Improve Employee Productivity: 10 Ways to Support Your Team Members and Encourage Them to Succeed

 

It’s no big secret that the success of any business is directly impacted by employee productivity. Every team member has a crucial role to play, and if confusion, burnout, or toxicity creeps into the workplace, it can spell out disaster for a company. 

The Great Resignation proved that millions of employees were stretched to the max and unwilling to continue any longer in a job that wore them down and gave them no satisfaction. Maybe you were one of them. Or maybe you were an executive impacted by a mass exodus of workers, and now you’re wondering how to change the workplace dynamic to encourage and support new employees. 

We love promoting a healthy workplace culture! Read on to see some of our favorite ways to encourage employee productivity and show them some much-deserved care and appreciation.

Our Top 10 Ways To Boost Employee Productivity

1. Train Thoroughly.

We’ve all been “The Newbie.” No matter if the position was particularly difficult or not, those first few days or weeks were roooouuuughhhh. Everything was new: new company dynamic, new leadership and personalities, new equipment and programs to learn, new coffee choices for the Keurig machine…it’s all enough to make you feel overwhelmed and uncertain.

A large part of employee productivity stems from each individual’s confidence in themselves to do their job well. That confidence can be built from day one by taking the time to train each new employee patiently and thoroughly. Encourage your new team members to ask for help and pose questions, and respond to each one seriously. A team member who is invested and cares enough to ask questions is one of the good ones. Support them!

2. Set Clear Goals and Expectations—and Stick to Them. 

Along similar lines, make sure the leadership team effectively communicates goals and expectations to your employees. There’s nothing worse than trying to get a job done well, but having no clear direction or goal for your efforts and constantly feeling like you’re shooting in the dark. 

Nobody wants to work a job where they hope the higher-ups will be happy with what they accomplished. They want to work a job where they know their hard work is meeting expectations. 

Employee productivity increases when your team members have confidence they are working toward a goal and everyone is expected to operate within company standards. This doesn’t equal micro-managing (hard NOPE on that one). It means you provide the guidelines and expectations, help point everyone in the right direction, and show that you have confidence they will get the job done as you all work together.

3. Provide Quality Equipment and Software.

It is BEYOND frustrating trying to get a task accomplished without the proper tools or equipment. Even the simplest of tasks can become a painstaking challenge. Throw a bad printer into the daily mix of everyday business life and before long your employees are losing their minds and turning into this guy.

Make sure your equipment is up to date and in good working order. If a particular program starts acting buggy and decreasing employee productivity, invest in a new program that will actually do what you need it to do. The money will be well-spent and you’ll more than make up for it in increased revenue as your team members boost productivity and efficiency. 

4. Cultivate a Healthy Workplace Culture.

According to Glassdoor’s Mission and Culture Survey, over half of those surveyed expressed that when it comes to job satisfaction, they care more about the company culture than how much money they make. 

That’s a serious statement! Now more than ever, people want to enjoy the time they spend at work. They want to feel comfortable and motivated by the environment. They want to have positive relationships with co-workers and managers. They want true teamwork. They want epic snacks (or at least a company lunch every once in a while). 

Employee productivity is significantly impacted by a positive workplace culture. It creates energy, excitement, camaraderie, and purpose. If your company is lacking in those qualities, it’s only natural that employee productivity will take a nosedive. 

5. Discourage Cliques. 

You can’t avoid the fact that some people are just going to “click” better than others. Shared personality traits, common interests, and length of time spent at the company can cause cliques to develop among your team members over time. While work relationships are something to be encouraged, ingrown groups can create problems with employee productivity while also making other employees feel left out.

You can respectfully push against this dynamic by creating a task force with some new faces thrown into the mix. Take others who have a tendency to work together (to the exclusion of other team members) and let them work alongside someone they wouldn’t normally gravitate toward. This opens up new avenues of employee productivity and workplace relationships. 

Another way to promote teamwork with all members is to provide opportunities for group activities. Anything that allows the whole team to get together and interact can offer the chance for new connections to be made. 

6. Listen and Communicate.

Clear communication is essential for employee productivity. A healthy give and take of talking and listening ensures that everyone is on the same page, there are no underlying, unresolved issues, and every individual understands their role. 

Many employees are afraid to come to a manager or executive with questions for fear of looking like they don’t know what they are doing. As we mentioned in our first point, make sure to encourage your employees to ask questions. This goes above and beyond just saying “Feel free to ask any questions.” Your job is to cultivate a positive environment where your actions and response support your words and your employees actually KNOW they are safe to open up. 

But don’t just wait for employees to come to you. Be proactive in communicating and asking questions yourself to ensure employee productivity and satisfaction. 

7. Create an Environment that Optimizes Employee Productivity.

Every individual employee is different, and the way they work and accomplish tasks will be different. Some people concentrate better in total silence, while others are invigorated by interacting with their teammates or plugging in their headphones for the inspiration that only comes from The Beatles. Depending on your industry, your office should allow space for all employees to thrive.

And don’t forget remote/hybrid work. If there’s anything the pandemic taught us, it’s that many positions don’t require someone to be in-office. Many companies found that employee productivity increased exponentially when those workers were allowed to work from home. 

Here are a few more tips for creating a productive workplace environment.

• Allow flexibility in hours/scheduling as able.

• Assign tasks according to skillset/desire (don’t put your most introverted team member on sales calls).

• Outsource tasks/processes that put stress and weight on your teams.

• Encourage and allow for time off to rest and recharge.

• Provide extra support during particularly stressful business seasons.

8. Set a Good Example. 

If you are a leader within your company, whether you like it or not, you are setting the tone for the rest of your team or department. Employees tend to respond in like manner to the example set by those in leadership positions. 

If you are working yourself to the bone and staying late every day, your team members will get stressed and likely suffer from burnout trying to keep up with that kind of standard. Or if they see you spending the majority of your in-office hours shooting the breeze with other executives and drinking pumpkin spice lattes, they may think it’s ok if they slack off a bit, too. 

The worst combo is a leader who demands high productivity from those they are overseeing, but takes no care to pull their own weight. For the love of God, please don’t be that person. Your employee productivity will plummet, guaranteed (plus your chances of becoming the subject of an undercover company comic strip increases by 387%).  

Set the bar at a healthy height. Work hard, but resist the hustle culture that leads to burnout. Make sure people take their breaks and are refreshed for the remainder of their shifts. Support work/life balance.

9. Recognize and Celebrate the Wins—Both Small and Large.

Whether Rachel sealed the deal with the biggest client your company has ever seen, or Greg just put the finishing touches on the new company logo, show your appreciation! Whether that’s in a public or private way, recognizing hard work and accomplishments motivates employee productivity and shows that nothing goes unnoticed. 

This doesn’t have to be (and shouldn’t be) a special-occasion-only experience. Show thankfulness and gratitude for your team members on a daily basis. A simple “Thank you for getting that done” or “You crushed this!” builds up your team members and encourages them to do their best, from the biggest projects to the menial tasks.

 

10. Incentivize!

If you were to test to discover your employees’ love language, “Receiving Gifts” would probably be at the top of the list. Who doesn’t love a gift card to Amazon? Or a bonus company meal for meeting monthly goals? Or extra PTO? 

Awesome incentives are a super effective way to boost morale, bring excitement and energy to specific projects, and increase employee productivity overall. 

The more appreciated and cared for an employee feels, the more likely they are to be engaged and enthusiastic about the company they are working for and produce quality work. The cost of an incentive is well worth the reward of loyal team members, efficiency, and increased profitability. 

How Can Squeeze Help Improve Employee Productivity?

If you want the long story, check out this article that gives a nice, in-depth explanation of what we do as a sales experience provider. 

But it’s pretty simple, honestly. We support your sales and marketing teams by taking on all the time-consuming busy work that ties up your teams and makes them unhappy and unproductive. This allows them to do the work they love and were actually hired to do, increasing satisfaction and productivity while supporting your goals for a positive workplace culture. 

Interested? We don’t blame you. Drop us a message today to learn more about how we can help you increase employee productivity and reach your goals!