Helping Your Staff to Be as Productive as Possible
By Business Desk
Tuesday, December 19, 2017.
When you take on
members of staff, you may believe that the bulk of your efforts should go into
the interview process. By being extremely picky in your interviews, you can
ensure that not only do you find someone who’s sufficiently qualified for the
role you’re offering but also that they are enthusiastic about your company and
the career path that they are choosing with you. Now, the interview process can
give you a relatively good idea of any potential employee. It gives you more of
a grasp of their character, personality, and drive than you’d be able to take
away from a written application alone. However, it is absolutely essential that
you don’t convince yourself that this is the end of the journey. Sure, half of
the benefit of having reliable employees is that you can leave them to get on
with their tasks while you focus your attention on other areas of your
business, such as raising brand awareness, settling on marketing campaigns, or
pushing product development forward. But at the same time, even the best
workers are only human and left to their own devices, they are often likely to
slack or take advantage of excessive freedom in their roles. So, how do you go
about ensuring that your staff are as productive as possible at all times?
Well, there are a few different ways to go about this, but for now, let’s focus
on those that are the easiest to implement and have the most positive results.
Measure Productivity and Achievement
Employees are much more likely to work consistently
and at a high quality if they are aware that they are being observed. Now, this
doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to watch and survey their every move. In
fact, this is likely to throw them off task and, well… creep them out a bit in
general. You also don’t want to measure productivity and achievement to punish or embarrass those who don’t seem to be keeping up. Instead,
you should use this method of surveillance more for your own records. Having a
complete picture of how your company is coming along in different areas will
help you to track your progress. You need to see the big picture in order to
see how you’ve progressed and set goals about where you want your business to
be in the future. It can also help you to see the average input, which will
allow you to reward those who go above and beyond expectations (something that
we will focus on more closely in a little while). So, how do you accurately
measure productivity and achievement in the workplace? One of the most popular
methods is measuring productivity quantitatively. This method of measurement is
perhaps best for employees dealing with the production of tangible goods or sales
of equal value that can be counted. Say you have workers who operate a factory
line. You can easily measure their productivity by calculating the total number
of products reeled off the production line over a particular time period (such
as an hour, day, week, month, or year). Alternatively, you might have call
centre workers who contact people encouraging them to purchase a given item,
sign up to a particular plan, or subscribe to paying a given amount. You can
then count how many sales each person has put through. Just remember to account
for factors that may slow the process that are beyond their control. For
example, there might be a delay in raw materials being delivered, or the
internet and phone lines may have gone down.
Acknowledge Hard Work
Anyone knows that you are more likely to put an
effort in if your achievements are acknowledged. There’s nothing worse than
pouring your time and effort into something, only for the positive results that
it produces to be shrugged off by someone in a more authoritative position. Recognition and appreciation are basic human needs. We work on a reward basis,
and when we are commended or congratulated for something that we’ve done, we
experience a release of positive chemicals and want to do it again. So, work
with basic human psychology and give out a little praise every now and then.
Not only is this entirely free, but it will this keep your employees happy, but
it encourages them to go above and beyond your expectations of them. They will
continue to produce impressive results time and time again. This means that
your company will constantly progress and you will reap in the rewards in the
form of profit. What more could you possibly want?
Set Goals and Offer Rewards or
Incentives
As you can see from the last section, you don’t
necessarily need to fork out a single penny to show your staff members that you
appreciate their hard work. However, if you really want to see productivity go
through the roof, it’s time to start offering rewards or putting up
incentives.There are several ways to go about this. First, if someone has gone
beyond the call of duty without being asked, you may want to reward them. This will
come as a surprise to them, making them feel even more valued due to the
element of surprise. Alternatively, you can actively set goals and offer
incentives for your employees to achieve them. These incentives can take
various forms. Monetary rewards can include bonuses, paid time off, employee
stock options, or profit-sharing plans. Non-monetary rewards can include perks
and opportunities. These could include flexible work hours, training
opportunities and the chance to work independently - perhaps working from their
own office or home. You should make sure that whatever goals you set aren’t
easy to hit, but are also achievable. If the target is set too high, your staff
will quickly tire of trying to reach impossible expectations and will feel as
though you are merely dangling a carrot in front of them.
Actively Managing Shifts
You may think that it makes little difference when
your staff work, as long as they put in the hours. But you couldn’t be more
wrong! So many managers and business owners go wrong by putting staff on shift
in random orders according to whatever fits together most easily. People are
naturally drawn towards specific shifts. We generally want to work at
reasonable hours during the day, while night shifts or shifts that start
particularly early or run particularly late are often seen as undesirable. Why?
Well, people still have lives to live around their work. They want to be able
to fit into a standard social routine and still be able to nip to the shops and
get other personal tasks done. So, if you always put one team on for a day
shift while another is always on night shifts, you’re going to end up with a
fair few unhappy team members.
What do unhappy team members mean? A reluctance
to work and less energy and effort being put in while they are on shift. So
implement a rotating schedule. When you do this, shifts will be varied, meaning
that the overall working hours become fairer in general. You ensure that all of
your operating hours are covered at the same time as making sure that every
staff member gets sufficient time off and long enough breaks to recuperate
between their working hours. Perfect! Read Getsling’s article on How a Rotating Shift Schedule Can Double Your Team’s
Productivity for more information.
Encourage Teamwork
As well as looking out for your staff by actively
ensuring that shifts are evenly distributed amongst your employees, you also
want to encourage them to look out for one another too! Your workforce is the
backbone of your business, so you are going to want to make sure that your
employees bond effectively and are able to work together for the good of your
company. Sure, you want each worker to be able to work independently and of
their own accord. But you also want to push the importance of numerous workers
collaborating and pulling together to produce brilliant results. So, how do you
go about bringing these otherwise disparate people together? Well, in short,
you should start focusing on team building activities. Team building breaks the
ice between your employees, producing more positive relationships between
everyone within the workplace. Common tasks such as the classification game, the picture pieces game, and the great
egg drop can help your employees to foster professional and
creative communication with one another, which they can then use to tackle
problems and develop new, creative ideas.
Remember that monitoring and managing your staff is
a constant responsibility that you hold as an employer. No matter how well
things are going, there are always areas of improvement to work on, so don’t be
lazy! After all, the more productive your staff are, the greater profits you
will turn over as a direct result of their hard work and dedication to your
company and brand. So get your money’s worth by following the simple steps
above!