How To Improve Your Staff’s Productivity

Every business owner relies on staff productivity in order for the business to continue to grow.  However, with Covid-19 we have not only seen changes in consumer behaviour but also with personnel. Have you thought about your staff lately?

You’re not alone.

Has their circumstances changed in the workplace. What about their overall mental health?

Many businesses are finding that returning back to work has not been the same for their staff. They can not move forward with the notion of “business as usual”.  Business success is not just about a gathering of the right personalities, people change and there is a process to ensure that the right conditions for your team are adopted and maintained.

Here are six key strategies to help you improve and maintain staff momentum for optimal productivity:

1.  A clear sense of meaningful purpose:  Has your focus and purposed shifted or changed during COVID? What are your priorities in terms of better meeting consumer needs?  Are you planning to add an extra dimension to the way you interact and communicate with your clients? Should you add a new policy and procedure that you would like your staff to implement in enhancing the new welcoming environment?  Refreshing the way, you do things and communicating this to your staff will give then new zest in returning to their work and being part of a positive change.

• A way of measuring progress:  As a business owner it is important to have a strategy to measure progress.  This will allow you to formally sit with each staff member and give them recognition and praise for what they are doing well, but also recognising their deficiencies and weaknesses and seeing ways to help them improve in those areas.  If you have more than one staff you should include a KPL program (key performance indicators). If you do not have this in place please contact APAN and we can help you.

• Feedback on processes:  Improving performance should be a team effort.  One way to help productivity is to assign to your staff the task of determining one way of improving productivity.  Then have a meeting and allow the staff to contribute to how to improve the business’s performance.  Make them part of the process of improving productivity, it’s amazing how this will allow them to feel valued and an important part of the team.  Give them a voice in the business and challenge them to identify ways for on-going improvement.

•  Good listening: Good communication is paramount to effective management.  This allows for the opportunity to speak to each staff member privately with the objective of understanding what is really important to them, their strengths and weaknesses, their personal realities and to also determine areas they may be struggling with.  This requires good listening skills, compassion and care.  It is a worthwhile investment into your individual staff member’s wellbeing as this will be appreciated by them, but it will also help you identify their growth since working with you, as well as their potential.

• The motivation towards higher performance:  Productivity is a nudge passed excitement. Growth will always require that we are pushed beyond our comfort zone. We need a little uncertainty, a little risk of failure to encourage us to step up and give it our all and push our performance to the next level.  Don’t be afraid to raise the bar and challenge your team.  Staying always in your comfort zone can lead to boredom and ultimately will lead to decreased productivity.  A positive and exciting challenge will help raise both momentum and the standard of performance. 

• Reward achievement and make it fun: Work can be exhilarating if we set it upright. Good-natured banter, a sense of collegiality, anticipation of achievement and a well-earned celebration is the energising aspect of being part of a team.

Review the above and use these recommendations to measure ways that you can optimise your team’s productivity and performance.