As an employer or a manager, it is your job to make sure that your employees are doing their job. Furthermore, it is your job to make sure that they are working to their highest potential. Let’s take a look at some ways that you can figure out if your people aren’t working their hardest and how to help them get more done.
How Do You Know That There Is a Productivity Issue?
There are many ways that you can determine if there is a productivity issue in the workplace. First, you may notice that some employees are able to get more done during the day than others or that they have accomplished more in previous months or years. Second, you may notice that orders aren’t getting fulfilled or that items aren’t being delivered to clients on time. Finally, you may notice that workers seem listless or otherwise not engaged in their work, which could indicate that they are burned out or overwhelmed.
Keep Employees Focused on Their Work
To make sure that productivity is as high as possible, you need your people to stay focused on their work. This may include banning social media while on the clock or limiting where and how often employees are allowed to take breaks. It may also be a good idea to make sure that the room temperature is conducive to getting work done. If a room is too cold, it is harder to effectively speak or use your limbs, and a typical person may be more inclined to look for a glass of water instead of answering the phone if the room is too hot.
Give Your Workers Clear Goals and Clear Directions
Your people aren’t going to be able to get much done if they don’t know what they are supposed to do. It is also easy to miss productivity targets if your people don’t know what those targets are. Weekly meetings, email reminders and other alerts can keep employees abreast as to changes in policies or changes in their weekly or quarterly productivity goals. Keeping the lines of communication open between workers and managers ensures that work doesn’t stop while waiting for the answer to a question.
Reward Your Workers to Keep Them Motivated
In some cases, rewarding your workers for doing a good job can be an effective way to keep them working hard and looking forward to getting more done. Rewards can be as simple as a thank you in passing to a plaque recognizing someone as employee of the month. Other good rewards may include a small bonus check or some other perk like being able to use the company car for a weekend. When people know that going that extra mile will result in a tangible benefit, they are more likely to do more than the minimum.
If your people are treated well and given the right resources, they can and will do more than you expect. High morale leads to high productivity, which means your company can do more to help customers and increase sales while keeping labor and turnover costs in check.