3 major factors that can help improve productivity

Improving productivity in small enterprises does not need fundamental shifts in the way you do business, nor does it necessitate the injection of a significant pool of capital to increase production outputs. Rather, productivity is accomplished by using continual improvement strategies that gradually increase the effectiveness of your current systems and personnel.

In general, productivity relates to how quickly you can generate a given result. It is sometimes paired with another element, such as efficiency, to assess how many resources were used to produce that result. High productivity may be accomplished by either lowering the number of raw materials, labour, and time used in the manufacturing process or producing more with the same number of production factors or resources.

1) Employee productivity

Your staff is one of the most important factors in increasing productivity and the economic success of your firm. That is why understanding the primary elements influencing staff productivity may be a game-changer for your company.

Employee engagement is a vital productivity metric for increasing the performance of your company. Investing in your staff is a smart method to enhance production, labour efficiency, and employee engagement. Create a nice working atmosphere, promote feedback, and always set attainable goals – and you’ll see a huge increase in productivity.

Setting ambiguous and unreachable objectives, on the other hand, frequently results in low productivity and lack of motivation since it causes employees to feel confused and unsure of how to progress with their job. However, when you create clear and attainable goals, your staff will feel more involved and motivated to enhance their performance.

Employee satisfaction: Another helpful productivity metric that is strongly tied to employee engagement is job satisfaction. Employees that are dissatisfied with their jobs are less engaged at work, which leads to lower labour input and productivity.

Many factors might influence job happiness, so make sure you collect enough input from your staff. Based on what they tell you, you can optimise their work environment and workload. This can boost their happiness since they perceive that you care about more than just the financial line of your company, but also about the well-being of your employees.

Employee training: Your production will suffer as a result of unskilled staff. They wind up wasting hours attempting to figure out the fundamentals of the job rather than conducting genuine productive work.

However, simply having an employee training programme is insufficient. Training is an important aspect of productivity that should be complete and thorough. Take your time, talk to your staff, and explain how their function influences the operations of the firm so they can grasp the larger picture.

By doing so, you boost their capacity to handle broad situations on their own, rather than simply providing them with role-specific knowledge and restricting their learning.

Employee health: Ensuring that your employees do not overwork and that they take care of their physical and emotional health is critical for labour productivity. Remember that a healthy employee has more mental and physical energy to deal with daily activities and reach higher levels of productivity and efficiency.

A sick or burned-out employee, on the other hand, will take far longer to finish the same work because they lack energy. To keep your staff in excellent shape, implement various wellness programmes and encourage them to participate. You may also sell healthier food in your office cafeteria and provide gym memberships to your staff.

2) Workplace environment

Productivity is a critical component that must be regularly monitored to ensure that it meets your organisation’s goals and expectations. Another important factor of employee productivity is the work environment. When the climate is hostile or stressful, engagement and productivity levels plummet, hurting the whole organisation.

Workplace settings can be influenced by a variety of things. According to the CIPD, following last year’s Brexit referendum, there was a 20% fall in morale among colleagues, a 17% rise in stress, and a 9% increase in incidents of experienced, observed or heard race-related harassment or bullying at work.

These figures illustrate that something that had nothing to do with an organisation’s internal issues had a detrimental impact not just on their employees’ performance and interactions with one another, but also on the work environment. When you combine this information with the fact that 31% of employees seeking new employment desire the new position to alleviate stress, it is evident that outside forces may and will damage your business, therefore you must take precautions to ensure that casualties are kept to a minimum.

These methods must include fostering a pleasant environment by promoting positive and honest comments as well as timely praise. To keep your staff engaged, let them know when they are doing a good job. It is also critical to demonstrate to them that while there are places for improvement, it is not the end of the world. Collaborate with them to confirm that these areas are always evolving, and maintain an open conversation to avoid any unexpected shocks later on.

3) Updating technology

When we think about technology, we often assume that it only pertains to the most recent and expensive items released by firms such as Apple and Microsoft. However, when we say technology, we mean everything your employees have available to them to accomplish their tasks. This implies that office equipment, personal devices, and the applications they utilise are all considered technology. It is crucial to highlight, however, that modern office technology extends beyond this. This is because technology in our life has progressed beyond mere devices and equipment.

Social networks are just another piece of technology that has been condemned because they are deemed unnecessary in the workplace. However, because phones and social media are such an integral part of our lives, dismissing them as unnecessary or irrelevant in the workplace is a fatal error that many managers make.

How to overcome these barriers?

• The first step is to overcome your fear of technology; you should regard it as a friend and handle it as such. Instead of prohibiting the use of particular types of technology, accept it to the point that it is as crucial in the workplace as it is in many other parts of your workers’ life.
• Next, you must learn to stay up with what’s going on and ensure that your organisation’s goals and general work-life are adjusted as technology grows and progresses.

Finally, remind your staff that even if you don’t have the most cutting-edge technology available, they can and will have to execute their tasks with what they have. Encourage them to use everything at their reach and maintain an open mind to any recommendations they may have on how to employ anything you currently have.