10 Tips to Increase Productivity in the Workplace

If the latest industry reports are anything to go by, productivity snowballs by 20 to 25 percent with connected employees.

For continuous improvement in business growth, it is imperative to ensure all employees are striving to set new benchmarks in terms of productivity. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that non-productive employees generally increase challenges for their employers because they negatively affect business longevity. Therefore, businesses invest a big chunk of money in the hiring process to keep the negative consequences of making a bad hire at bay.

But, it is not always about bad hiring. There’s a lot more to the picture and before we move on to that, let’s check out some shocking facts about employee productivity:

• An average employee spends about 4.1 hours daily checking their inbox, as almost 121 emails per day are received by them.
• An hour of each employee daily is wasted on meetings. Well, to add to it, 67% of meetings end up being failures or have no outcome.
• Workplace stress leads to a downfall in 5% productivity of the whole team.
• More than 38% of highly engaged employees are highly productive as well.
• 75% of remote employees find it easier to be productive at home.

Shocking, right? Truth is often this way!

As we know, competition among companies is getting spicier with every passing day. So, the question that arises here is, ‘What could be done to take the reins of the market?’ 

The answer to this obvious question is straightforward: ‘on how to Increase your productivity in the workplace.’

But what are the factors that increase productivity? Let’s check out below!

Factors That Increase Productivity

Business efficiency is measured by productivity, and if the rates are higher, it leads to increased revenue and profits. Well, that’s the end goal for most businesses, right? Here are five factors that can help improve productivity.

1. Flexibility

Trusting your people to work where they feel flexible will result in improved productivity. This doesn’t mean you have to loosen up entirely and give them total autonomy. Keep track of work by setting realistic goals and deadlines. Monitor individual performance and try to give each one of your team members roles and responsibilities. As they will become more accountable, they will try their best to work in a flexible environment. 

2. Technology

Technology has allowed team members to quickly collaborate, whether working on the same floor or remotely. With the right work collaboration tool in place, employees can manage their time effectively and connect with each other instantly. This increases individual productivity and makes it easier for team members to share their ideas, feedback, and other stuff in an organized way.

Check out: 15 Best Productivity Tools for Marketers

3. Environment

The productivity level of your workplace depends a lot on decor, furniture, noise, and temperature. People will surely work much better when they feel comfortable. On average, working for 8-9 hours daily can get tedious. It is important to enforce regular breaks to keep the employees refreshed. Also, keeping the office clean and organized rather than dirty or messy, helps in boosting productivity and motivation.

4. Communication

Practice open communication and share company objectives so that all employees work towards the same goal. Regular training sessions, sharing company updates, and addressing work-related issues help a lot in keeping everyone on the same page. Share upcoming goals and previous achievements to inspire and motivate employees. You can have a common portal or software where everyone can easily communicate and stay updated with what’s going on.

5. Design

Designing a workflow that team members feel comfortable working in, will definitely help in increasing business efficiency. Different teams follow different methodologies and getting the right one for your team in place will increase their focus on tasks, deadlines, and results. Try different workflows and choose the best dynamic work style that’s highly productive and comfortable for your team.

Once you have the basics right, you would want to get closer to seeing better productivity at the workplace. Let’s look at some tips to take you closer to this goal.

Tips to Improve Productivity in Workplace

While we may think we know it all, there’s always room for improvement and getting better at what you are already doing. Let’s look at some well-researched tips to help you increase your productivity. Let’s dig in.

#1 Never Hesitate to Invest in Employee Training

“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”

— Benjamin Franklin

Employee training is as important as making a good hire. It is so because your business won’t grow just by the efforts of your top-performing employees, and that’s why it is crucial to ensure that every single worker meets set productivity levels. To achieve this, providing top-notch training to newly-hired employees is critical.

By and large, SMEs hesitate to invest in employee training because they think it is the wastage of time and money. Due to this misconception, they struggle to achieve their business objectives in the later stages. 

So, if you don’t want to end up with spinning your wheels, train your employees in the best possible manner and consequently reap benefits.

#2 Keep Your Employees Happy

Keeping employees happy is the best practice of all times, as far as workplace productivity is concerned. Generally, business owners pressurize their employees in the name of improving productivity. However, this tactic of attaining desired results never pays off, as a stressful workplace usually complicates things.

Employees working under highly stressful conditions can be all but not productive because they don’t do their work willingly. 

On the flip side, happy employees don’t mind going the extra mile when it comes to improving productivity in the workplace. 

So, appreciate and respect your employees if you want to enjoy the perks of improved productivity in the workplace. If they’re taking a break and playing a game of solitaire, don’t think any of it. Trust that your employees know how to manage their time and stay productive.

#3 Look for Cultural Fit While Recruiting

Increasing workplace productivity isn’t easy unless you have hired the right employees for your organization. Most of the time, during the recruitment process, business owners check the education history and work experience of interviewees before making an employment decision.

But they fail to check one crucial aspect: ‘Cultural Fit.’ Due to this, they face unnecessary hassle related to workplace productivity in the later stages. By all means, appointing experienced employees is an excellent move to elevate the efficiency levels. Still, it is imperative to understand that if the newly-joined employees don’t fit in the culture of your organization, you will never be able to improve workplace productivity.

Henceforth, try to analyze the behavior of potential candidates during the interview process before recruiting them, as that’s how you can improve workplace productivity.

#4 Ensure Seamless Collaboration

‘Do you know the factor on which the fate of all businesses depends?’

Well, it is ‘How well projects are managed.’ It is crucial to understand if you don’t manage projects aptly and fail to meet deadlines, you are likely to lose clients one by one. As a result, there will be roadblocks for your business.

For better project management, your employees across different departments must work in collaboration. Proper teamwork brings twofold advantages to the table: ‘There will be an enhancement in workplace productivity’ and ‘You will enjoy long-term relationships with your invaluable clients.’

These perks are lucrative, right? So, if you genuinely want to improve productivity in the workplace, make sure your employees in different teams work together.

At this juncture, I would like to suggest ProProfs Project, a tool that can help you manage all your projects seamlessly. By using the ProProfs Project Management tool, you will be capable of:

• Meeting deadlines swiftly.
• Ensuring better project calendar management.
• Collaborating with multiple teams.
• Saving time by creating task dependencies.
• Sharing files, discussing and commenting on current projects.

#5 Encourage Autonomy

Have you ever thought why multinationals don’t encounter the hassle of high employee turnover rate? Nah! Well, that’s sad to know because you have overlooked a crucial aspect of increasing workplace productivity.

Ok, ok, no more suspense. MNCs give their employees freedom with regards to breaks, listening to music, playing indoor games, and so forth. Such autonomy you cannot expect from SMEs.

Of course, improving productivity in the workplace is essential. But you cannot insult or treat employees like slaves on the grounds of achieving high-efficiency levels. It is because mental stress only yields poor results.

So, if you really want to address your concern about how to increase employee productivity in the workplace, encourage your workers to take ownership of tasks that are crucial for project success.

#6 Say Yes to Remote Work

This pointer compliments the fifth one, as it is also related to giving freedom to employees. I think I should cut the clutter and tell you that remote workers always bring better results to the table than employees present in the workstation.

What’s more, telecommuters take less sick leaves and log more hours. Therefore, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they are more engaged at work, which means they are likely to hit high productivity levels.

Plus, you can save a significant amount of money if you agree to provide a remote work facility to employees.   

Obviously, I am not trying to make any statement that you should allow all your employees to work from home at once. However, you can allow top-performing employees to work remotely, at least. This will surely help to increase productivity at workplace.

#7 Create an Ideal Workplace Environment

Poor workplace conditions have always been the major productivity killer, as no one likes to work for that company that cannot offer basic facilities. The importance of creating an ideal workplace environment shouldn’t be taken for granted, as it will trigger the problem of employee turnover.

You may already be familiar with this fact that both employee turnover and business productivity share an indirectly proportional relationship with each other. So, yes, improving workplace conditions is no longer an optional choice.

Plus, the office is just like a second home to employees as they spend 9 hours or more in a day. Ask yourself: Would you like to stay in a dirty home… No! Of course… Jeez! I think I sound like a philosopher. 

Before I get carried away, it’s better to share strategies to increase productivity in the workplace:

• Provide first-class equipment
• Develop ergonomic space
• Give liberty to take short breaks
• Conduct small fun activities in a week during off-peak hours for the sake of increasing employees’ job satisfaction level 

#8 Don’t Crackdown on Social Media

Most of the time, businesses prohibit the usage of social media from taking care of their concerns related to ‘how to improve productivity in the workplace.’ Well, it seems like a good move, but the reality is it isn’t.

Except for killing time, employees use public platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc. for different reasons. For instance, some use social media platforms to reduce mental stress, while some use it to help their professional connections.

Here, if you set strict rules around the usage of SM sites, it will send a wrong message that you don’t trust your employees. This will certainly reduce productivity in the workplace.

So, don’t crackdown on social media if improving productivity in the workplace is your main objective.

#9 Let Your Expectations Be Known and Provide Feedback

To increase productivity at workplace, it’s crucial to reveal your expectations to your employees. It is fundamental because if your employees know what goals they are supposed to meet, they are likely to push their limits while doing their work. This will improve the productivity levels of your employees, and that is going to benefit your business for sure.

Besides this, it is vitally important to give feedback to high-performing employees. In case accomplishments don’t get acknowledged in timely, there is a high possibility your top-performing employees lose the zeal and stop putting efforts while doing their work. This is harmful to your business’s overall health. In a nutshell, your few positive words can instill confidence in your employees to excel at work.

What’s more, you should handle errors or failures gently, as lashing out on your employees will lead to communication barriers between employers and employees. This will make you feel helpless while improving productivity in the workplace. So, be approachable and make necessary decisions when an employee shares his/her problems with regards to a drop in the performance.

#10 Increase Job Satisfaction

Generally, productivity at the workplace drops when the job satisfaction of employees starts going down. At a certain point, employees think of switching to another company, which further reduces the odds of increasing productivity in the workplace.

The reason behind dwindling job satisfaction levels could be anything. Therefore, you should keep trying to maintain long-term associations with your employees. Tech giants like Facebook and Google always strive to improve the job satisfaction level of their employees, and that’s why they enjoy the advantages of improved productivity in the workplace for ages.

So, if you want your employees to aim for high productivity levels, increase their job satisfaction by subsidizing gym memberships, offering movie passes (periodically), etc.  

Ways to Motivate Employees

Motivation is like a powerful force that drives and pushes us to channel our efforts in the right direction. So, you can imagine how crucial it is to consider employee motivation. It refers to the factors that motivate employees to give in their very best. Business productivity will surely boost when the employees will work with more dedication. The real deal is to identify the motivating factors. Let’s look at the best and the most common ones lie ahead.

• Praise: People feel happy and motivated when their work is appreciated. You should provide them with genuine positive feedback and this will make an employee want to contribute to the organization’s success. Knowing that your work is valued will easily motivate anyone.
• Reward Employees: Rewarding your employees is one of the best ways to show your appreciation. So, giving extra incentives and gift vouchers from time to time helps in increasing loyalty and morale. Also, according to various surveys, the majority of employees want rewards or perks over a pay raise.
• Be Fair: Always favoring or giving particular employees extra credit devalues the efforts of everyone else. Managers need to motivate all of their team members. So, it is important to be fair and impartial during disputes and appreciation as well.
• Healthy Work-Life Balance: Your team doesn’t want to be worked to the bone as that can only boost productivity temporarily. Make your workers feel happy and provide them a flexible, energetic environment where they can easily manage their work-life balance.
• Allow Honest Criticism: Create an environment where workers can openly express their views on different subjects. Trust your employees and let them keep their point of view, listen to their complaints, and work on them to resolve them. It will motivate them as they will feel valued.

Start Improving Employee Productivity Today!

Well, that’s enough reading for now. Time to take action!

Here’s the takeaway, that can help you:

• List your biggest productivity challenges – Surely, your organization won’t be lacking in all the areas. But, what are the biggest issues stopping your team members from being more productive? Lack of required skill set? Poor communication? Unhealthy work environment? Something else? Write all these down, by scrolling up to the pointers.
• Prioritize the issues – Look at the list and determine the priority of issues that should be fixed. Allocate the issues to the relevant teams and take these on priority to see a boost in employees’ productivity.
• Let team members know – Send out an email or circular or pin it on the notice board that you are working on the solution to fix some challenges. This will keep your employees on the same page and they can even contribute to solving some productivity problems.

Bookmark this blog so you can come back later in case your productivity gets hampered.

FAQs

Q. What can companies do to increase staff productivity?

To increase productivity in the workplace, companies can employ these strategies:

• Reduce distractions in the workspace
• Improve employee engagement practices.
• Invite top-performing employees to share their experience during the training programs.  

Q. What factors increase productivity?

Top 3 factors that can increase workplace productivity are:

• Positive work environment 
• Ergonomic equipment.
• Remote work facility.

Q. Why is productivity important in the workplace?

Well, if there is no productivity in the workplace, it would be impossible to run a successful business. Simply put, the fate of businesses depends on the number of productive employees.