Productivity is crucial in the workplace. When employees are productive, they can provide better customer service and be able to achieve short- and long-term goals fast. Productive employees can also help maintain or improve a company’s positive branding.
Employee productivity can make or break the success of your business, which is why you need to ensure that your employees remain productive all the time. Attaining this goal is easy as there are many ways to boost productivity in the modern workplace, namely:
1: Encourage Wellness
Even your best employees can’t function properly if their physical and mental health is neglected. How can they complete tasks in a day if they’re often stressed? Do you think they can provide the best customer service if they’re always sick?
One way to boost productivity in the workplace is to invest in company wellness programs. Offering wellness programs to your employees improves their dietary habits, promotes positive behavioral patterns, and reduces absenteeism, resulting in improved productivity.
There are several ways to encourage wellness in the workplace, such as:
- Ensure that all of your employees have robust and extensive health insurance coverage. If your budget allows, extend the coverage to their immediate family members.
- Offer discounts on fitness programs or local gym memberships. You can even come up with contests to encourage employees to achieve their fitness goals.
- Prioritize work-life balance by making sure that employees have adequate time off and they’re able to unplug from work during rest days or leaves.
2: Invest in Training
The long-term success of your business depends on the quality of your employees, which is why you should invest in their skills. The business industry is constantly changing, and your employees’ skills might become outdated as time passes by.
Assess the current performance of your employees to determine areas for improvement. Do they need to work on their customer service? Are they having difficulties using new tools for the business? Invest in training or workshops that enable your employees to improve, so they can continue to be productive in the workplace.
Investing in employees’ training also enables your business to meet the changes in the industry, which means that it’s a win-win for you. This simply shows how cost-effective training your employees are.
3: Eliminate Motivation Killers
Motivation and productivity are related in the workplace. When your employees are motivated, they tend to be more productive at work. If you want your employees to achieve their optimal productivity levels, you need to eliminate motivation killers present in the workplace.
First, you need to determine your company’s motivation killers. Some of the most common examples are:
- Chronic stress due to lack of managerial support or overwork
- Feeling under-appreciated
- Lack of professional development opportunities
- Negative employees who always bring employees down
After identifying the motivation killers in the workplace, come up with strategies to mitigate them. For example, if your employees feel unmotivated because of too much stress from lack of managerial support, reach out to them and inquire what tools they need to make their jobs easier. If your employees feel under-appreciated, implement recognition program benefits to show how much you appreciate their efforts.
4: Never Micromanage
Because of the time and money you’ve spent, you likely want to be involved with everything that’s happening in your business to the point of micromanaging it. However, micromanaging negatively impacts employee productivity as it stresses people and makes them feel that you don’t trust them. In short, micromanaging only slows things down.
Another way to boost productivity in the modern workplace is to refrain from micromanaging. This can be tough as you see your business as your baby, but doing so is essential to ensure your business’s success and longevity.
You can try these tips to prevent micromanaging in the workplace:
- Always provide easy-to-follow instructions when delegating tasks.
- Don’t be a perfectionist.
- Make it a habit to always check in with your employees to see how they’re doing.
- Only hire individuals with professionalism, judgment, and skills you trust.
5: Maximize Meetings
Meetings are important in the workplace, but having one that’s unplanned or mismanaged will only waste everyone’s time. Over time, this can cause the business to lose a lot of resources.
Before you schedule a meeting with your employees, assess if the topics you want to convey or discuss can be delivered through an email, video chat, phone call, or any collaboration tools. If you can, do that instead of scheduling a meeting.
If the meeting is essential, schedule it properly, create an agenda, and make sure that all of the participants stick to it. Following the agenda and starting and ending the meeting on time will significantly reduce wasted time. Don’t forget to allocate time for questions and discussions, so all participants get the chance to talk and share their opinions.
6: Give Employees the Right Tools
Your employees can’t function properly if they don’t have the right tools for their jobs. Even the simplest tasks will require so much of their time and effort if they’re not properly equipped at work.
One of the easiest ways to boost productivity in the modern workplace is to give employees the right tools. Generally, you need to provide the following to them:
- Collaboration and productivity tools: These tools like workforce management solutions for construction business to ensure that your employees work efficiently with others regardless of their location. Collaboration and productivity tools encourage teamwork, making it easier for your employees to complete projects together.
- Communication tools: These tools help your employees to stay in touch with internal and external stakeholders. Some of the most common examples of communication tools are email, Slack, and WhatsApp.
- Time tracking tools: Time tracking tools enable your employees to track the amount of time they’ve spent completing tasks. The information your employees can get from these tools will help them manage their time better, especially when they have too many things on their plates.
7: Improve Workplace Environment
The workplace environment also impacts your employees’ productivity. For example, if the workplace is too cold or humid, your employees will have a hard time concentrating and completing tasks. Workplaces that are too cramped can also cause stress, which can prevent your employees from working independently or in a team.
Improving the workplace environment is a must if you want to improve your employees’ productivity levels. Your employees should be provided with an environment that makes it easier for them to work and achieve goals.
Here’s how you can improve the workplace environment:
- Ensure that the temperature in your office is between 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the optimum working temperature that enables employees to work comfortably.
- Allow natural light to enter the workplace as this can benefit your employees in many ways. For one, natural light can improve the mood of your employees, resulting in higher productivity levels.
- Paint your office in the right colors. For example, muted colors can make your employees feel relaxed, while yellow can boost their creativity and promote happiness.
- Embrace an ergonomic workplace design to prevent eye strain and carpal tunnel syndrome in your employees.
- Place real plants in different areas of the office as these can reduce stress, absence rates, and sickness in your employees. Plants can also improve the memory retention of your employees and help boost their productivity levels.
Consistency Counts
The key to boosting employee productivity in the modern workplace is to remain consistent. Your employees won’t be productive if you’re only going to implement the strategies mentioned here for a couple of weeks or months.
Assess which among the tips presented in this article works well for your business, come up with a guideline, and implement them for good. When you’re consistent with your efforts in showing employees how much you care about them, it won’t be long before they’ll be productive again!
Author bio: Sophie Miller A freelance writer and Digital Content Strategist at H55 Digital
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