In today’s difficult economic and business climate, it is imperative that you protect your bottom line. With profit margins slimmer than ever, it is prudent that business leaders do all that they can to boost employee efficiency. Here are five ways that you can increase workplace efficiency for your team.
Lay Out Clear and Focused Goals
You cannot expect your staff to work with maximum efficiency if they are unsure of the overall goals. Without clear and focused goals, employees will flounder and not always know how to best proceed. When setting goals, it is a good idea to follow the “SMART” method. This will ensure that your goals are all specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
By giving all of your staff tasks that are clear and narrowly focused, they will know exactly what is expected of them. Knowing these expectations will help to guide the work so that they do not waste valuable time on tasks that do not contribute to the financial goals of the organization. If your goals do not meet all of the metrics set forth by the “SMART” method, consider re-evaluating how much they will add to the efficiency of your organization.
Boost Communication Processes
The cornerstone of work efficiency starts with effective communication between staff members. Without good communication processes, your employees will not have the direction that they need to successfully execute the duties of their job.
As a business leader, one of the best ways to improve your workplace communication skills is to empower your workers with a modern software platform that focuses on disseminating information. Using a single unified platform to communicate with employees will ensure that the information is delivered in a timely and clear manner.
Provide Incentives
At the end of the day, everybody is motivated by quality incentives. There are a number of ways that you can incentivize your employees to work more efficiently. How you decide to incentivize largely depends on your budget and specific productivity goals.
The obvious incentive is a cash bonus offered to workers who meet the metrics of efficiency that you set forth as an organization. Nothing will motivate your staff to work harder and smarter than additional income. Other ideas to consider using include providing free meals and gifts.
If you do not have a budget bucket for incentives, consider ideas such as verbal recognition and praise. Another good idea is to offer employees additional paid time off to reward them for meeting their efficiency goals.
Lean Into Telecommuting
The current global pandemic has sent more workers than ever before to the remote workspace. Rather than try to fight this way of working, savvy business leaders are finding ways to lean into the new normal and use it to boost efficiency.
While conventional wisdom would tell you that workers are less productive when distracted at home, studies have shown the opposite to be true. By empowering your workers to manage their time at home to find the right work and personal life balance, you may be surprised that efficiency actually increases. Allowing your team to work from home as they prefer will likely encourage them to maximize their time so that they get more done.
Increase Performance Reviews
It is naive to think that employees can work with optimal efficiency if they are not aware when their productivity levels are slipping. Regular performance reviews are essential if boosting efficiency is one of your team goals.
When writing up the review, be sure to offer praise and well as areas in which the employee can improve. After you have conducted the review, it is also prudent to ask the employee what the manager can do better to help them to succeed. This may be where you find out that the employee could use more guidance. Sharing these ideas and empowering the staff to take control of their efficiency levels will make everyone more successful in their career endeavors.
Despite all of the current workplace challenges, you are not helpless when it comes to supporting the efficiency of your staff. By taking these five steps, you will feel confident that you are doing what you can to increase efficiency and your bottom line at the same time.
