3 Key Ways for Businesses To Increase Employee Productivity

Is business productivity important to you? Business productivity directly relies on employee productivity, both individually and as a cohesive business team or unit. Simply put, productivity is the meaningful output an employee or team of employees put out in a given period. Businesses focus extensively on maximizing employee productivity because it in turn maximizes output. For virtually every business, more employee output will translate into more revenue earned. But is your approach to maximizing employee productivity appropriate? Let’s find out.

Employee Productivity

Ways to Increase Employee Productivity

Modern customers expect businesses to be as reliable and consistent as Spectrum internet. This puts a lot of pressure on business managers and teams to not just be productive but to also be consistent and efficient. Unfortunately, too many businesses are focused on a quantified approach to measuring productivity. This is certainly useful in tracking employee performance against agreed benchmarks and taking corrective/disciplinary action where necessary. But it will not offer a sustainable way to actually increase employee productivity.

The missing ingredient is usually a lack of employee engagement. Employees that feel engaged will likely respond with increased productivity, loyalty, and a great attitude. On the other hand, disengaged employees will usually do the opposite. They begin to view their role and work as meaningless. They may feel disconnected from the long-term objectives. Many may fail to summon the motivation and drive to excel at work. Ultimately, they leave and become another statistic that adds to your employee turnover. But even employee engagement can only go so far on its own. You need to supplement your engagement efforts with certain qualitative elements, such as the ones below:

  1. Understand and Provide The Tools Your Employees Need
  2. Refocus Your Talent Acquisition to Include Cultural Fits
  3. Invest In Skill Development and Capacity Building Training

Let’s examine these in more detail below.

Understand and Provide the Tools Your Employees Need

Businesses that don’t evolve as time goes on usually fail, or at least restrict their growth. Not offering your employees the necessary equipment and tools they need limits their ability to perform. The best-case scenario is that employees manage to be productive but at less than their full potential or capacity. The worst-case scenario is that teams get frustrated by the inefficiency and ultimately end up leaving the organization.

The modern workplace is a high-tech world that sometimes does not even require employees to be on-site to do their job. But to enable them to do their job effectively and productively, you need to offer them all the necessary tools and equipment they need. Whether it’s best pc monitoring software, collaborative systems, or even communication applications, understand what your employees need to do their job well and provide it. If you’re tracking productivity levels, you should see a significant increase following this.

Refocus Your Talent Acquisition to Include Cultural Fits

Talent acquisition contributes just as much to business success as the employees directly generating revenue. Acquiring the right talent can equip businesses with fresh perspectives and new directions to explore. However, it goes far beyond just the quantifiable value a new hire brings to the business. Recruiters need to expand their focus to also give weight to how well a potential candidate will fit in the organization. A bad hire can have a devastating impact on team productivity and morale, even if they are the best candidate on paper.

Technical skills, experience, and innovative capacity are all very valuable. But a new hire that fails to integrate with the team and overall workforce won’t be able to function very productively even if these qualities are present. Your talent acquisition should still look for talented individuals with the right skills and experience for the job. But more attention should be paid to things like interpersonal skills, motivation, and personal goals as well.

Invest In Skill Development and Capacity Building Training

Most employees possess the ability to work harder and achieve more output. But gaps in their current skillsets and experience can limit their capacity. However, this doesn’t have to necessarily be a permanent obstacle. Employees that aspire to excel and be recognized perform beyond expectations with the right support from their employer or line manager. The best way for an employer to enhance productivity within teams is to develop individual skills and capacities.

Many business managers find that offering structured training and development workshops can help them achieve this goal. Very few individuals are naturally suited to every business environment. More often than not, the same accountant that never misses a payment on their Spectrum packages also finds it difficult to keep track of work in progress. This often is not the result of a lack of accounting knowledge or workflows, but simply a gap in organizational skills. Instead of replacing the employee, a few workshops to teach better organization may be all that’s needed. The costs of these training sessions can often turn out to be far less than those associated with employee turnover and talent gaps.

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