Stop Trying To Make Your Employees More Productive: It Wastes Time And Doesn’t Work

Employee productivity isn’t something you can force on people. If you attempt to, it will likely cause resentment and could give the appearance that your management team is overbearing and burdensome. The key to increasing employee productivity is to help develop a drive within your employees so they want to become more productive.

In other words, the most effective way to increase employee productivity is to create a culture that values and rewards initiative and ownership of the job. There are several layers to this process.

Employee Productivity Is A Result Of The Right Company Culture

Everything that occurs in your business is affected by your company culture. Having a positive and productive company culture will translate into success. Instead of trying to directly increase employee productivity, you want your culture to cultivate employees to push themselves and increase their productivity.

Let employees know that it benefits them when they help each other with tasks even when they are outside of “their area”. This is one reason why it’s best to create project teams. Teams help people focus on their tasks while also increasing their motivation to help others as needed. Moreover, it helps prevent employees from taking the position that they did their part so now they can relax because it is “somebody else’s” problem.

Make Sure Everybody Understands The Expected Result Of A Project

Everybody should understand what the end product or project goal will look like. For example, if they are working on a presentation to sell or promote a product, then there should be a detailed description of how the final display will appear. This reinforces the team spirit and keeps the employees in sync.

Not Everyone Has To Go To Every Meeting

Meetings are important, but not everyone needs to attend every meeting. Invite attendees based on their tasks and expected output at the time of the meeting. For example, meetings focused on shipping issues likely don’t need the marketing team in attendance, just as logistics may not need to be involved in marketing strategy sessions.

Praise People In Front Of The Whole Team

When somebody does something worthy of praise, don’t do it only in front of their peers. Have an end-of-week or end of the project celebration and recognize their accomplishment in front of the whole team. Employees will work harder when they feel appreciated.

Be Flexible With Hours And Work Locations

This boils down to caring for your workers and helping with life/work balance. If possible, allow staff to work from home or at alternate locations. A change of scenery can be useful and, as long as the employee is still productive, working from home builds a lot of trust with the employee.

Equal Parts Consulting works with companies to develop a positive and product company cultures that are conducive to increasing employee productivity. We understand that a business needs to focus on all parts of its operations when it wants to have better efficiency. If you are interested in making your company as efficient as possible, we invite you to contact us.