The success of a company is significantly determined by employee productivity. Nothing is as stressful as working with employees who struggle to meet deadlines. This may make your business lag behind in the industry.
Therefore, as an employer or manager, you need to learn practical strategies to motivate your team. This guide discusses nine ways to increase employee productivity.
Know Your Employees
It is essential to take time to know your employees beyond their resumes. You should learn about their personal goals, aspirations, and challenges. As a result, you will know the best ways to motivate each one of them. For instance, if an employee informs you that they are dealing with a mental health issue, you will know how to provide a suitable workspace for them.
However, you need to make your employees feel comfortable informing you about such critical matters. You can walk around the office asking them about their families, how their weekend was, or when they plan to take the next vacation.
It is important to follow up on a story that an employee told you. For example, if in your previous conversation they informed you that their daughter is sick, you should ask them the next morning about her progress. This makes employees know that they work under a caring leader.
Getting to know your employees also helps you discover their untapped skills. For example, you might notice an employee who works in the field is very talented at social media marketing. Consequently, in future you can give them tasks based on their strengths. Employees are always motivated when they feel heard and understood.
Communicate Clearly
Miscommunication may hinder you from working in the same direction with your employees. Thus, you should communicate clearly with them about your expectations. It is effective to have meetings often to keep them informed.
You should also encourage them to bring ideas to the table. If you are not around, you can communicate with them through another leader or online meetings.
Give Feedback
Feedback is vital as it helps employees discover the areas that are performing well and those that still need work. Positive feedback motivates them, while negative feedback educates them.
You should also request feedback from your employees. When you are willing to listen to corrections and accept mistakes, you set a good example for them.
For instance, when you introduce a new approach in the company, you should ask your employees to give their opinions about it. Critical feedback will help you make decisions that are in the best interest of the employees and the business.
Set Realistic Goals
Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely (SMART) goals are important in businesses. Employees are always productive when they know what they are working towards. Therefore, you should not set unrealistic goals as this can demotivate them.
For example, you can set a goal of a particular percentage of profits that the company needs to reach by a certain time. Then, you will provide the employees with milestones on how the goal will be attained. You should do this for all goals, be it individual tasks or major projects.
Recognize Good Work
Measuring the performance of employees is vital as it helps you know those who need training or guidance. However, you should recognize good work to make your employees feel appreciated.
Most companies that reward employees usually record-high performance. You can even set competitions, for example, an employee who makes a certain number of sales will go on a paid trip, and so on.
Provide Them with Advanced Technology
With the advent of technology, many office tasks can be automated, giving employees time to perform other tasks. Hence, you should provide your employees with advanced technological tools to make their work easier.
Tasks like planning meetings, posting content on social media, paying bills, email responses, replenishing supplies, payroll preparation, and employee scheduling can be automated. Doing manual tasks repetitively can lower employee productivity.
Do Not Micromanage Them
Undoubtedly, you want everything in your company to be done right. However, this doesn’t mean that you should micromanage your employees. Micromanaging makes employees feel like you don’t trust them, and in turn, they won’t perform tasks unless you ask them to do so.
The chances are you hired talented employees, so you should take a breath and let them exercise their competence. Employees will be less happy and productive if they are told precisely how to do their work. It is essential to have ground rules, but they should not make your employees feel controlled.
Encourage Risk-taking
Unfortunately, most employees are afraid of making mistakes because they could be fired. Thus, they will not take the initiative to take further steps during projects to avoid criticism if the new ways fail to work. However, this is not right because it can delay your growth. You need to encourage your employees to take calculated risks. This will make them feel confident and innovative.
Provide an Ergonomic Work Environment
Your work environment plays a critical role in employee performance. You should ensure that you have a comfortable workspace to keep employees healthy and attentive.
First, you should have ergonomic furniture. Since your employees spend about eight hours daily at their desks, you don’t want them to have backaches or other complications that can affect their performance. Besides, you should have standing desks in your office where employees can work from when they are taking a break from sitting. Moreover, make sure that the monitors are an arm’s length away. You should also include footrests under the desks for extra comfort.
Lighting is also vital in creating a comfortable work environment. You should ensure that adequate natural lighting enters your offices, to reduce eye strain and headaches. If your business is in a location that doesn’t allow sunlight in, such as in a basement, get daylight lamps to give your offices a feel of natural lighting.
Productive employees can help your company make huge profits. The tips discussed above can help you promote employee productivity and keep them motivated.
