Increasing Employee Productivity

Today, we’re looking at ways to encourage more productive working within your organisation.

As companies keep a close eye on their bottom line margins, the key to improve them is to get people working more efficiently and effectively. However, working longer hours is seldom the answer to an increased output.

If employees are able to maximise the use of resources available to them – in respect of both time and money – they can do their jobs faster, more accurately and with an improved and effective end product. This can help keep both business leaders, managers and customers happy, while providing both increased employee engagement levels and intrinsic reward for the workers themselves – satisfaction in a job well done.

There is a whole variety of techniques and technologies to help organisations improve employee productivity and efficiency. Automating tasks, reducing travel time and offering greater flexibility, autonomy and freedom of choice can theoretically boost productivity, for example.

But what specifically can organisations do to take full advantage of the potential of your workforce? Here are just a few initial ideas:

Encourage, reward, motivate and recognise

Providing just the right level of remuneration is important – this keeps employees motivated in their jobs and also eager to stay with the organisation. Nothing inspires an employee more than a big thank you; it makes an employee feel important and that employee will go all-out to repeat the feat that earned them the thanks. Every time a skilled person leaves, it hurts the organisation as they need replacing with an untrained new recruit.

Promote better team work cohesion

It’s crucial to encourage team work for better results. Don’t allow your employees to work in isolation all the time. You must communicate to your employees the importance of inspiring each other even in the absence of their managers. Often, employees who collaborate and work together effectively are the most productive members of staff. The ability to bounce ideas off one another, and offer different viewpoints on particular tasks, can lead to improved overall results.

Update your technology

Using connected mobile solutions such as smartphones and media tablets provides employees with the opportunity to keep working while they are away from the office. If travelling on public transport, or away on a business trip, it is possible to access files and documents online on the go. With Wi-Fi and mobile broadband networks now covering most of Britain, it’s easier now than ever to get online.

It’s important that employees have access to laptops and PCs offering the latest tools and online solutions. With more organisations moving functions to the cloud, the office hardware must be able to cope. An employee sitting and waiting ten minutes for a PC to boot up isn’t a productive employee. It’s vital that operating systems to support modern work styles are up-to-date.

Be Who They Want to Work For

One great way managers can encourage and increase employee productivity is to increase their own.  By demonstrating excellent behaviour, managing expectations, and leveraging the emotional intelligence (inherently possessed or worked hard to cultivate), managers can be who employees want to work for. If managers can achieve that, the hard work is already done.  The rest is just housekeeping.

As a final note, productivity of the work force can be increased by applying the above suggestions; it can be improved by making the employees feel responsible and getting them to work happily rather than despondently. Always remember that an increase in productivity will yield an equivalent increase in output and profits in general.

If you would like to know more about how to increase employee engagement levels and productivity in your organisation, then contact us on +44 (0) 1255 850051.