, you should feel free to name a few of them.
- Birthdays off
- Free gym membership
- Free or low-cost childcare
- Telecommuting options
Improve Workplace Conditions
Inadequate working conditions can impact your organization productivity. Ensuring you have the right environment in your office is essential for your employees. For instance, an optimal temperature has to be around 68- and 70-degree Fahrenheit. If there’s either too cold or too hot in the office, this can be discomforting for your employee, which may affect their performance. In turn, this may lead to a low productivity rate. Make sure you always maintain a stable temperature in your office to avoid potential disagreements between your staff members who more than often prefer different temperatures.
A well-functioning company culture is something you will achieve in time with proper tools and the right training. Using these to overcome low productivity will undoubtedly produce new opportunities for your company to thrive among high performing market leaders. Even though the low productivity issue may seem manageable at first glance, in time challenges, you will encounter as a company can be both deeper and broader, so you’d better prepare for it.