5 Top Tips on Boosting Employee Productivity

Maintaining a productive workforce is crucial to the ongoing success of your company. Here are five tips on how to get the most out of your employees.

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How to increase productivity in the workplace

What factors affect employee productivity?

Culture, development, respect, to name a few. How can you address all of these to get the most out of your employees? Below are 5 tips on how to boost productivity and maintain it…

Make sure everyone is fully trained

All new starters should be fully trained in the best methods to do their job, either through an induction or by shadowing more experienced colleagues. Be prepared to provide ongoing support.

Training shouldn’t begin and end at induction. One of the keys to improving productivity in the workplace is providing consistent access to education and training opportunities. This could include cross-training or supporting with an external training course. For example, you could offer flexible hours while they complete a qualification.

Try not to micromanage

Remember that staff can respond poorly to being over supervised. By trusting employees to take more ownership in how they manage their own time and resources, you can help encourage their own personal development.

Micromanagement stunts employee productivity by making them feel like they’re not trusted to complete basic tasks. They could lose faith in their own abilities, which will negatively impact their performance. Once you delegate a task, and have provided a brief, leave it alone unless the individual requests support.

Set targets

Set clear targets for your staff to work towards and put rewards in place for achieving them. Employees are more likely to get a task done on time if there are incentives, such as a dress-down day or bonus.

Knowing how to measure staff productivity is crucial to business success. Just make sure you aren’t too target-focused, as this can also demoralise staff. It’s also important that, when you calculate employee productivity, you don’t switch or alter the metrics. This will create an ever-moving goal post that can’t be hit, and will lead to disengagement.

Allow flexible working

More companies are moving away from the 9 to 5 bracket than ever, and are offering more flexible working hours instead. This can help staff maintain outside commitments and work during periods where they feel the most productive.

If you want to boost employee productivity, you need to make sure everyone is working in the environment that best suits them. For some, this will be a home office. For others it’ll be a mix of on-site and off-site work. For some businesses, this just isn’t possible. But, if it is possible, it’s definitely worth exploring.

Provide opportunities for development

Employees are more likely to work harder to succeed in their role if they can see potential for future opportunities. Provide ways for employees to develop their skills and knowledge, either through increased training opportunities or giving them more responsibility.

The basis for how to increase employee productivity is communication and finding out what the individual wants. Most staff will want development of some kind, whether it’s a promotion, more responsibility, or a change to their role. Have conversations with staff to find out what they want and help them achieve it.

Expert support

If you need support with employee productivity or conduct, speak to a Croner expert today on 01455 858 132.