Partner Article

What can your business do to improve your employees’ productivity?

All businesses work in different ways due to the nature of the industry, the business itself, the pressures on the business but primarily it is related to the management of the business.

Over the coming weeks, I am keen to meet with business owners to make an analysis of why and how people manage so differently and how these differences can significant impact on their businesses. If you know any companies that would like to be involved don’t hesitate to contact me at Oculus HR.

Throughout my experience within Human Resources I have worked within varying sectors and size of businesses that have all operated very differently. It has ranged from high levels of employee turnover, high absence levels and employees being completely unengaged with the business to the complete opposite of achieved very high standards of productivity, low turnover of employees and low absence levels – significantly below the national average for the sectors.

Business owners and management need to consider how they would like their businesses to operate, what they would like as a culture, how employees will be treated and respected and……….I believe the significant point would be companies need to have their employees as a significant part of the strategy – they are the core to making the business works.

There are so many positive aspects that can be put into a business by engaged employees and making them feel part of the business. It is shown in statistics that your employees’ productivity can be affected dependent upon how they are treated whilst in the workplace.

Certain factors which can impact on your employees and in-turn your business performance and productivity are;

Recognition and reward

Recognise what your employees do and acknowledge it, provide words of encouragement, this makes anyone feel positive, more motivated and happy. Just think how you felt last time someone gave you a compliment on your work or performance, me personally - it made me smile, I felt great, wanting to show I was capable of more – the result, I worked harder.

Which employer doesn’t want this? At no financial cost only with a kind word.

Reward can be as cheap as saying ‘Good Job’ or ‘Thank you’ or it can be an extra days’ holiday for achieving a target (obviously to be controlled 1 or 2 a year), buying lunch as a thank you or a Christmas treat, £5 per head, this can be very little impact on your finance but it goes along with your employees.

Communicate

Keep people informed, tell them what is going on within the business, how it impacts them, explain the impact of their efforts on the business and the difference it made to the company because they were there. This can be done as a start of day meeting, a weekly meeting, monthly meeting or quarterly – establish when meetings will take place and when you will get everyone together. Employees will then know their exact position in the business, what to expect and why.

Culture

Employees need to believe in the business, you can change a culture obviously not quickly but over time it can happen with very positive results.

A great achievement in a business I previously worked within, we needed to recruit 25 extra people. Our initial recruitment drive was to ask employees if they had family or friends who were interested in working for the company. We received 65 applications over 2 weeks, we recruited all the new employees that we needed without paying any advertising costs or agency fees.

When we asked employees why they recommended employees to work with us, only positive encouragement was received. As a management team we were so encouraged that our employees liked their working environment enough to recommend it to friends. This was brilliant indirect recognition shown to the company culture, the success of the actions we were carrying out and as a result our employee productivity.

Look after your employees

Take an interest, people like to share. As a manager a quick Hello, how’s things, How’s the family/ sport/ home doing? You are reaching out to them, showing that you are interested – yes most managers will complain time is of the essence but a minute every couple of days is a possibility.

In saying this I don’t expect that you will talk to every employee each day but as a business expands, ensure you know your employees names. It really does make a difference. As a Manager make an effort.

Invest in Your employees

Employees are delighted when they get the opportunity to enhance their skills, gaining additional learning opportunities paid for by the employer. Some people are happy to do the learning in their own time, just pleased that the company are supporting this. One Client that I work with provides a training pot, employees can have up to £200 funded training each year – the learning does not need to be of benefit to the employer.

Imagine how you would feel as an employee – I believe this is a great opportunity. Employees are pleased that they are learning something new, feel indebted for the money spent on them, which benefits to their CV, they also feel obligated to perform better by applying any knowledge gained to their role.

Tools and equipment

The most efficient electrical equipment (machinery, devices and equipment) will pay off, if your employees don’t have connection issues and breakdown it doesn’t waste your precious time. Let electrical equipment lead the way for paperwork, use Smart Phones, laptops, tablet computers, Bluetooth to stay connected, GPS and the latest applications. If you have good equipment people want to use it outside of work, a smart phone with work emails on, employees will not be able to resist looking and responding whilst at home in their time – who doesn’t want this – it is quick and easy.

Accountability

Everyone likes to take accountability for their actions and decisions. Additional tasks can provide a sense of pride (very often additional tasks come with additional wages) you could assign an employee to take responsibility for safety, quality, maintenance or delivery.

So to summarise

As I sit and write this article, a guy from a neighbouring company has come out of his office with 10 mugs, he made the tea/coffee for everyone – how nice for other employees, do you think this is motivational? I would believe so (as long as everyone takes a turn).

As can be seen from this list and level of explanation there are many ideas a business that can use to engage employees which in-turn will increase productivity. These actions are a gradual build up, it doesn’t happen over-night but making a start will see gradual improvements. These are only some of the significant points that can be raise, there are many more….

What’s your thoughts? What do you do within your business? If you have an increasing situation of change or a success story please get in touch – @Oculus HR we would enjoy talking and writing about it.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Louise Kennedy .