5 Quick Ways How To Increase Employee’s Productivity

If you want that your employees become more productivity maybe it is time for you to stop blaming your team and start rolling up your own sleeves. Sometimes, yes, it is your employees’ lack of essential skills the cause of tasks not getting done, but, on many occasions, you could have done something to prevent it or to minimize its effects at least.

Good news is that there are quick ways to change it and increase your employee’s productivity so it won’t happen again. All you will need to do it to provide a few resources and adapt your leadership style a bit, and you will see the results in your reports in no time.

Way #1 - Give feedback

For starters, you will need to let your team know that they are on the wrong pace in your opinion. And giving them feedback is the best way to tell them what you shouldn’t expect that they will figure out by themselves.

Actually, what happens is that, if they don’t hear any complaints from you, they will think that they are meeting your expectations. So it is up to you to let them know that you aren’t happy enough.

Of course, you should never leave it to the point when you will get angry and say it in a way that won’t be productive either. Constructive feedback is something that you should always aim to provide, and that will give you the results that you are hoping. But, in order to be fair when you do it, you need to make sure that you are putting the next tip in practice.

Way #2 - Make things clear

It is possible that, at this stage, you have realized that you must let your team know what you want from them if you haven’t told them so. And while it seems obvious, many leaders fail on this topic.

They think it is enough to say what has to be done without providing deadlines, for example. They also let their employees 100% free to decide their own schedules and get upset late when they aren’t available when needed.

So if you require a certain level of productivity, you have to let your team know about it. If you need that a specific amount of work get done by the end of every day, you will need to say it so. If you are OK that they let everything to the last minute, as long as you get the job done by Friday morning so that you can review and analyze it, it is also fine.

You just need to have your expectations clear in your and their minds. So find out which level of productivity you wish to get from your team and show it to them in the form of numbers and dates, so they can just follow it to the dot.

Way 3 # Offer small incentives

Yes, we still are highly motivated by incentives. Over our childhood years, we were told that, if we were good kids, we would get great presents on Christmas, plus all those behavioral stickers that have become so widespread nowadays.

As a consequence, it all conditions us to think that we should get a reward for doing what we should do anyway. And we take the same idea with us to our workplace even if only on a subconscious level.

So what matter here is that you understand that you could try and give some incentives to your team so they become more productive. It doesn’t have to be anything big, but you can start competitions in which the most productive wins a free dinner in a nice restaurant, for example.

It can be a great idea when you need to keep the morale up or when you want that they go that extra mile, such as in moments of higher sales or unexpected crisis.

Way # 4 - Provide the right resources

Productivity is connected to the idea of taking the job to an industrial level. It is about accomplishing more and better in less time. But, to achieve it, you might need some specific resources or, at least, that the ones that you have are optimized.

It is pointless to expect that your team become more productive if their computers are running slow, if the internet is making them take ages to send proposals to the clients, if their chairs are giving them so much pain that they need several breaks to cope with them, just to give you a few examples.

So start making an inventory of all the resources that your employees need so to become more productive and verify if they are working well, or if there is anything that you need to purchase.

Also don’t forget to ask your team about what they think they need (without making any promises if you aren’t sure if you got the budget for it). Be also prepared for some individual requests that you might also be attending as every person has they own way to work more effectively.

Way 5 # - Give them apps

There are several apps in the market ready to help your team to become more productive. Some of them focus on collaboration so you can also use them to improve engagement and task management.

Workflow, for example, can automates several tasks through a simple drag and drop and comes with over 200 actions that you can combine as you wish. You can set that your phone call an Uber taxi for you 30 minutes before a scheduled appointment, for example. It is available for iOS devices for US$ 2,99.

Note-taking and to-do lists can get much easier to be done and managed with apps such as Wunderlist and Evernote. Trello is also a perfect app for those looking to organize their workflow, and Toggl is a great option for time-tracking. All you need to do is to find out which kind of solution you are looking for, and you will certainly find an app for it at your disposal on App Store, Google Play, and others.

To Sum Up

The productivity of your employees certainly is something that should be your top priority as a leader. But this is exactly as you should deal with it, as your problem, not theirs in the first place.

You will need to let them know what a productive employee is in your opinion, give them a constant and constructive feedback, and provide them with the resources they need so to accomplish what you are expecting from them, apps included. You should also consider offering small incentives when needed.

So start a check-up right now and put these five ideas in practice. They are bound to bring you results in a very short time, and they require a very small or no budget to make they come true. It couldn't get any better.