By Mashum Mollah
One of the most important aspects of keeping your business alive and thriving is through increasing employee and workplace productivity. When everything in the business is going well and as expected, most business owners don’t give productivity much thought. However, when things get tough or there is a major impediment to operations, things grind to a halt quickly.
On the other hand, when operations and productivity are running smoothly, things tend to continue with minimal intervention – which is a good thing. However, how do you get to that point and transform your business into a productivity powerhouse? Here are 4 proven strategies on how to improve and increase your employee’s productivity in the workplace.
Better Recruitment for Improved Cultural Fit:
It is time you change your typical recruitment process and make it more like a “courtship.” This involves screening future employees first, for how they fit in with your business’ core values. Creating a strong focus on employee cultural fit, even before they start working, saves you time and money in the future.
On the other hand, if you already have a team in place, you can energize them by hiring a person who fits in with your business culture. Expected results included increased productivity as well as motivation.
Do Not Micromanage:
One of the best tools for increasing productivity in any business environment is by having your managers back off. This surprisingly simple, yet orthodox, a piece of advice includes encouraging employees to take responsibility over how they manage their own resources and time. Your goal is to have self-starters who are capable of operating independently – something you can do with software like Humanity and others.
Granting your employees the freedom over how, when, and where they work offers them a better way of proving their work ethic. In fact, most people are better motivated in an autonomous environment than by financial rewards. Therefore, all you need to do is stay out of the kitchen!
Encourage Self-Care:
In the five years between 1996 and 2000, numbers of employees calling in sick due to stress-related issues tripled. The commonest source of stress for American adults is work-related pressures and fears, according to the American Institute of Stress. Even when stressed employees show up, they are most likely mentally, emotionally, and physically unhealthy – and less productive.
When your team is stressed, everybody is losing. However, you can use the right kind of stress to motivate productivity, but the main goal is to prevent burnout. One way of doing this is by encouraging employees to take care of their emotional, mental, and physical health.
Doing this requires listening to your employees to create a communicative, healthy office culture. Other things include offering constructive feedback, creating clear success parameters, and giving your employees meaningful, challenging work. Did you know that simply keeping your equipment up-to-date would also help prevent employee burnout?
Improve Employee Skills:
After screening and hiring your employees, another key component to increasing productivity is training. Training greatly helps both you and your employees, leading to greater efficiency. You can also improve your training process so you train your new hires without losing your mind – it has worked for many businesses and it can work for yours.
Final Word:
Some of the strategies on increasing work productivity above may seem counterintuitive at first glance, but they have shown repeatedly that they do help in making employees happier, more engaged, and more efficient. Fortunately, you do not have to sink thousands of dollars into implementing these strategies. All you have to do is place yourself in your employees’ situation and ask yourself what it would take to improve the work culture in the office.
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