The ultimate action list for increasing employee productivity

Since the past decade, increasing employee productivity has been the heart of the success of today's workplaces.

It’s vital in keeping your company alive and thriving; the more output achieved, the more revenues and profits are likely to increase.

For the most part, improving productivity revolves around having, efficient, content and well-managed staff, therefore much of what is done to improve productivity is geared towards ‘people’ matters.

However, motivating your employees to increase productivity may seem difficult. 

Here are certain actions you can take to improve and increase productivity of your employees:

1. Hire the right fit-

While on the surface cultural fit may not seem like a critical factor in the hiring process, it is arguably one of the most important selection criteria. An employee that fits your company culture is likely to energize other employees.

2. Clearly define their KRAs and KPIs-

The terms KRA and KPI, which stand for ‘Key Result Area’ and ‘Key Performance Indicator’ respectively, are important components of any goal-setting system.

They define the objectives for any job role. Objectives are the SMART goals that an employee needs to complete. Objectives should be achievable and specific. KRAs and KPIs are a set of metrics that measure one’s progress towards fulfilling the objectives. Through these an employee is aware of exactly what is expected from him/her.

3. Show them how valuable they are -

The best way to encourage productivity is to encourage individuals to take ownership.

Involving employees in the company’s decision-making processes can be a way to achieve it. Make them feel like they contributed to the productivity output. They need have a sense of belongingness towards the organization.

For driving ownership and accountability in your employees watch this video.

4. Define clear Career Development Path-

Career development Plan enables employees to learn better aspects of their work and improve their capabilities. It also helps them to manage their time efficiently.

A well-defined CDP helps an employee visualize his growth along with the company’s growth. This motivates the employees to put in 100% efforts, resulting in increased productivity.

5. Better Performance Appraisal Systems-

It’s more important than ever to measure performance and productivity appropriately. It helps to analyze strengths and weaknesses of employees so that new jobs can be designed for efficient employees.

Through evaluating performance of employees, a person’s efficiency can be determined based on the targets achieved.

This very well motivates a person for better productivity and helps him in improving his performance in the future.

6. Training-

Training is a crucial part of ensuring productivity. Your team’s skills are essential to business performance. There are a lot of skills you can help your employees develop to improve their productivity.

7. Employee Engagement-

Disengaged employees drag a company down.

But engaged employees show up more often, stay longer, and are more productive overall.

Make appreciation a norm in your organization. If an employee has done a good job, show that you know it. Give continuous feedback to your team members.

Give frequent and exciting rewards for time spent on good work.

8. Bridging gap between two generations-

You must be wondering how this will help you increase employee productivity. Well you see, most of our new recruits belong to the millennial generation with different thought process and style of working as compared to the managers and employees who belong on a prior generation.

This generation gap may lead to a discord among the employees further resulting into decreased productivity. It is of utmost importance that all the employees fall in line with the organizational goals and works towards them as a team.

Some one-on-one conversations, brain storming sessions, get-to-know sessions can help bridge this gap.