The Workplace: Ways to Increase Productivity

The success of any business, regardless of the services or products it offers, depends highly on its employees. If employees put little or no effort into the job, then your sales will remain stagnant. However, if your employees are enthusiastic and engaged, your sales will increase. The good news is that there are several things you, as a business owner, can do to increase productivity in the workplace.

Function as a Team

Advancements in technology continue to put tools in your hands to keep employees on the same page. Many businesses still do not use the highly effective resources available. For example, Google Drive is an app that you can utilize to keep the team connected by storing and sharing valuable information. Evernote lets you create templates for tracking things like your projected goals, sales, and projects.

Advancement Opportunities

An excellent way to motivate your employees to reach their goals is to hire personnel from within to fill other job openings. By providing advancement opportunities, an employee will work harder to earn more without having to go through the entire hiring process again. Hiring from within allows you to use the strengths of each employee to your advantage.

Meetings

Many companies make the grave mistake of not conducting meetings for the entire staff, choosing instead to only focus on the higher tiers. All employees need to have the same information: your goals for the future and where they, as an employee fit in. These meetings do two things. They keep everyone connected to the business and motivated.

Training

When was the last time your employees received training? Most companies put new employees through a few weeks of training upon being hired, but after that there is none. With technology changing rapidly, you need to have well-informed and knowledgeable employees who know not only your business policies and goals but also the latest tools and programs available. Training sessions when something new becomes introduced to the company will take away a lot of the wasted downtime from self-learning as they go.

Bonuses/Incentive Programs

Want to keep good employees? Then, ask yourself if you were them, why would you stay? If you cannot answer your question with excellent reasons, then you may not be offering enough incentives to retain them long term.

Most of the Fortune 500 companies understand that employees are always looking for new opportunities to make money. So, they provide extra benefits to keep highly qualified individuals happy. One way to motivate your staff and reduce your turnover rate is to offer bonuses and incentive programs where employees can earn more than their weekly paycheck. If you are a small business owner with limited capital, it is ok. You do not have to shell out thousands of dollars. Any form of extra income or even gift cards can keep your employees motivated to work harder. The more they can make the happier they will be and the more sales you will make as a result. It is a win across the board.

Getting your company to the next level takes a great marketing plan, a good product or service and engaged employees who have reasons to produce more.