Your employee productivity will determine your business efficiency. It is therefore essential for companies to continually look for ways to improve its operations. To help your company become a productivity powerhouse, we are providing 12 strategies to increase employee efficiency.
- Improve the Recruitment Process
While it is essential employees have the right employment and academic background, we also recommend screening every candidate to ensure they are the right cultural fit. Many employers unfortunately underestimate cultural fit during the hiring process, but the right personality has the potential to energize a team, which can boost motivation, morale and productivity.
- Enhance Skills with Training
Once you have hired the right candidate for the company, the next step should be to enhance an employee’s skills with training. The training process will benefit both the employee and employer. For example, the employee will benefit from professional development and potentially a new qualification, whilst an employer can enjoy greater efficiency and knowledge in the workplace.
- Stop Micromanaging
Many managers are often tempted to micromanage staff to improve productivity levels; however, this can often have an opposite effect. Often, the best tool for boosting workplace efficiency is to back off to allow your employees to take ownership of their work, time and resources. So, stop micromanaging your employees and trust them to operate independently in their roles.
- Clear Communication
Communication is key to a successful business. Managers must therefore aim to clearly communicate responsibilities and expectations with their teams, which will result in greater engagement and productivity levels. This will also prevent employees from assigning blame, which can slow down growth and impact morale. As a result, your team members can focus on the future rather than dwelling on the past, which will allow a business to constantly move forward.
- The Right Tools
Employee productivity will be determined by the tools they are given. If you want to streamline your operations and boost efficiency, you must provide your staff with the right tools for the job. For example, you can improve a marketer’s productivity with the best marketing automation tools. Rather than creating a one-off, manual campaign to introduce a customer to your brand, you simply utilize marketing automation to send a variety of pre-built automations, such as order notifications or an abandoned cart email.
- Promote Health and Wellness
Do you want to prevent employees from calling in sick for work? Encourage your employees to care for their physical, mental and emotional health. For instance, occupational pressures can cause significant stress to both a team member’s personal and professional life. Counteract workplace stress by listening to your employees, encouraging breaks in the working day and establish clear parameters for success.
- Remote Work
Do you want your employees to log more hours, become more productive and take fewer sick days? If so, allow your staff to work from home. Many employers are starting to realize the benefits of remote work, as the number of employees working home increased from 39% to 43% from 2012 to 2016.
- Don’t Ban Social Media
Many employers make the big mistake of banning social media to improve business productivity. Unfortunately, this can destroy employee morale, which can lead to decreased productivity. As mentioned, a mental break is good for a team member’s health, which is why you should trust staff to browse their social feeds in between tasks.
- Employment Perks
There is a reason why people across the globe want to work for companies such as Google and Facebook. In addition to providing forward-thinking roles, the businesses also offer many employment perks to boost efficiency and morale. For instance, they are known for offering everything from nap pods, free haircuts and massage rooms.
It is an effective way to reward your staff for their hard work, encourage loyalty and improve your operations. From a beer at the end of the working week to a free holiday or activity, look for different perks to improve employees’ professional and personal lives.
You also don’t need to spend a substantial amount of money to provide an employment perk. Simply place yourself in your employees’ shoes to think about a perk that will boost their happiness at work and productivity levels.
- Productivity Measuring Tools
If you want to manage productivity, you must first aim to measure it. Productivity measuring tools are an effective way to both monitor and streamline multiple projects across the business. Not only must you monitor the quantity of tasks that are being ticked off the list, but it is vital to review the quality of the work, too.
- Boost Employee Morale
A happy workplace will encourage engaged employees to work smarter and harder. While those who feel unhappy at work will feel disconnected from the brand, their work and the company values. In addition to saying goodbye to micromanaging and providing employment perks, you can also boost employee morale through feedback.
Prove how much you value your employees by simply saying “well done” or “thank you” for a high-quality piece of work, superb sale or successful project. You can also go one step further by rewarding a member of staff with a bottle of wine or extra vacation day.
- Lead by Example
The attitude you display can have a ripple effect across the business. If staff see a boss slacking off then they are more likely to do the same. Motivate your workforce and lead by example, so they will aim to mirror your productivity and commitment to hard work.
Conclusion
As you can see, rewards, recognition, independence, communication and training can transform your employees’ working life, which could yield fantastic results for your productivity levels and, in turn, your profit margin. You must therefore take the time to improve the working environment to improve your business.
Have you successfully transformed your productivity levels? Have you got any tried and tested methods to boost employee morale or track productivity? We would love to read your thoughts. Please feel free to share your best business tips by logging into the comment area located below.
