Ways to Boost Employee Productivity
The remote working revolution is here. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses around the world to embrace working from home, the countless benefits of remote work, including happier, healthier and more efficient employees who finally have a chance to improve their work-life balance, were too appealing for many employers to deny. Despite the many positives to remote work, it also brings its own unique challenges that must be overcome.
The issue of productivity often arises in conversations about working from home - while remote working has been shown to be more productive in many instances, a number of factors can sometimes cause productivity to grind to a halt. Employers everywhere have often wondered how to boost employee productivity, but simply don’t know where to start. This isn’t a problem you can just ignore and hope disappears on its own - disengaged employees need to be addressed as soon as possible to avoid higher turnover rates and lost profits. If you’re dealing with disengaged employees in need of a productivity boost, here are a few tips to get you started.
Don’t underestimate the power of collaboration and communication
The ability to work alongside your colleagues in real-time, communicating with them along the way has paved the way for remote work. Whether you’re hosting an office-based workforce or remote employees, the power of cloud collaboration and communication shouldn’t be underestimated. Working with team members on a project in real-time allows your employees to form stronger bonds with one another, enhancing their sense of community.
Workplace collaboration also makes for stronger work, letting multiple employees add their unique touches to each project they work on, with each set of eyes able to pick out errors and make suggestions that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. In order to foster a collaborative atmosphere, be sure to equip your teams with cloud-based productivity apps like G Suite or Microsoft 365, so employees can view, edit, and share documents in real-time, no matter where they are working from or what devices they’re using.
Communication is every bit as important as collaboration - a team that fails to communicate clearly and consistently isn’t making the best of a collaborative atmosphere. Communication shouldn’t just involve employees, either. Clear and transparent communication should come from the top down - let all of your employees know what’s going on within your organization, and don’t be afraid to engage with employees in a fun and stress-free way.
Meet with teams in group settings, and occasionally check in on employees one-on-one to let them know you’re always available to listen. Workplace tools like Slack and Google Meet make this easier than ever before, letting teams come together in channels for brainstorming, troubleshooting, general talk, and so much more, and instantly launch video conferences that can bring teams together from anywhere.
Encourage employees to keep a routine
Remote employees enjoy the freedom of working from home, having the ability to set their schedule to better fit their work-life balance. Remote work means having more flexibility, but also having more responsibility. While a flexible schedule works well for some, other employees don’t thrive without an established routine, causing a drop in productivity.
Employers should take care to encourage employees to keep a regular routine - begin work at a consistent time, take short breaks throughout the day, and end at the same time each day. Setting a consistent schedule will mean that employees are working when they’re most productive, creative, and awake, letting them avoid distractions and focus on the task at hand.
Identify and eliminate stressors
Stress is one of the biggest inhibitors of productivity - as an employer, it’s your job to reduce sources of stress for all employees. You can do this by listening intently to employees in their time of need, enhancing a healthy work-life balance, encouraging casual team building activities like games and team meetings, and offering honest, but constructive, feedback on projects and performance.
Each employee plays an important role in your company, and it’s important to communicate this to team members by providing them with meaningful work and parameters on how they can be more successful in their role. Laying out realistic expectations and establishing a roadmap to success gives your employees something to work towards, and can increase job satisfaction by making them feel like a valuable part of the team.
Identify disengaged employees before they burn out
Disengaged employees are not only less productive, but they’re at risk of experiencing burnout. Employers need to be able to identify which employees are at risk of becoming disengaged in order to intervene and avoid the possibility of burnout. Business insights offered by apps like Prodoscore make it possible to easily identify at-risk employees, giving employers all the information they need in one simple Productivity Score™.
Prodoscore measures employee productivity in business applications in real-time, whether it’s CRM solutions, email, communications tools, or productivity apps like G Suite - you’ll be able to identify which employees are thriving, and which are at risk of falling behind.
This makes it possible to improve employee retention by refocusing your efforts on disengaged employees, improving their performance through more effective coaching, reallocation of work and resources, allowing you to replicate top employee performance. Prodoscore allows you to better predict and improve revenue results by tracking productivity in real-time, helping you identify exciting new opportunities to boost employee productivity and build relationships of trust across your teams.
Don’t underestimate the power of having a visible Prodoscore for your employee as motivation. Many employees feel underappreciated because much of their work is invisible and only measured in quantifiable outcomes - some of which are attributed to their managers or other employees. A Prodoscore quantifies this invisible labour and gives them - and management - a clear view of exactly how much they are doing.
Whether in the office or working from home, your employees need to be equipped with the tools needed to succeed. Encouraging collaboration and communication through cloud productivity tools is a proven way to improve productivity and enhance the quality of work.
When you combine this with a consistent schedule and the elimination of common workplace stressors, your employees will be able to flourish in any environment. Employers can monitor productivity with business insights tools like Prodoscore, using it to support employees before they become disengaged or burnt out, keeping your workforce happier, healthier, and more productive without the fear of the unknown.
