6 Effective Ways to Enhance Workplace Productivity

Any serious business that wants to remain profitable and sustainable has to make the enhancement of workplace productivity a top priority. The first step towards improving employee productivity is to find out some of the factors that lower productivity and motivation of employees.

By taking drastic measures to address major productivity-killers, a company can save itself from a lot of problems. However, it is always advisable to take a proactive approach as it may prove to be an uphill task to reverse the situation. The following are six major examples of strategies that an organization can adopt to boost the productivity levels of its employees:

1. Effective Communication

The effectiveness of business operations depends on the type of communication system within a particular organization. It is hard for an organization to function properly and achieve its goals in the absence of an efficient communication system. Employees should have a proper understanding of the existing communication channels within the company.

The available communication system should suit the unique needed of the enterprise, and at the same time provide avenues for addressing the concerns of each employee. Furthermore, organizations should encourage the culture of sharing institutional knowledge buy putting in place appropriate networking tools and platforms.

2. Skills Development

Every company has to come up with its own standards in addition to the existing industry standards to guarantee quality production. However, this cannot be achieved if the employees do not have the necessary skills to meet the set standards. The employees have to understand their roles to meet production targets.

As a result of this, there is a need for organizations to provide opportunities for professional advancement or skills development. Furthermore, it is important for organizations to encourage employees to seek new challenges to enhance productivity. Each task or assignment needs special skills, and companies should assign tasks based on experience and qualification.

3. Responsible use of Technology

There is always a need for businesses to leverage technology as a way of enhancing their productivity. Different companies around the world have various technologies that are meant to help employees meet production targets and can be as simple as office earphones. However, it is important to point out that having sophisticated technologies without proper utilization or application may not be of any benefit to the firm. Technologies that facilitate collaboration and concepts like telecommuting can enhance productivity by enabling employees to work from home.

4. Recognizing and Rewarding Good Performance

There is no better motivation for employees than recognizing their work. Research findings indicate that workers put in more efforts when they are recognized than when they do not receive any feedback from their managers. Also, it is always a good idea for organizations to adopt constructive criticism of its employees to maintain their motivation.

It is possible to boost the morale of an employee by simply discussing their achievements with them. Appreciation can be given in a culture-centric way or through premiums. It is important to point out that a small token or incentive to the most productive employees can work wonders in encouraging other employees to improve their performance.

5. Strict Supervision

Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors can help in making employees accomplish the assigned tasks within the stipulated time. In addition, the presence of distractions in a work environment can really affect the productivity of employees. Some of the suggested strategies for reducing time-wastage and improving productivity include creating to-do lists, introducing time clocks, putting in place scheduled breaks, and blocking certain websites.

An employee time clock helps an organization to track the attendance of employees to ensure that they do not miss work. An organization is more likely to increase its productivity when employees remain productive within the stipulated hours. The time clock records the reporting and departure time of all employees.

6. Motivation through Gamification

As mentioned earlier, the most important factor when it comes productivity is motivation. There are many methods of motivating employees to enhance their productivity, and one of them is gamification. Monotonous routines can be very boring and that is why there is a need to make some of the activities more interesting, exciting and appealing through gamification. This strategy involves the use of game elements like challenges, points, rankings rewards, and badges to keep employees engaged in quantifiable and repetitive assignments.