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Employee performance and productivity are essential for a company’s success. Specifically in startups and young firms, loyal, engaged, and happy staff are the key to long term growth. Many businesses struggle with boosting their employee productivity, especially when they do not have the means to satisfy all of their employees’ wishes. Here is why investing in methods to keep your employees happy and engaged pays off regardless.

What Influences Employee Productivity?

There are multiple factors that influence workplace productivity, and they might differ from company to company or different industries. Some of these include:

• Workplace culture
• Organization & Structure
• Communication
• Managerial Styles
• Employee Influence & Autonomy
• and many more…

It helps to analyze the own workplace environment and communicate with the employees to find out where problem areas are, to implement solutions.

Proven Ways to Boost Workplace Productivity

There are many ways to boost workplace productivity. Here are four strategies that have been proven to help if the mentioned factors need improving in your company:

The Right Tools

Simple solutions, such as investing in the right tools, can have huge benefits. For example: If you buy a specialized online rota software to manage your employee shifts, instead of using a misappropriated tool such as Excel, you can make your staff happier in multiple ways.

• Simplifying work lets you accomplish more in the same time span, and tasks are always simpler when you have a tool that was meant for them, specifically.

In case of the rota software, you free up time spent on the tedious task of creating rotational plans and give your employees more say in their shift planning. When they have a hand in their work schedule, they can pick the hours that suit them, resulting in employees coming in on time and motivated more often than before. Additionally, this will help them create a better work-life balance for themselves and leaves them feeling respected.

Implementing of a software specifically designed to create shift plans, unlike Excel, you can make use of intuitive and smart programs and let them do the work through analysis and automation. This reduces human error such as accidental over- or understaffing or appointing the wrong people for tasks needing special qualifications, all of which can cost a company in the long run.

The software provides a better structure and can help to communicate it by giving staff access to the cloud-based shift plans. Employees will be thankful for a more effective organizational structure and helpful tools.

Positive Reinforcement

Despite some peoples’ belief that critique can foster more efficiency, it is quite the opposite. Praising employees for good performances, and generally speaking of their work and character positively, makes a staff member feel valued and motivated to work harder. They increase their productivity to keep up with the positive image they hold in their employer’s eye.

Clear Communication

Unclear communication, no matter in which area of life, leads to confusion and uncertainty. Open and concise communication in the workplace is key. Only when employees can state their expectations and explain the staff’s responsibilities clearly can employees try to fulfill them. Unclear communication leads to frustration and possible mistakes. To increase the job satisfaction and efficiency, a company needs effective communication tools and protocols.

Investing in Employees

Employee productivity is low when they feel replaceable. Instead, encourage learning opportunities and show your staff that you are willing to invest in them and keep them on board for a long time. Offering opportunities to further their education has been proven to be one of the most effective ways of raising employee productivity. Maybe it leaves the person feeling obligated to stick with the company, but mostly it is about them feeling valued and learning new things they can use to further their career and offering a better performance.

This strategy includes a general employee focus and the encouragement of self-care. Employees who feel treated like a human are more likely to see their workplace as family and built trust and loyalty. Offering health initiatives to encourage the employees to exercise, get adequate sleep, nourishment and downtime, is important to combat burnout and increase staff happiness.

Conclusion

A business, especially when it’s still starting up, can benefit greatly from keeping their employees happy. Employees who are overworked and frustrated with the conditions at work will hardly have a reason to put in effort. Treating employees well will help them be engaged with the company, raise morale and loyalty. These staff members often go the extra mile and work productively and efficiently.

Fair pay and hours as well as a focus on the employees’ wishes whenever possible create a great start. Handing them the right tools that simplify their tasks and educate them further increases workplace happiness and productivity even further. Investments like these can cost, but the pay-off through a happy and long-lasting, productive staff will be worth it ten times over.

Header image from Jason Goodman via Unsplash.