When referring to businesses, there is no resource more important than its employees. Each employee is highly valuable and when your employees are happy, their productivity increases. Quite simply, keeping your employees happy will help your business to grow. Small changes to workplace habits will dramatically improve the productivity of your business, not to mention increase your bottom line.
It is also important to remember that human resources will be one of the largest (if not the largest) expenses in your cash flow. It is imperative to your business’s success that you ensure that each employee is providing more value to your business than they are costing you. And how do you do that? Well, improving efficiency is a pretty good place to start. Take a look at our list below to find out how you can increase productivity in your employees.
Be efficient
Is your business operating well? Take a good, honest look at your structure and processes and be open to change. Ask yourself if there could be a better way to structure the days of your employees to help them complete their tasks more easily (and therefore quicker). Provide your employees with the framework and support through this endeavour as the more they stay on task, the more productive they will be. Time blocking is a highly regarded and relatively simple strategy to increase efficiency.
Delegate tasks
Delegating tasks can be a bit risky if you feel your staff are not quite ready, but if they are trained correctly, it can evoke a sense of increased responsibility and job satisfaction for your employees. Trusting your employees will benefit both you, and them. Providing your employees with a sense of achievement will help them find direction within their own careers, you just have to learn to let go and put trust in the team you hired.
Reduce distractions
Welcome to 2019, distractions are EVERYWHERE! Cars honking, phones ringing, sirens sounding and the general chit chat of a busy workplace.
Social media is a common distraction, not only for people at work but for people everywhere. It kills productivity, but it’s also not practical to have a no-phone policy at work either. Instead, it’s advised to keep your employees focused and engaged at work, but with breathing room. This allows productivity to remain high, but also for them to feel like they aren’t on a production line.
Another thing to keep in mind is different people work better in different spaces. Open office plans are becoming all the rage and while we love them, we do recognise that some people work better in quiet spaces. Be sure to provide social spaces where discussion is encouraged as it energises extroverts and creates culture but also include quiet spaces for silent work.
Find (and use) the right tools for the job
It has been said that the right tool makes the job a lot easier. This is true for almost all workplaces. Performing duties efficiently requires your employees to have the right tools at their disposal. It is scary to read the statistics on how much time is wasted by out-of-date systems, malfunctioning hardware or poor communication lines. Time wasted on frivolous things such as waiting for paper to be printed or computer malfunctions will hinder productivity immensely. In today’s technological age, your employees need to be armed with modern, high-quality computers and programs to keep their productivity high.
Improve workplace conditions for employees
If your employees are complaining that it’s too hot (or cold), it’s likely that your productivity is not as high as it could be. As silly as it sounds, time wasted on your employees constantly getting into coats or getting up to stand at fans to cool down is not good for workflow. Ensuring that your air-conditioning and heater are both in working condition for their respective seasons will make a great difference.
Offer support for your employees
A scary fact is that many managers will not know if their employees are high-performing or not. This is because, without positive reinforcement and continuous communication, employees likely won’t let their superiors know if tasks are being completed or not. Employees like to connect with and feel respected by their employer. They also like to feel appreciated and given credit where credit is due. Provide clear directions to managers or supervisors and let your employees know what you expect of them. With a clear focus, mutual respect and goals set out, productivity will increase.
“In order to build a rewarding employee experience, you need to understand what matters most to your people.” – Julie Bevacqua (CRO of Rise People)”
Ensure your employees want to be there
A workplace that doesn’t value its employees and makes them despise going to work will not yield results and could lead to high staff turnover. Highly stressed workers perform worse than those who are relaxed. This is true for all occupations. Showing your employees how much the company appreciates and respects them will go a long way in their sense of belonging. Personally thanking them at the end of each day will reinforce their worth and make them feel appreciated.
“If we are happy at work, our productivity is going to up, and if productivity goes up, organisational profit is going to up.” – Professor Stephen Teo (Professor of Work & Performance at Edith Cowan University).
If you’re sensing that your productivity levels aren’t where they should be, it might be time to implement a few of the aforementioned tips.
Looking for more business advice? Take a look at our range of business advisory services. Alternatively, contact Toohey Reid on 07 3221 1055 or use our online contact form.
General Advice Disclaimer
General advice warning: The advice provided is general advice only as, in preparing it we did not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs. Before making an investment decision on the basis of this advice, you should consider how appropriate the advice is to your particular investment needs, and objectives. You should also consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement before making any decision relating to a financial product.
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