Employee productivity is critical to your company’s success – the more productive your employees are, the better solutions they will develop.
Understanding employee productivity as a system affecting all of your employees is a good place to start. However, calculating the productive hours of employees is a slightly tricky task.
The work environment dynamics have changed due to COVID, as many are still preferring to work from home. It becomes difficult to trace the number of hours the employees are productively giving to their work during such times. Of course, they are online for the given number of hours, but how much they are contributing productively during these hours is the question to be answered!
Determining what makes your staff less productive is a good start, but here we’ll concentrate on the most common workplace elements every manager can address and adjust in order to influence employee productivity.
Let’s begin!
6 Ways to Help Employees Make the Best of Their Productive Hours
Managers put every effort to ensure that each employee is actively engaged in tasks during their productive hours at work. Arranging regular meetings, organizing seminars, and implementing high-quality project management software are just a few methods they use to ensure efficient team collaboration and functioning.
However, managers still face many challenges, and here are the six practical ways to address at least some of them:
1. Improve communication
Even when all the necessary tools are at your disposal, the desired results are not achieved! Why is that?
No exquisite technology can be ineffective if your team members do not have direct access to their peers and a good chance to clarify their doubts regarding the system’s functionality.
It takes effort on both sides for efficient communication. Your employees must be able to express their thoughts and concerns for you to be productive. Plus, you need to recognize their efforts and reward positive behaviors in order to build a strong rapport with employees and communicate better with them.
Employees who don’t feel like management is listening to them are often disengaged. Create a safe space for employees to air their grievances – no matter how good or bad they are – and make certain that the venting does not show up in their performance reviews. Human resources, a manager with an open door policy, or an employee assistance program can all fit this description.
To ensure that all complaints are handled fairly and consistently, make sure your company has a written grievance policy. In your employee handbook, provide clear instructions on how to get in touch with the right person if something goes wrong.
In sum: just as you use email marketing apps to reach your customers, communicate regularly with your team. This way, they can interact with the required person and solve their queries instantly.
2. Establish a positive workplace environment
Having a negative workplace environment filled with gossip, rumors, or backbiting can have a negative impact on productivity. Hence, to help employees have more productive hours at work, it’s vital to be strict about respectful workplace behaviors and meeting etiquette even when collaborating with remote employees and organizing online activities.
Improving productivity begins with cultivating an atmosphere conducive to employee inspiration and commitment. It may involve embracing diversity at the workplace or becoming more open and honest with your employees, listening to their concerns, and promoting two-way feedback are just a few of the ways you can do this.
Toxic workplaces can instantly demoralize even the most hardworking employees, even if they genuinely want to improve. So, creating an environment where employees feel valued and respected is essential.
In addition, don’t overlook the impact of their operating environment. The smallest details, such as lighting, ventilation, decor, equipment, and desk layouts, can greatly impact your employees’ well-being. If possible, provide ergonomic furniture like standing desks and office chairs with proper support in the workplace.
Ensure your employees have the proper safety equipment and tools for jobs requiring more physical labor. You should encourage your remote workers to set aside a designated workspace and tailor it to their individual needs whenever possible, whether it is for a long or short period of time.
3. Deal with excessive workloads
According to a study, overworked workers make more mistakes and perform worse. That’s why manufacturing owners in the 19th century cut the workday to eight hours.
Productivity declines drastically as employees become fatigued. So, a worker’s efficiency can be improved by reducing the amount of work they have to do, in the prescribed hours.
Talking about that, tools like actiTIME make it easier to track individual time schedules, which help an organization keep a check on their employees’ working hours and measure the organization’s productivity.
If you manage employee workloads and working time well, they’ll sleep better, have a more enjoyable break from work on time and then return properly rested the following day.
It would also help to provide time management training to employees who feel overworked to assist them in understanding how to work most effectively. Talk to each person individually to assess their responsibilities and decide if they should be reassigned, postponed, or eliminated.
Also, consider using the OKR framework to track the performance of employees. They are sure to appreciate if you assist them in prioritizing their tasks.
4. Address the lack of training
It’s a mistake to think that only managers need training. Providing your employees with training and development opportunities is a great way to boost productivity. Because they aren’t properly trained, your employees will spend more time figuring out how to do their jobs than they will on the actual work itself.
For example:
An employee that is good at writing content might not know how to create an infographic. If assigned this type of task, they might spend more time figuring it out, which would lead to frustration and self-criticism.
Overall, your employees want to do well at work. Make sure you’re doing all you can as an employer to help them out if they’re not. A good place to begin is with well-designed programs of education and training. In this way, they will be able to build their self-confidence and succeed more, which will lead to a better customer experience.
If you want to improve productivity and employee engagement, you should focus on training on career advancement opportunities within the company.
5. Encourage employees to stay hydrated
It may be difficult to keep track of how much water is consumed. Make sure to remind your employees how important staying hydrated throughout the day! 75 % of adults in the United States are chronically under-hydrated, which is dangerous physical state and must be avoided!
Dehydration harms the productivity and motivation of your employees. In addition to fatigue, headaches, and higher propensity to make errors, those who don’t drink enough water will suffer from irritability, foggy memory, and much more.
Thus, be sure to remind your employees to drink at least two liters of water a day to maintain their health and well-being during your next meeting.
Also, note that water quality is an issue in many workplaces. And if this is the case at yours, conduct a water test and identify the best system for your workplace, employees, and yourself. Improved hydration of employees and great business solutions are two ways that acceptable water standards and employee hydration can benefit you.
6. Provide feedback and assistance
Employee assistance is a continuous process with many challenges involved.
According to Forbes, employees who feel their voices are heard are 4.6 times more likely to operate at their highest efficiency level. In addition, 89% of HR leaders believe that regular peer input and frequent check-ins are essential for achieving effective outcomes.
Therefore, as a manager, you need to provide regular feedback to your team members and provide them with enough opportunities to improve. For more information on how to do that, feel free to check out this post.
Ending Note
Employee productivity is critical for your company’s success, but it all starts with how satisfied and content your employees are in their jobs. When you place a high value on employee involvement, happiness, and motivation, you’ll see increased productivity.
It’s also critical that you keep these procedures in line with the values and objectives of your company. Providing a long-term career path to employees encourages them to do their best to stay with the company.
This article is contributed to actiTIME by Samantha Ridgey, a content writer with a passion for marketing and social media. She starts the day sipping a cup of coffee while checking on the social media trends. She has been in the writing business for the last 8 years and aims to provide converting content.
