“We have to boost up our efficiency”— simply telling this in a meeting room is not going to improve the performance of your employees. Ruling with an iron fist is not going to work, either. In fact, this tactic always backfires. So, how to improve your business performance? No, you don’t need to fire everyone and replace them with the best-performing people. Replacing and training a replacement takes time and money. There are lots of other ways to get the most out of your employees.
Read on to find out a few effective strategies that will bring out the best in your employees and drag their productivity to the maximum.
- Make Efforts to Motivate Your Team
Do you take your employees’ motivation for granted? You can’t expect your staff to do great if you aren’t giving some effort to motivating them. Sure, special bonus programs and prizes for special performances can be great catalysts for enhancing employee motivation. But today, employees expect more than just a hefty paycheck and regular bonuses from their employer.
Employees want to know the vision of the company and where they fit in. You must explain to them how their contribution matters and what is expected of them. If you have just one or two employees, you might be thinking that “why I should care about it?” Well, sometimes keeping just one or two employees motivated becomes tough as they don’t have a lot of other coworkers to mingle with. So, no matter how many employees you have, focusing on boosting their motivation is crucial.
- Appreciate Their Work
As an entrepreneur, you should let your staff know that you appreciate their work. A few words of appreciation can work wonder. Tell your employees that they are doing a good job. You can also think of offering some personal incentives— maybe a free holiday or free food vouchers to those who perform above and beyond their roles. When you encourage employees to work harder and receive rewards in return, they’re more likely to give their all to increase their productivity.
- Have a Candid Conversation
You may think a word of appreciation is fine but what about those employees who are perpetually underperforming. Well, the best way to deal with such situations is to have a conversation. You can’t get to the root of the dropping performance of employees without setting aside some time to talk to them.
Sometimes employees don’t do what you want them to do and act as if they are competent professionals. While on the other hand, they procrastinate, miss deadlines, and blame others. And worst of all, when you try to coach them about performance improvement, they become defensive. So, in this case, you need to figure out exactly why the employee is not meeting your expectations. Perhaps the employee doesn’t have a clear idea of your expectation or maybe the personal problems are the reason. Or maybe it’s the lack of time, tools, talent, training, or temperament that stopping the employee to effectively perform the job. So, have a conversation and determine the best course of action for improving the employee’s performance. You may think of offering a flexible work schedule for the employee. When employees feel that the company cares about them, they are more likely to be engaged with the mission of the organization.
- Listen To Their Concerns and Help Them Grow
As a leader, you must encourage a sociable organizational culture where each employee can speak up and voice their opinions. Listen to any critiques or suggestions that your employees might have. In fact, persuade them to give their valuable feedback. Listening to their concerns and working together toward a common solution will make them feel that they are valuable for the company and their opinion matters.
Also, give your employees a path to grow. When employees join your company, they not only expect to get some perks but they also look for a chance to grow. Money and bonuses are nice but the best employees often really want to move up into a better and more responsible job.
- Consider Remote Working Options
Contrary to popular belief, working from home won’t make your team less productive. In fact, research shows that remotely working employees are 13 percent more productive than their office-working counterparts. Think about it, by working remotely they can save a lot of time that they would have wasted in commuting. When an employee doesn’t feel well enough to commute for hours and come to work, let them work from home. Isn’t it better to let them work remotely so that they can stay productive rather than taking a sick day and accomplish nothing?
- Foster Positive Work Environment
Creating a fun and positive working environment can go a long way in increasing employee productivity. This will develop a rapport and relationship among the team members and reduce their stress. Celebrating every little victory with your employees will make them feel that they are part of the winning team
Moreover, focus on maintaining a clean workplace to keep staff members safe, healthy and efficient. An uncomfortable working condition can hamper productivity and create a distraction. For instance, if the environment is too hot or too cold, employees will spend more time walking around to get an electric fan or coat to warm up.
- Encourage Employees to Reduce Distractions
Lastly, improve the productivity of your staff by minimizing the distraction at the workplace. Social media is a big distraction and a productivity killer. But enforcing a no-phone policy at the workplace might not be a good idea. So, try to keep employees focused while giving them space to breathe. You can encourage employees to take check their phones during breaks and keep the phone turned off while working.
The Bottom Line
As an entrepreneur, investing a chunk of your time in motivating, and nurturing your team may be hard to do. Addressing all these motivational issues is a lot of work. But it is worth to put in some time and effort as it can dramatically move your business ahead. If you want your employees to perform to the best of their ability, try out the above strategies and enjoy the benefits.