Employee productivity is a crucial factor in the success of any business. But, maintaining high levels of employee productivity can be difficult as employees come and go. This guide will provide you with tips to increase your employee’s motivation and performance to meet deadlines better and deliver results for your company.
With changes in working patterns over the last few years, many firms have found it difficult to sustain staff productivity!
The good news is that your staff truly want to do a good job. If you give them the correct tools, environment, and support, they will perform admirably.
The little less-than-positive news is that you must do so while COVID remains uncertain and you must consider the implications of permanent hybrid and remote working arrangements.
It’s not always easy, but it’s doable. Gallup reports that in 2021, it had the highest percentage of engaged employees ever. Given the links between employee productivity and engagement, this is a fantastic place to start.
This 101 guide will help you learn more about staff productivity, how to raise it, and how it relates to employee engagement.
What exactly is employee productivity?
Employee productivity is a performance metric that records the amount of output each employee produces per unit of work.
If that sounds a little fiddly to you, you’re correct.
Employee productivity is a wholly individual statistic, as opposed to ‘staff productivity’ (also known as ‘labor productivity’). It measures the production of the entire workforce.
What does this imply?
For starters, it is more difficult to define. Each of your employees is critical to the success of your company. What does your marketing team consider a “unit of productive output”? What about your front-line store employees or drivers?
Second, it is more difficult to quantify. The output of your entire team may be measured pretty readily. Because not every employee will work in a job with a clearly defined output, you’ll need to think about how to tailor your strategy to other positions in your firm.
1. Delegate Tasks
Delegating tasks is one of the most effective ways to boost employee productivity. There are many benefits to delegating responsibilities, such as creating slides, performance analysis, invoice management, etc. It helps employees learn new skills, gives them a sense of responsibility, and contributes more to your team.
2. Offer More Freedom For Your Employees
This will allow you to see how well your employees can function both in their comfort zones and how well they can thrive when you push them beyond their limits. While employee productivity increases when employees are working within their comfort zones, employee motivation also comes into play during times that require more effort than average.
3. Set Goals For Employees
This practice is beneficial as it offers direction and encourages employee development. During the goal-setting process, managers should include employee feedback so that employees feel like they have a voice in what is expected of them. This will help ensure employee buy-in, which ultimately leads to higher overall performance levels.
4. Offer Ongoing Feedback On Progress
Offering consistent feedback on employee progress is vital because it tells your workers where they’re at, where they need to be, and how you’ll get them there. Managers should seek employee feedback regarding their strengths and weaknesses to determine how to develop employee skills. If employees feel like they have a firm grasp of their roles, they are more likely to perform well over time.
5. Run Your Meetings Properly
Although meetings are crucial in achieving optimal productivity, employees hate poorly run meetings. It wastes the attendee’s time and results in immediate frustrations. However, if you manage to facilitate it to the best of your abilities, rewards are upon everyone.
Holding properly facilitated team meetings enables managers to discuss employee progress, celebrate achievements, and address any issues that may hinder employee productivity.
6. Challenge Employees
While it is essential to give employees challenging tasks, managers should not overload employees with work that is too strenuous or unrealistic. If employee performance begins to slip under the pressure of an unreasonable workload, managers may need to adjust employee goals to increase team motivation and boost productivity.
7. Offer Opportunities For Professional Development
A key element of employee happiness and job satisfaction relates back to their professional growth and development. Employees who feel like they are growing professionally will be more motivated, dedicated, and productive than those who don’t feel like they’re moving forward with their career path.
Providing opportunities for professional development includes holding seminars (whether in person or online), sending employees to conferences, hosting internal seminars/webinars, and promoting employee blogs.
8. Offer Employee Benefits
Aside from making sure your employees are paid correctly through proper paystub generation, ensuring they get the benefits they deserve also affects their performance and morale. Employee benefits are not only a human right, but they also boost employee morale, increase employee satisfaction and reduce employee turnover rates.
Employees who enjoy the added benefits of good health plans, work-life balance options, financial security, retirement planning, sick days, and paid family leave are more likely to enjoy their jobs, leading to higher employee productivity levels.
Employees must have access to these perks regardless of how much they earn. This gives them peace of mind knowing that their needs will be taken care of no matter what happens. When employees feel supported financially and emotionally, it creates a culture of employee appreciation, leading to better performance.
9. Offer Mentorship Opportunities
When managers offer mentorship opportunities, it allows employees to branch out and learns new things. Still, it also provides employees with a sense of appreciation and recognition, which boosts employee motivation and productivity.
So whether you pair your employees with mentors within the office or hire an external company to help train employees in better work practices, both parties stand to benefit greatly.
10. Set Workplace Challenges
While employees generally enjoy routine and stability, challenging employee tasks often leads to higher employee morale and productivity. Of course, these challenges should be set up so that they’re attainable because if employees fail at their tasks, this could damage their confidence or sense of self-worth. However, workplace challenges inspire employee motivation and improve morale while leading to employee development when properly executed.
Employee motivation and productivity
Employee productivity can be increased by setting clear goals, investing in your employees, creating employee trust, and delivering time-saving technology solutions.
Why?
It’s because they boost employee engagement. Engaged workers are 17% more productive than non-engaged workers. Understanding how these two principles are related is critical for long-term employee productivity.
To put it another way, employee engagement gauges how much your employees believe in your firm. Do they support the aims of your organization, consider their work as significant, and envision their career expanding with your company over time? Or are they apathetic, performing the bare minimum, and about to abandon ship?
Teams that are highly engaged are more productive. Employees who feel involved, appreciated, and wanted at work are more likely to create, collaborate willingly, and be much more driven – and they are much less likely to leave, which benefits your hiring budget.
Employee Productivity Metrics
As previously said, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy to measuring staff productivity.
As a result, your line managers must be involved in monitoring staff productivity from the beginning. Creating goals and reviewing performance from their direct reports in order to develop effective strategies to inspire each individual employee.
Here are a few resources to help your managers get started.
Goals achieved as a percentage
Check in on how effectively each employee is fulfilling their aims and goals if you provide them with clear objectives and goals. Measuring the percentage of employee goals met provides a solid foundation for understanding overall employee performance.
Benchmarks and objectives
Businesses today have access to more historical performance data than ever before. Use this data to develop realistic aims and benchmarks for staff, taking seasonality and external variables into account.
Conclusion:
By following these ten steps, managers can improve employee productivity in their workplace. While some of these tips may seem like common sense, many businesses fail to see the impact employee morale and employee motivation have on employee performance, which affects productivity levels.
Implementing these ten tips will help employees feel happy and productive while allowing managers to build trust and transparency, boost employee morale, recognize their accomplishments, and better communicate with them so that everyone’s needs are met.
