For a business to be successful, two things are important- happy clients and productive employees. If your employees are not happy with the work environment or they don’t find any motivation to continue working hard, it can be catastrophic for your business.
If you want to work with more productive employees, you need to engage them with more than decent salary for the time and work they are putting in. For that, you need to know the employee, compliment their hard work, and work on strategies that can help you increase their productivity.
Employee productivity ensures that a business is successful. Here are some facts regarding this:
- You need to work on strategies to engage your employees because the highly engaged staff is 38% more productive than other employees
- Using the internet during work-hours leads to unproductivity. A survey records that 48% of people admitted that they used the internet for non-work-related things which is distracting.
- A more productive employee tends to take a small break after every hour or so. Breaks help increase productivity, and the top 10% of engaged employees agree with this.
- If your employees are tired or sleep-deprived, you can lose more than $63 million.
Now that we know the importance of employee productivity, it is time to create some strategies that will help us improve the productivity of our employees.
In this article, we will explore 10 such strategies that are easy to implement. Let’s begin.
1. Taking regular breaks are important
As we read earlier, top engaged employees take regular breaks. Isn’t it something worth noticing? Every productive employee will say that taking regular breaks is important. When you continuously work at a task without taking breaks or slowing down, your performance decline. Your concentration breaks, and it becomes impossible for you to have any breakthrough, especially if it is a tough task.
That is why you need to get up from your desk, and either chat with other employees, or relax in a cafeteria, drink coffee, and so on. It will give you time to think clearly, and you will be able to get back to your task with more enthusiasm.
2. Feedbacks are crucial
In an office, there are tons of employees, and every single one of them matters for the business to succeed. Every employee wants personal success too and appreciation too. For both of these, you need to provide them with your staff with frequent feedback.
Now, this works two ways- the first way is by taking feedback from your employees. It will involve asking them, are they facing any problem? Or are there any distractions? Or are they motivated enough, and so on.
Ask them, what you can do better can help you create a plan to improve the issues, and work on guiding the employees.
The second way is giving your feedback to the employee. Every person working for your business wants appreciation and recognition for their work. Similarly, if they fail at a task or do it wrong, giving them feedback for the same is important too. You don’t have to be negative with this, but constructive criticism is important. Make sure that you motivate your employees with your words once a week. If they fail at a task, show them the ropes, but don’t spread any negativity in the office. Encourage employees to praise and support each other as well.
3. Make the office a place that reeks of motivation
Your employees will be spending the better part of their day at the office. It means that workplace ambience should be inspiring and motivating. There are tons of ways you can do this like:
- Hang motivational posters all over the office. It will help the employee find inspiration if they are dealing with a hard task. Use Canva to create posters.
- Let them decorate their desk with personal things like family or posters or so on.
- Lightning is important. If the office has proper lighting, they will have more positive energy. So, invest in the good ceiling light and so on. Also, make sure that the infrastructure of the office is such that a lot of natural light comes in.
- Have plants in your office. It makes the place more calming.
4. Mentor your employee with the right attitude
Mentoring is important for your employees, and it is one of the best ways to increase their productivity and keep them engaged. If you are a team manager or at a superior post, and see your team members struggling, you need to help them. Make them see a solution that they are missing or help them solve the problem.
But you need to check your attitude while doing this. If you use the wrong tone or gestures, your help can be seen as condescending or a performance review in the negative light. So, work on your attitude, and make sure you help the employee see the solution, and not hand them the solution.
5. Two-minute rule
As an employee, you need to work on yourself to improve your performance and productivity. One way you can do this is by following the two-minute rule. In this rule, you see all your tasks and figure out a task which you can do within two minutes or less. If you come across such a task, make sure you complete that ASAP.
It will help you be more productive, because you have a system, and if you work on a task that takes too long, you can be behind your schedule.
6. Multi-tasking is not always great
Multi-tasking doesn’t always work. If you are doing a lot of tasks at a single time, you not only lose time, but your focus dwindles too. You have to focus on every task which makes it impossible to give your undivided attention to a crucial project. It can lead to less productivity and engagement as you get frustrated when you get no results.
Instead, work on a single task, commit fully, and your productivity will increase, and you will be able to manage your time better.
7. Team-building trips
Time away from the office can do you and your team some good. It will give you a chance to bond outside the office. Take work trips where you all have one goal in mind, like accomplishing a more positive outlook or working together to achieve the same goal. It still works, but not in an old-fashioned way.
It helps productivity without offering more wages or bonuses to the employees.
8. Increase employee’s well-being leading to more productivity
If your employee is not feeling well mentally or physically, it will hinder their engagement and productivity.
Mental health: the pressure and stress from work can derail a person’s productivity. Making sure that no one is bullying an employee or harassing them is important too. You can have a counselling cell for the employee who is dealing with work stress. Also, have a cell for people who are being harassed in any way and take strict actions.
Physical health: If your employee works extra hours, but is not productive, discourage this habit. Instead, provide them with free gym memberships, or have a gym in the office that encourages them to take care of their health too.
All these tips are effective, and you need to implement them in your business. If your employee is engaged with the work and brand they are working for, they will be productive, and your business will be more successful. Thus, before you worry about your sales or customer satisfaction, worry about employee productivity, and work on it.