How to Improve Employee Productivity

In good and bad economic times, finding innovative ways to improve employee productivity makes good business sense. Don't wait until things get out of hand to address issues with efficiency. Maintain a climate of productivity, and build in systems to identify and resolve issues when they occur. Doing so could be the one thing that keeps your company afloat in hard times and on top in good times.

Instructions

1. Give your employees the power to resolve small issues on their own. This act will cut down on a lot of unnecessary wasting of time due to lengthy correspondence over relatively small occurrences. It is often difficult to measure how much time is lost or wasted due to lengthy phone conversations and email replies from something that can be handled with minimal time and money. This will also free up more of your time from addressing these small issues to focus on core tasks.

2. Ask your employees for better productivity. Simply let your staff know that your company is focusing on being responsible with all its resources, including staff time, materials and money. A tough economic climate can be one of the best times to make such a request, as your staff will feel much more vulnerable to potential changes and will be much more motivated to make adjustments.

3. Ask your staff members to identify ways to improve productivity, and propose solutions to resolve them. It can be very frustrating for people on the outside looking in to speculate about the best way to get a job done. Trust the people that do the job every day to have the solution most likely to succeed.

4. Publicly recognize employees that have exemplary productivity records. This is a very inexpensive way to motivate employees that doesn't break your company budget. Brainstorm free or inexpensive perks you can make available to those employees such as a reserved parking space close to the building entrance.

5. Make sure every staff person has the tools and equipment necessary to get their jobs done effectively. Don't assume each person has adequate space and materials. Take the time to periodically ask them. Don't compromise productivity to save a few dollars. You could be causing undue stress to your employees, compromising customer service, and contributing to turnover or poor employee relations.