Productivity is one of the core metrics for any business or organization. A productive work atmosphere provides many benefits for the employer and employees. Some of these benefits include bigger profit margins, more turnover for the organization, more satisfied customers, expansion, more efficient workflow, etc.
Enhancing productivity can be challenging if you’re meeting an already entrenched organizational dynamic. This is because people are typically resistant to change. In addition, certain kinds of management or leadership can hinder productivity.
Types of Management that Resist Employee Productivity
- Indecisive management: As much as it’s good for the administration to consider the opinions of their staff, it’s also essential they arrive at a decision and not waver from it. Employees are followers, and they need guidance. Decisions on deadlines and company policies can differ between a productive firm and an unproductive firm.
- Unreliable management: Management should lead by example. If the administration doesn’t demonstrate ethical conduct, the employees shouldn’t be expected to. Also, if the management refuses to assume responsibility for a fault, employees shouldn’t be expected to take responsibility for theirs as well.
- Lazy management: It’s wrong to think that leadership is all about delegating tasks to subordinates while relaxing in the office. A management that isn’t hands-on cannot inspire productivity. If you enjoy relaxing, your employees will find excuses to do less work.
Fortunately, it doesn’t matter if one of the above types of management describes your organization. As long as you follow the helpful tips provided in this article, you can reverse and improve the situation.
Employee Productivity Tips
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Absence of Distractions
One of the core ways to enhance productivity is focus. When your employees are constantly distracted, probably by personal stuff, intra-organizational politics, and hard-to-please customers, achieving productivity will be improbable. So how do you tackle this? You can do this by subtly getting rid of distractions.
For instance, using the above examples, the management can either stop or severely limit personal phone calls during work hours. Evaluate the time spent working and the time spent on non-productive activities; this will help make the necessary adjustments. You may even decide to take extreme measures such as breaking off ties with customers who aren’t worth the trouble.
Also, consider acquiring methods that can help your employees do more work in a lesser time. This boosts productivity, employees’ sense of worth, and job satisfaction.
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Excite your Employees
The second tip to boost productivity is to excite your employees. An employee that’s happy to work is a productive employee. It doesn’t get any better than that. Here are some of the ways to excite your employees during work hours:
- Please pay attention to conflicts between your staff members and ensure it reaches a win-win resolution.
- Advocate for an excellent life/work balance and streamline their work experience.
- Acknowledge outstanding employees by giving incentives.
- Mark occasions such as their birthdays, wedding anniversaries. Not saying throw a party, but an acknowledgement from the company can mean a lot.
- Listen to the feedback of your employees concerning the tasks they carry out.
The management largely determines whether a company staff is happy or not. Admittedly, certain employees aren’t meant to be in your organization, but most of your staff want to work for you. It’s your job to show them they chose wisely.
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Be a Productive Employer
This is arguably the most effective way to enhance productivity during work hours. The staff will model a boss who’s hands-on, known to assume responsibility for their mistakes, and demonstrates ethical conduct. This is also the easiest way to get your staff in sync with what you want.
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Utilize Certain Tools and Technologies
It will suck if your employees are still manually executing tasks such as inventorying and sorting files into cabinets. Certain companies are still big on paper documentation, which has a side effect of negatively impacting the environment. This is the 21st century, and your workspace should reflect that.
There are tons of technological options to boost productivity in your workspace. Which one you should go to depends on what you want to do. If it’s a recruitment company (which entails sourcing suitable job applicants), check this website for the tool that can assist.
Utilizing technological tools in the workspace is an excellent way to save resources and time. Every forward-thinking organization should take this tip seriously. The reasons include high ROIs, and your company stays relevant despite the fast-changing industry trends and dynamics.
Conclusion
The tips mentioned in this article have one thing in common; they’re all active methods. This emphasizes that employers need to be actively involved in enhancing the productivity of their companies. When employees see that their employers care about the growth of their organization, they will care about it and their performance will improve.
One more thing, you should utilize an online forum where they can speak their mind anonymously to get honest feedback from your staff. Also, read between the lines when listening to their feedback. For instance, a complaint about the new deadline may be a call to get a more hands-on deck to meet up.
Author’s BIO: Lori Wade is a journalist and content writer from Louisville. Lori creates news and informative articles about HR, recruiting, and employee productivity. You can find her on LinkedIn.