Productivity is a complicated word. For some, it means working hard. For others, it means working smarter. However, being productive is one of the best ways you can move your goals, or in this case, business forward.
Much of productivity is born from an individual’s determination, but that is the base ingredient. Most employees have the determination to work because they are paid to do and want to keep their job. Everything else can be workshopped and improved on.
Working long hours doesn’t necessarily translate into working productively. In fact, it often indicates that there is an issue with the workflow or with the tools and processes involved. Take software development. Projects of this scope are large enough to begin with, but if you add on additional hiccups with data management, training, and customer feedback, the entire project can buckle under delays.
By ensuring your business has efficient workflows, the right tools, and even essential employee support onhand, you will see improvements in your business’s overall productivity and morale. To help you get started with revamping your efforts, use this guide. Tweak the suggestions to fit your specific business, and reap the rewards:
Productivity Tips for Every Situation
Improving productivity is not something that should be the sole responsibility of your employees. It is on management and leadership, and regardless of whether your team is in the office with you or working from home, these tips will help them work better, faster, and more efficiently:
Invest in the Right Tools
Getting the right tools is crucial. It is how you can improve workflow and cut down on time wasting admin tasks. Your team cannot help but take long periods of time when the data they use isn’t organized. When the systems they rely on are clunky and rely on a lot of manual input. By investing in the right tools, you can improve productivity from the ground up. With the right tools, you can streamline SaaS product development, can allow for instantaneous collaboration, and even introduce automation to several areas of your business.
Just a few of the tools you will want to look into for your business include:
1. Cloud Computing
2. The Right Operations Tools
3. Project Management Software
4. Proofing Software
5. HR Software
Encourage Team Building In and Out of Office
Your employees don’t need to be friends, but they do need to be comfortable with each other and, most importantly, know how to communicate together. Investing in team building workshops is a great place to start, but have fun, too. Organize either in-person or remote activities for your team to do in and out of the office so that you can improve teamwork and collaboration.
Continuing Education
The best way to improve your employees so that they, in turn, can improve your business is by offering continuing education opportunities. Though this doesn’t help productivity levels directly, what your employees learn in workshops, online courses, and conferences can help improve your business’ workflow and their personal skillset.
The additional benefit here, however, is that you are helping your top-performing employees grow. Even if you cannot afford to give them a raise or don’t have any positions to promote them to, offering continuing education is a great way to improve loyalty and encourage your staff to work harder, because they see their future could lie with your company.
Improve the Meeting Structure
Meetings are notorious time wasters, but more than that, they can actually cut into someone’s productive workflow.
In-Office Productivity Boosting Tips
If you still work in-office, there are a few productivity-boosting tips that you will want to try out:
Great Break Room
Breaks are actually great for productivity. By making sure that the break room has everything they need to eat healthy, as well as free tea, coffee, and snacks, you can keep them fuelled, healthy, and productive.
The Freedom to Bring Their Own Equipment
Perhaps your employees work better with noise-canceling headphones. Perhaps they need to be warmer than you keep your office and want to bring a blanket. Allow them to bring what they need to be comfortable when working so that they can get in the zone and really smash out some great quality work.
Remote Office Productivity Tips
Remote office management is certainly new for many people, but with these tips, you will boost morale and productivity in your office.
Intranet and Communications Solution
Having a video conference subscription and cloud-based tools is the bare minimum when it comes to managing a remote team. You will also want to look into investing in an intranet solution if you have more than 40 people working for you. This intranet system is essentially a personal social platform for your business. Different teams can update each other on progress. You can offer remote training or other opportunities for them all to see. They can even build up their profiles and post relevant, professional content that will help the rest of your employees improve. This solution helps keep them connected, engaged, and as a result, you will notice a productivity improvement.
Flexible Work
One of the biggest benefits to your employees working remotely is that you don’t have to keep your office open for those that want to work odd hours. Because they are already at home, it is easy to offer flextime and reap the benefits because of it.
Perhaps your employees needed a few extra hours in bed. This extra sleep means they can actually work better and faster because they are refreshed, instead of trudging through the day after a bad night’s sleep. You will get the same amount of work out of them, as instead of working from 9 to 5, they may work 10 to 6 or 11 to 7, depending on when they start.
It’s a simple, easy way to give them the freedom to better manage their responsibilities and health so that when they are on the clock, they work distraction-free and feeling like they can take on the world.
