By Ezra Luca
Attaining optimum productivity for a workplace is not solely about maximising output or profit. In fact, increased productivity has long been seen as an indicator of a happy, healthy professional setting, with teamwork being often linked to a harmonious business. This is because employee positivity in the workplace is drawn from qualities like interpersonal relationships, the efficacy of communication, having the right tools to complete tasks, and believing in the direction, as well as the decision-making, of business leaders.
Achieving these qualities isn’t always easy and many businesses hinder themselves by pursuing them incorrectly just as much as those that altogether neglect them. With this in mind, we’re sharing four of the most definitive and proven ways to improve workplace productivity.
Manage Outcome, Not Method
Employees respond well to independence, often becoming frustrated with forms of micromanagement. For business leaders, it is far better to manage the outcome than the method of how employees achieve such goals.
By doing so, the expectations of a business are met but employees and teams are given the trust and independence to accomplish the task as they see fit. This can be as simple as allowing employees to operate on their own schedule while still meeting a deadline or enabling them to devise different methods to correctly solve problems.
Empower With Training
Investing in employee knowledge and skill is a worthy endeavour. Not only does it create a culture of loyalty but it drives employees to perform more consistently and to a higher standard, especially with clearly defined steps for future development too. Corporate training courses are also potentially effective ways of team bonding too and can help develop the confidence and ability of entire departments.
Training also works by proxy with coworkers and even outside talent seeing and being attracted by potential progression within a corporate space.
Listen To Feedback
There is a pitfall that many managers experience whereby they will make decisions entirely from their own perspective. This type of leadership is prone to falling short and many would benefit from understanding the feedback of employees. By doing so, certain tasks can be streamlined or refined.
Meetings, for example, are often seen as a source of frustration for employees if they believe they are non-essential or could better be contained to an email. In such a scenario, productivity could be increased with managers hearing feedback and eliminating time-consuming arrangements.
Embrace Automation
Software can be an intimidating enterprise, one that is also considered to be costly too. However, the development and implementation of a business’ software can be hugely advantageous for productivity, especially with advances in machine learning and automation.
A number of basic tasks can be automated, with more being developed each year. This progress means that forward-thinking businesses are able to eliminate basic processes to a reliable alternative and reprioritise employees to focus on more challenging tasks as well as creative thinking. In addition to workplace efficacy, employees are likely to be extremely positive about the introduction of software if it allows their role to improve.
