Improving employee productivity
is one of the most important objectives for every organization. Higher productivity leads to the economic growth, profitability and better social development. In Addition, employees who are more productive get better growth opportunities.
They stay longer and find meaningful work. Moreover, higher employee productivity tends to maximize organizational competitive advantage through cost reductions and improvement in top quality of output.
The most critical and obvious way to start with is to set the right goals for the employee; make sure that the objectives are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely and are in-line with the employee’s skill set.
1. Give people a purpose larger than themselves
’ When employees have a purpose that is larger than themselves, they will be self-motivated to deliver more. The purpose has to be established by the leader of the company or leaders in the company. The greatest organizations in the world are the one’s that have clarity of purpose.
Framework: Help employees answer ’why’, ’what’ and ’how’?
Why are they being asked to do what they have been asked to do?
What is their role and how is it going to impact their future growth within the company and in the larger working ecosystem?
How does the company work and what is expected of the employee?
2. Communicate Effectively
’ Transparency is the best key for effective communication; clearer the communication, the more productive the employee will be. Encourage your employees to have phone calls and quick meetings; this reduces the time spent on other ineffective modes of communication. It will also help in team building as there is a personal connection in both these forms of communication.
3. Incentivize Employees
’ One of the best ways to motivate employees to be more productive is to actually give them a reason to do so. Appreciate and encourage your employees to increase their productivity.
4. Train and Develop Employees
’ Helping the employees to expand their skills will build much more advanced workplace, which will benefit your company in the long run and improve efficiency and employee productivity.
5. Include psychological hint to boost employee productivity
– Psychology has shown that the things that surround an employee could affect his or her mental state. These cues can help the employees in increase their focus. Among the elements that a company can incorporate include: Music, Plants, and Lighting etc.
6. Encourage employees to help each other
– Human beings are social animals and the natural inclination is towards helping others. Collaboration takes multiple methodologies, including brainstorming, cross-document collaboration, or picking up projects where other employees get stranded. Additionally, this sort of partnership fosters teamwork and a more united attitude towards the job.
Organisations can use team collaboration apps like Slack, Whatsapp groups, Facebook for work to increase employee collaboration across the department.
7. Give frequent and timely feedback
– When an employee achieves something, give him or her that recognition. Always consider giving a reward for employee service that exceeds expectations. Even negative feedback helps because it ensures employees understand expectations. Ensure that the feedback is timely. Create a process-driven timely feedback loop.
Most global organisations use the 360 degree feedback process to ensure that employees gain the right feedback at the right time and from the right person. Today a lot of companies also share feedback within peer groups. This also creates a lot of understanding within peers working together.
8. Be open to receiving feedback too
– Listen to your employees when they ask for better tools. Listen to their needs to ensure if they’re happy with the equipment or not. For better employee productivity, ensure each person is in the right role for his or her needs and skills.
9. Offer workers the tools they require
– Modern workplaces can provide a wide array of the necessary equipment to get work done. Keeping these assets up to date ensures that employees can get the job done when they need to.
10. Make achievements public and celebrate them
– Celebrating achievements offers employees the chance to enjoy the fruits of their labor in the short term. The achievement might not be an essential goal, but it does constitute a milestone.
11. Build a culture of efficiency
– If you’re going to increase the employee productivity in your workplace, you need to build a culture that supports efficiency, hard work, and focus.
Many organisations move their senior employees across several departments every year. So every key employee has a taste of each department and knows what it takes to grow the company. You can also create a culture of inter-team understanding. This will help your organization thrive through tough and good times.
Some employees when given the opportunity can also find new portfolios of work where they might be able to use their skill sets more.
Employee Productivity is an outcome of how they are being treated at their organization, are they aligned with their work, are they being heard, does their feedback matter?
Organizations need to increase their focus on making the workplace more employee-friendly to ensure the best and productive results. Discovering these root causes can help exposing the path to maximum the employee productivity.
