5 Ways to Increase Employee Productivity

You probably find yourself overloaded with work, juggling between multiple projects, and can’t seem to move forward with your to-do list. Problems arise when productivity dwindles across the entire workplace, even the most committed employee can be unproductive.

Not only do they decrease the output and performance of their job, but this can also affect their morale, causing the work environment to become toxic. Therefore, the need for high levels of productivity is something no business can ignore.

If you run a business or are responsible for a team, you have to make sure each team member contributes to business success by adding value to their roles.

Why does employee productivity matter?

It’s a simple concept. The more productive your employees are, the more work they complete, and the faster you’ll see the business results.

Here are some of the clear benefits you’ll see:

• For other team members. Split the tasks clearly while working on a project can speed up the completion more effectively. Share the workload equally, and make sure no team member does more work than the rest.
• For customers. The quality of work and completion time will dramatically improve if your employees are productive, leading to greater customer service.
• Time is money. When your employees finish their work soon, they can accommodate their time on other important tasks.
• Goal-achieving. Productive workforce will improve the quality and quantity of work.

However, running an organisation with hundreds of employees will be difficult for you to keep track of each employee’s performance and productivity level.

So, what can you do to make sure your employees are delivering their work on time? How do you encourage or inspire them to stay committed to their jobs?

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Hire the right people

Getting the best hire starts at the recruitment stage. When hiring, vet the applicants appropriately. Not only do you verify their past employment history, but you should also understand how they work and who they are as a co-worker and an employee. A candidate might appear great on paper, but you should also take a holistic approach to look for other qualifications such as their values and interpersonal skills.

On the other hand, bad hires compromise productivity. A study from Global HR Research shows that 60% of employers reported that a bad hire didn’t work well with other employees. Some employees may not like to pick up slack from an unproductive employee. If this continues, even your most committed employee might consider leaving the company.

Accommodate your employees’ needs

Did you know, 56% of employees don’t have the latest tech needed to do their job well? Your employees won’t feel motivated at work if they feel you don’t care about their needs. Providing your employees with the tools and resources is the first step to more productivity.

If your employees feel more productive working from home, consider making your team partially remote. A remote team can improve work productivity by 13%. Similarly, if your employees need to pick up kids from school, let them start or finish work earlier.

Offer constructive feedback regularly

Let your employees know they’ve done something well to keep them motivated at work. Don’t be afraid to give them negative feedback as well, so they know what are the areas they need to improve on.

Bring in the initiative of continuous performance management. Instead of reviewing your employee performance once or twice a year, this is an ongoing process to talk to employees about personal development and career goals. Maintain a regular conversation with your employees to offer support and identify issues before they escalate.

Allowing a proper performance management system can help employees achieve goals that align with the organisational goal. It also helps with recognising and rewarding your employees’ performance. After all, your employees are the most valuable asset in the organisation.

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Cross-training and skill development

Attention to employee development can mean big profits for your business. According to a recent study, a larger investment in training resulted in more profit per employee.

Pay attention to their performance and focus on developing their strengths. A Gallup data shows that identifying strengths makes employees 7.8% more productive, and teams that focus on strengths every day have 12.5% greater productivity.

Offering your team career growth opportunities can foster great productivity. Having the effort to train your employees makes them feel important to the team, so they know what to expect by learning new things to achieve other business objectives.

Promote employee well-being

A recent index showed the most overworked cities in Asia are Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, and Tokyo. High work demands are becoming the top factor of stress at the workplace in Asia, with 9 out of 10 people indicated that their jobs require high mental focus and multi-tasking.

Often, managers might not have direct oversight of the project their team members are working on. In today’s workplace, it’s best to encourage more agile ways of working, especially for employees working with different teams and alongside different managers.

Unreasonable workloads contribute to burnout. Always check in with your team members if they need additional support to prevent the burnout that might cause severe mental or physical health problems.

Employees are the one that could make or break the business success

Whether you have ten employees or 300 in your company, it’s instrumental to review, reinvent, and reinvest helpful resources to speed up work productivity. Start by motivating your team with the best tools possible to perform their jobs well.