Since the industrial revolution days, companies and economists have been after means of increasing productivity. While economists seek this increase by means of better policies and procedures, companies aimed at improving employee productivity. The fact is: increased productivity is a result of smart work, not just hard work.
Generally, most jobs are performed by employees who operate the machines, run business models and design new corporate procedures. With this knowledge, top managers seek ways to improve their employees’ productivity for business stability. Hence, they learn to invest in the employees much more than the machines or processes.
Here are easy ways to improve employee productivity –
Develop employee work performance metrics
Perhaps your company doesn’t have one yet. There is a need to develop metrics that account for employees work performance. This performance metric is expected to reflect accurately the abilities of your employees and the efforts they put in per time. It will serve as a medium of building consistency in employees as well aid them in becoming more accountable for their efforts. This truly is the baseline for every productivity management.
Create an employee feedback and reporting system
When quality jobs are noticed and appreciated, employees are generally pleased. Beyond that, their poor performance should be pointed out and corrections suggested. That’s the essence of employees’ feedback system. With this in place, management can communicate regularly with employees as regarding their performances. This will have a strong positive impact on employee productivity.
Give room for objective management
Rather than running a micromanagement system, give room for a management that’s more liberal. In this kind of management, an established framework is given by the manager and then the employees operate within it. This actually affords the employees the freedom to explore their individual talents and enhance their performance. With objective management, employees are forced to be innovative as well as creative in their operations.
Cherish reward and recognition
As a manager, never neglect the motivation that comes with rewards, recognition and good pay. These factors truly encourage the work-rate of workers. Beyond the point of just noticing brilliant employee work performance, there should be a reward attached to it. Studies show that these rewards [no matter how small] do motivate employees a great deal. When employees are offered good incentives, it improves their morale and as such creates a productivity culture among them.
Management should also endeavor to create objective criteria (a key factor) that these rewards would be based on. In the absence of such criteria, the reward system can be misjudged and create a feeling of favoritism among the employees. This is capable of bringing mistrust and un-commitment within the workforce.
Listen to your employees
Majority of the work done in the company is done by the employees. This means that they have better knowledge of the daily processes more than the management. By that, the employees stand at a better position to offer innovative ideas that will increase productivity. Identify the top performers among them and seek to learn their option about your business process. Listen to them and make their suggestions to count. In addition, proper train, equip and engage them.
Southwest Airlines completely depend on employee happiness and advanced commitment through profit-sharing as its tool for employee productivity. That’s a typical model for employee productivity. Management models may differ across different corporate sectors, but the primary focus should not miss how their employees are treated if productivity is truly a top priority.
Source: https://www.thehrdigest.com/easy-ways-to-improve-employee-productivity/