Productive employees are the secret ingredients to a successful company. When employees are productive, customer service improves, morale rises, and overall company performance increases.
However, employee productivity can be affected by many factors. When an employee feels frustrated, underappreciated, and stagnant in their workplace, they will lose motivation and, consequently, become unproductive. Employers must address these factors and take proactive measures to motivate their employees and ensure their productivity. How is this done?
Read further for tips on how to guarantee employee productivity.
Maintain a Safe, Conducive Working Environment
It’s a human need to feel safe and secure. That’s why work environment plays a key role in employee productivity. Work environment includes the physical and social structures of the company.
A clean, orderly, quiet space will be more likely to promote focus, calm, and productivity than will the opposite. Similarly, a positive, welcoming atmosphere will be better for fostering a culture of openness, teamwork, and energy in the company.
Employees who feel that they fit in their workplace care more about their work and are more motivated to achieve and exceed expectations.
Set SMART Goals
Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely (SMART) goals keeps employees focused. They also yield more effective results when they’re challenging, say psychologists Edwin Locke and Gary Latham.
In their 1960 study, Locke and Latham found that goal-setting plays an important role in motivation. Employees who have specific and challenging goals have a higher drive to accomplish, are more likely to develop strategies to approach tasks, and experience more fulfillment when their goals are accomplished.
Give Proper and Timely Feedback
Feedback should always follow the accomplishment of goals. Feedback must be immediate and constructive. They must inform employees about how well they performed in the task and what opportunities they need to work on. Effective, timely feedback promotes growth and encourages employees to perform better.
A good employer will take feedback sessions as a chance to communicate openly with their employees, listen to their concerns, and gauge their job satisfaction.
Recognize a Job Well Done
Recognizing your employee’s accomplishments shows your appreciation of their effort and hard work. Recognition can come in different forms: praise, a bonus, a vacation, an award, a promotion, or a chance to showcase their full skills.
When a desired behavior is rewarded, people tend to repeat them more often, motivated by the possibility of more rewards. Positive reinforcement can go a long way to increase your employees’ productivity. Use the employee GPS time clock app, and let us help to increase and track the employee productivity.
Promote Work-Life Balance
Overworking your employees and letting them log in too many overtime hours of work will negatively affect their performance in the long run. Too much stress can cause burnout, demotivation, and health problems, resulting in less productivity and effectivity. Promoting work-life balance can significantly reduce the chances of this.
As an employer, you must know what your employees need. Create a survey, or talk to your employees. Learn about the factors affecting their work-life balance―work hours, schedules, time management, support for special cases, health factors, etc. Once you do, you can brainstorm different ways to help your employees maintain work-life balance.
Consider different arrangements, like allowing your employees to work from home once a week, organizing monthly employee activities to take a break from work, providing avenues for creative pursuits, etc. Promoting good health should also be part of your priorities. Schedule a free annual medical checkup. Ensure the continued good health of your employees and that they pass their drug test, x-ray, urine, stool, and blood tests.
Free gym memberships, spa and massage coupons, yoga classes, and sports activities are other ways to promote fitness in your employees.
Final Thoughts
Employees invest much of their time, effort, and energy to serve their employers. In turn, you as an employer, must also invest in your employees. Ensuring their physical, mental, and emotional health and job satisfaction must be one of your priorities. When an employer takes good care of their employees, it will serve to benefit them in the long run.
