Time spent on social media and constant distractions in their work environment rob your employees of their focus thus lowering their output. These may sound like minor issues but they have a direct impact on the success of your company.

Motivating your workers to increase their productivity can be a challenge though. It takes more than tracking their breaks or punishing them for moments spent on non-work activities. If you aren’t mindful with what you implement, you might end up with disgruntled staff who are eager to quit.

What do you suppose you should do as a leader then? No single factor is going to result in an exponential increase of efficiency levels. Even so, introducing certain changes steadily will surely show some results.

Key Strategies for Improved Employee Productivity

Nothing is more important to a company than its workers. If your staff is happy, their productive capacity will increase which is exactly what you need for your organisation to grow. Here are tips on how to encourage your employees to stay on and give their best.

1. Focus on cultural fit when recruiting

Zappos is known for their nonconformist approach towards hiring where they screen future workers for how well they’ll fit in with the Zappos’ Family Core Values. Taking cues from them will save you time and money down the road.

On the surface, cultural fit doesn’t seem like a critical factor in the recruitment process, but it’s actually one of the most important selection criteria. Finding someone who fits into your company culture energises the rest of the team to work harder.

2. Encourage them to take ownership

An effective method for increasing team productivity is having managers back off rather than micromanaging. It’s wiser to encourage autonomy where you let staff handle their own time and resources. Managing less will get you better results.

Granting your people freedom over where, how, and when they work enables you to see their work ethic in action. They’ll learn to operate independently, become self-starters, and be able to self-correct any mistakes they make instead of relying on you to cover for them.

3. Promote self-care to combat stress

According to data compiled by The American Institute of Stress, occupational pressures and fears are the leading source of stress for American adults and that these have increased over the past few decades. The problem is that nobody wins when your team is stressed.

The right kind of pressure is actually good for productivity but you must combat burnout before it happens. To achieve this, you need to encourage self-care activities. Teach them that you value things like work-life balance, relaxation, exercise, and good sleep.

4. Measure productivity appropriately

Remember the saying, “what gets measured, gets managed”? The classic formula of dividing output by input no longer applies for many industries, however. It’s no longer as simple as computing the number of bushels a worker picked in an hour.

To measure productive capacity, begin with valuing the quality of the work as much as the quantity. There are plenty of tools that allow you to monitor, streamline, and manage your workflow across your entire workforce so take your pick.

5. Equip them with the right tools

You’re not the only one who needs appropriate software in your arsenal—your staff do too! Choosing the right tools will make their jobs easier leading to a streamlined workflow. Get a time tracking app where you can track their hours and activity rates.

Meanwhile, collaboration programs simplify teamwork as they allow people to work together in real-time. These come in the form of project management apps like Trello or storage apps like Google Drive. Don’t forget communication tools, such as Slack and Skype, to keep messages organised.

6. Provide training for relevant skills

Help your workers develop skills to improve their productivity. It can be day-to-day skills like spreadsheet manipulation or touch typing, or bigger ones like establishing a time management style. Consider which ones are most useful for their particular role or needs.

Structure your training process so you can organise it step-by-step and ensure that nothing is missed. Also, in case something happens that the process gets interrupted, you’ll be able to pick up at the right place rather than having to start over.

7. Keep communication lines open

Relationships end and businesses fail without two-way communication. When you’re able to effectively communicate your expectations and their responsibilities to your team, you’ll end up with an engaged and productive workforce.

A rule of thumb is to focus on the future instead of rehashing past failures. Yes, it’s important to learn from mistakes but you must learn to approach them in a positive manner. For instance, you can mention them first, then point out steps that have already been taken to address them.

Get more done with remote workers

Here’s a bonus tip: consider a remote team for your business. We’ve discussed in a previous article why your company should embrace remote work for good. Two of the reasons are a) it makes employees happy and b) it raises work performance, both of which you’re aiming for.

Lots of organisations are already on the trend so don’t be afraid to jump on the bandwagon. You’ll be able to compete with larger enterprises while ensuring that your staff are getting things done.

If you want to hire the right people for your virtual team, partner with Remote Workmate.

We do all the heavy lifting for you, including payroll and onboarding. This means finding the ideal talent becomes so much easier.