Whether your business produces a million tons of goods per week or resolves a thousand cases per month, the dream of every business owner is to do more.
But to do that, you need your employees to raise their productivity levels.
How can you make them?
Perhaps you can simply issue proclamations demanding that your staff move from 100 outputs to 1000 outputs.
But you and I both know you may not get much result this way.
For what it’s worth, employees may be working at the peak of their abilities already. Meaning they may not have the ability to do more.
However, there are some things you can do to raise their productivity levels naturally.
Note: if your staff are flexible, raising their productivity levels will not be a problem. However, if they’re rigid, you may have a difficult time managing them. To ensure there are only flexible employees in your company, always use a temp agency Portland like Scion Staffing for your hiring process.
Offer incentives
If you were an employee, how do you think you will react to the promise of getting an additional bonus each time you achieve a new feat? Excited and gearing to go!
In truth, your employees are paid for their services, no doubt, but having a platform that rewards good work goes a long way in raising their enthusiasm, as well as productivity.
Tell them they’ll get a 5% raise on their paycheck if they can move from 1,000 to 10,000 outputs, and see whether they won’t go the extra mile to achieve this.
Recognize Performance
Ok, so somebody has gone the extra mile to give more output than they used to. How do you recognize their efforts?
Simply acknowledge them and offer some feedback. When you celebrate accomplishments through feedback, positive remarks, compliments, and appraisals, not only will you motivate an employee to do better next time, but you will also inspire others to do the same whenever they get the opportunity.
Give training
Sometimes, your employees are simply old-fashioned. The techniques they’re using are too crude and old-school to match today’s demands. As a result, asking them to produce higher outputs while they’re using these old-school methodologies may be impossible.
In this case, they’re willing, but their skill set is letting them down.
So what can you do?
Simply train them to hone the new skills they need. Sometimes, this can be training on how to use a new software that will make their work easier and faster. Or it can be a professional course that teaches them new industry methodologies.
Inspire them
You want people to do much more than they used to do? Be their source of motivation. Imagine you’re an employee, and you see your boss going the extra mile to complete tasks. And in addition, he’s assured you of an additional bonus if you reach newer goals, too. How do you think you’ll feel?
Motivated and driven!
That’s exactly how your employee is likely going to feel.
Reduce Distractions
A no-phone policy is a no-brainer if you’re looking for a highly productive environment.
At all times, always encourage your employees to do away with their phones, side gist, gossips, leaving their desks, and stuff like that.
Of course, you’ll need to give them more breaks in between work sessions if you really want this to work.
Improve workplace environment and working conditions
I don’t think you need reminding we now live in a digital age — an age where communications are digitalized and processes are automated.
To improve workers’ productivity, simply find a way to automate and digitalize some of your business processes.
From communications to time management, task assignment to task completion, and everything else in between, there is basically an app or software for almost all business activities.
Find out about the ones that fit your business and find a way to incorporate them into your business process.
Take Trello, for instance. It is a task management tool that helps you assign duties/tasks to individual workers in an organization, making it impossible for an employee to dodge tasks or be unproductive.
Share details of results with employees
Although it may sound unprofessional revealing to your employees how much profit you’ve earned over a given time, it makes sense telling and showing them that their efforts have yielded improved results.
For example, let’s say you’ve asked them to raise their productivity levels from 100 outputs to 1,000 outputs and have implemented some of the above-listed tips to encourage them. You can call in a meeting, where you reveal to them the numbers they reached (whether 800, 900, 600, or 1,200 outputs).
By doing this, employees will feel carried along. And in the event they didn’t reach the target output, they’ll be motivated to put in more effort next time.
Interesting related article: “What is Motivation?“