6 Ways to Significantly Boost Employee Productivity
It’s difficult for your team to be productive between the constant barrage of emails, texts, and social media notifications that they receive throughout the day.
In addition, many employees are interrupted by coworkers, leaders, and other distractions.
With work from home becoming a prominent reality, working with a deep focus and improving productivity becomes more crucial than ever.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to set your team up for productivity, so keep reading and put all these points into execution for overall increased productivity in your organization.
1. Create A Collaborative Space
The traditional cubicle has worked for many years, but it’s not the only way to get your employees working together. A modern office trend is to create open-floor plans with desks in clusters of four or five people surrounded by highly collaborative spaces.
These spaces are easy to decorate with whiteboards that allow team members to share ideas and work collaboratively on projects.
You also have to think about ergonomics and collaborative learning of your employees when you’re setting up your space; adjustable desks and chairs for comfort will help keep your employees focused on their tasks instead of distracting discomfort.
How To Create A Collaborative Space
Create a no-distraction zone as some employees can’t help but check their phones when they get a notification, even during work. While this might seem like normal behavior, these interruptions break an employee’s concentration and affect how quickly they can get through tasks.
You can’t expect your employees to work without interruption if you don’t communicate that expectation in the first place. Talk with your team and explain how important it is to focus on their tasks without distractions.
2. Provide Adequate Breaks To Maintain Focus And Productivity
People can’t focus on a task for eight hours straight. Every 90 minutes or so, they need to take a break and get up from their desks. According to asurvey by MIT , taking a 15-minute break after working for 70-90 minutes boosts productivity.
While managing challenging schedules, ensure you give your employees tasks that require less thinking. For example, use a timeline creator toolto define important to-do’s for your team members so that they can work accordingly.
For example, suppose an employee needs to complete several data entry forms for one of their projects. In that case, having them do data entry will be incredibly inefficient because it takes a lot of time and effort to finish each form.
So instead of requiring all this mental energy, assign them a new task that doesn’t require much thinking.
How To Provide Adequate Breaks To Your Employees
People can’t be productive all day, every day. As a leader, you must encourage your employees to take breaks and take care of their minds so they can come back to the office fresh and ready to focus on their tasks. It will help you improve job satisfaction among employees.
Some studies show that having a flexible schedule increases overall productivity. In addition, interruptions from both inside and outside an office are incredibly prevalent these days.
3. Offer Incentives For Meeting Goals Or Exceeding Expectations
Showing appreciation for your employees is crucial because this will encourage them to feel invested in the company. Not only does this make them more productive, but it also creates a culture where positivity and healthy competition are encouraged!
Some companies even offer incentives for their workers to go above and beyond what’s expected. While this is a nice gesture, it’s important to always follow through after making these promises because an empty promise will only foster feelings of disappointment.
Make sure to implement monthly goals meant to help boost overall company morale instead of focusing on increasing productivity alone.
While this does boost overall morale, it also ensures that everyone keeps working to meet and exceed expectations. To simplify this task, use team management software to better track progress made by your team members.
Boosting employees’ productivity also helps recruiters to retain team members for a longer time. The overall work ethos of a productive company ensures a higher happiness index and greater agility.
How To Plan Out Better Incentives For Your Employees
Not all rewards have to be monetary. Sometimes, leaders can offer incentives that aren’t related to salary at all. For example, celebrate a company-wide birthday with cake and ice cream or offer flexible hours on certain days of the week.
You should also make sure you aren’t doing the same thing as everyone else in your industry.
To stand out from other companies, it’s vital that your employees feel like they’re genuinely a part of something unique and different! Another incentive that you can give your employees is offering the ability to work from home or provide certain expense reimbursements.
4. Have Clear, Measurable Objectives With Deadlines
When you set specific goals for your employees, they are more likely to work harder and be more productive. Again, these objectives give them a sense of completion once the task is finished.
For example, if your employees are expected to write blogs on the company’s website each week, have specific objectives attached to these tasks. These can include gaining a certain number of social media followers or increasing brand awareness on social media platforms.
Make sure that you aren’t assigning too many objectives at once, though. If your employees are given five different projects to work on with very little instruction about how to complete them, they’re more likely to become overwhelmed.
Break your larger objectives into more specific tasks with deadlines attached. Lack of visibility can create confusion; thus, it’s necessary to establish clear goals for teams to get desired results.
How To Set Clear And Measurable Objectives For Employees
Don’t set too many goals at once. While it’s essential to be ambitious, having a lot of projects on the go can lead to stress and anxiety. To combat this, break down the objectives into smaller tasks with specific deadlines attached.
It’s not always easy to meet all the goals or expectations 100% of the time. Because of this, it’s essential to give your team a little bit of leeway when things don’t go as planned.
Use a timesheet app in your organization so that all employees can jot down their work along with the deadline.
5. Encourage Open Communication Between Managers And Employees
By encouraging open communication between managers and employees, you foster a healthier workplace environment.
When your workers feel valued and included, they are more likely to go above and beyond their responsibilities. It can also help improve morale because the company works towards one goal instead of against each other.
Your workers should always feel free to request meetings with you if they have concerns or issues at work without feeling intimidated or nervous about it. It will boost confidence among employees and will make them good team players .
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should listen to every complaint that comes your way just for the sake of being nice!
How To Boost Open Communication In Organizations
There should be no hierarchy within your organization, and all employees should feel free to request meetings with you if they have any concerns. Ensure that all employees – not just managers – can quickly access upper management.
Encourage healthy communication between employees by hosting regular team-building activities such as happy hours or sporting events.
It will reinforce positive relationships between workers and strengthen bonds and boost morale across the board.
6. Consider a Wellness Program to Reduce Stress Levels
The first step you should take to reduce stress is offering a wellness program at work. It will give your employees the chance to reduce their stress levels through regular exercise and meditation sessions built into their workday. This way, they’ll be able to relax rather than stay stressed throughout the entire day!
Another thing you can do is establish simple guidelines for how much overtime is acceptable. For example, if your employees know that they’re only allowed to spend up to 20 hours per week working on weekends or evenings, they won’t have as many sleepless nights worrying about deadlines!
How To Pick The Right Wellness Program For Your Employees
You might want to consider making meditation sessions and exercise programs mandatory for all employees, as well as including shorter breaks between their regular workdays. Offer coaching sessions with an experienced professional who can help your employees manage their stress levels by offering guidance and tips that promote at work.
Introduce a couple of wellness programs for your employees to choose from. It will let them pick their preferred one and show that you care about their wellbeing.
Start Improving Employee Productivity Today
These easy-to-implement tips are practically proven to boost your employees’ productivity and reduce their stress levels. Make sure to always take feedback from the team members about anything new that you introduce under the organization’s policy.
And it is not just a one-time activity. It’s a continuous process you need to integrate into your organization’s DNA, which would impact your bottom line while at the same time keeping your team hooked to your vision.
Martin Luenendonkis the founder at Cleverism and FounderJar.
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