Underestimating the importance of employee productivity is one quick-fire way to make sure your business fails.
Your employees are at the heart of your business success. When your workforce is at its most productive, business tasks are completed faster, employee morale is higher, and you can benefit from increased profitability, which in turn can help you reach your growth goals faster.
By increasing employee productivity, you can skyrocket your business’s performance and achieve next-level success.
But if you’re not sure where to start, we’re here to help! We’ve helped many businesses discover ways to motivate employees and increase productivity in the workplace, so we’ve got you covered with tried and tested tips to boost employee productivity.
Scrap Marathon Meetings for Bitesize Discussions
When meetings go on for too long, employee attention starts to fade. As a result, they cannot contribute anything of value, and important discussion points are quickly forgotten. Plus, by the time employees get back to work after a long meeting, they feel drained and much less productive for the rest of the day.
On the other hand, smaller, bitesize meetings have key takeaways and can boost employee motivation and productivity. Employees return to work with important discussion points still on their minds, and they have plenty of mental energy left to make the rest of the day productive.
Encourage Regular Breaks
Stressed and overworked employees are not productive employees. Team members who take care of their health and wellbeing are likely to be your best performers, and an important habit of productive employees is taking regular breaks.
Encouraging your staff to take breaks might sound counterproductive, but regular breaks can help employees recharge, de-stress, and come back feeling refreshed and ready to power through tasks. Taking short breaks several times a day can boost creativity, mental clarity, and, in turn, productivity.
Make Employee Satisfaction a Priority
Just as employees work best when they’re taking care of themselves, they’re also more likely to put their all into their everyday tasks if they’re happy at work.
There’s a reason why some of the biggest companies in the world have offices that could easily be mistaken for leisure centers. They know just how important employee happiness is to productivity in the workplace.
Now, we’re not suggesting you install a ball pit in the office, but offering employees perks can boost happiness, and as a result, increase engagement and productivity.
Perks could be anything from a pay rise and health and wellbeing schemes to flexible working opportunities.
Flexible working is on the rise and for good reasons. Not only can it boost employee satisfaction and productivity, but it’s also easy to keep track of employee performance thanks to solutions like Handdy Timesheets.
Embrace Technology to Streamline Processes
If tasks can be streamlined with technology, there’s no sense in getting employees to spend unnecessary time on them. With so many options for equipment, software, and digital solutions, you don’t have to waste time and money on mundane tasks.
By making the most of the right tools and equipment, you can free up your employees’ time so they can focus on more important matters. This helps you get more out of your workforce and shows your employees that you value their time and the work they do. When your employees feel appreciated and understand that their work is important and necessary, they’re more likely to give every task their best effort.
Software solutions such as Handdy Estimates and Handdy Invoices are great examples of tools that can boost your employee productivity levels. These applications take care of tasks that can be repetitive and time-consuming — sending invoices and chasing payments, and generating and sending online quotes. With these tasks taken care of, your employees can tackle more interesting jobs.
Suggest a ‘Worst Things First’ Approach
How your employees structure their work schedule, and to-do list can greatly impact their performance. Often, the “worst” jobs — those that employees don’t want to do or those that will take the longest — get pushed to the back of the pile. We’re all guilty of putting off tasks we don’t want to do.
However, the longer tasks sit untouched, the more stress they start to cause, and the bigger they seem. So getting these tasks done and dusted sooner rather than later can be a huge stress saver.
Employees are also more likely to power through difficult jobs if they know they can move on to more inviting projects afterward.
Set Achievable Goals and Milestones
Large projects or overly ambitious goals can be overwhelming, and employees can struggle to know where to start. By dividing big goals and projects into smaller, achievable milestones, you can give employees direction and increase motivation.
Encourage Collaboration between Colleagues
A study of 1100 companies found that collaborative work is five times more likely to result in higher performance than independent projects. When colleagues know a team member is relying on them, they’re more likely to bring their most productive selves to work because they don’t want to let the team down.
Collaboration can also lead to increased performance and productivity as the sharing of ideas and skills can mean that solutions are found faster. Projects benefit from multiple perspectives and skillsets.
Increase Visibility into Employee Productivity
Insights into your team’s productivity can help you identify ways to boost performance and spot any issues before they get out of control. Previously, monitoring productivity wasn’t possible, but today, there are solutions like Handdy Timesheets that offer all the insights you need into employee performance. You can monitor keystroke movement, see which URLs and applications your employees are using, and check that they’re working reasonable hours and taking much-needed breaks.
When employees are aware that you’re monitoring their productivity, they’re also more likely to be conscious of their own performance. They might pay more attention to their productivity throughout the day and gain a better understanding of which factors affect their performance. They’re more likely to stay at the top of their game and strive to be one of the best performers in your workforce.
You can take the productivity of your workforce to the next level with advanced software solutions from Handdy. Whether you want to monitor employee performance or streamline everyday business processes, we’ve got you covered.
Find out more about our software solutions now, and if you think your business can benefit from any of our solutions, you can try them out for free before going premium.
