According to a CareerBuilder survey, about 75 percent of employers say that more than two hours of efficient work are lost every day. However, it is not always obvious what exactly is killing your team's efficiency, therefore it is hard to know how to improve staff's productivity. Let’s break down how utilizing the following tips you can learn how to manage your team to become more productive and efficient.
“Work is a process, and any process needs to be controlled. To make work productive, therefore, requires building the appropriate controls into the process of work.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices
First, you have to step back and think about what exactly you want your team to be working on. Define key goals and take into consideration your team’s capacity to execute on them. Make sure you have processes in place and consider HR workflow software, to track your progress.
In the meantime, don’t forget to keep the goals attainable. Assigning one large project even with a reasonable deadline could be overwhelming. Alternatively, breaking large projects into smaller iterations shows clear progress and is a proven hack for motivating teammates as they move toward the final product.
The next step is meeting with your team members one-on-one to communicate the priorities and expectations for their roles. First of all, describe the top two or three high-priority tasks you want them to focus on. Then estimate the time your employees should devote to these tasks. At the same time, help them understand the quality of the work you are expecting. Then make sure to explain the result you are trying to achieve. And finally, get out of their way—give your employees the freedom to work in the best manner possible.
According to experts from US Essay Writers, you need to develop a culture of trust in your team, providing constructive, meaningful feedback on a regular basis. For instance, ask about the challenges your employees face, how you can help them slice their time more effectively, and whether they need more resources. Don’t hesitate to use the following questions in order to make the feedback more constructive and actionable while making the whole process easier:
-- Are the established objectives still relevant?
-- Is there any progress on the work? If not, why? Do some digging to uncover the root of the problem.
-- Is the workload achievable and manageable?
Performance management software helps make sure the process is effective and all employees are performing to the best of their ability.
4. Don’t let meetings ruin your productivity
Improve the way you run meetings. Although meetings have a bad reputation in terms of performance, you definitely need them to share information and make decisions. Invite only those people who need to be involved, create a goal-oriented agenda, and sum up every meeting with clear resolutions. As a consequence, the number of excessive meetings will gradually decrease.
Don’t be afraid to experiment. As an illustration, hold a stand-up or walking meeting. Even if a positive shift in team productivity is not quite obvious, you will definitely benefit your health.
Reorganize office space if employees are uncomfortable with the present layout. How exactly should you do it? Well… Only your team and your type of workflow know the answer.
For example, you can invest in office cocoons. Distractions are one of the biggest productivity killers. That’s why creating comfortable spaces for people to take shelter in, helps them stay focused in the office. Or supply your workers with stand-capable workstations. A study from the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health found that workers with this type of desk were about 46% more productive than those with traditional, seated desk configurations. It is your workspace at the end of the day. So arrange it however you believe will keep your creativity flowing.
The more aware and engaged your employees are, the more productive! Consider employee engagement software to optimize that connection with those who work for you.
One of the keys to working more efficiently is to get a single communication system. This idea is supported by the fact that almost half of US workers prefer to communicate with colleagues online, saving on productivity.
The ideal communication system for your company is a team messenger. Every team can find the best solution depending on its needs. It will be the universe of your team where you won’t get distracted by chatting with relatives or friends.
Teamwork may become messy and mixed up without a centralized space to manage projects. In the same way, collaboration software is especially important if your coworkers are located in different offices and work remotely. The problem is that it can be easy to become confused about where all project data is located, who is doing the tasks, how far along they are in the process and how much work is left.
Having a real-time planning tool that is accessible from everywhere, your team won’t get sucked into hours of meetings and email correspondence. Project management software such as Basecamp or droptask can help you coordinate all the activity in one easy-to-manage, web-based tool.
8. Measure everything
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. So keep an eye on the metrics that matter for your team. For instance, analyze recent changes in productivity, sales and income, or inspect the latest staff retention rates.
What you should remember is that improving internal communication brings long-term returns. But as a manager, you should understand the halfway results. If you are not satisfied with them, try to utilize other tactics to improve communication, like Team Collaboration Software. Otherwise, if you notice a positive trend, scale your efforts.
Less is more. There can be too many tools, tips, or tactics the company utilizes at the same time. Eventually, every company should unify the software its workers use and the productive pattern of workflow. Without pre-established business processes at the office, productivity becomes hindered, instead of getting improved.
HR Productivity is never an accident. If you swing like a pendulum while trying to improve your team productivity, the only goal you’ll reach is wasted time. In order to grow and build productivity at the workplace, you need to constantly monitor your company’s workflow, and never stop.
Productivity is not just about focusing on remarkable proficiency. It is not all about perfectly managing every minute of the day either. Productivity is a complex process, involving multiple corporate disciplines. But as long as you take into account the aforementioned tips, you will be able to change your team performance for the better.
About Author: This article is written by our marketing team at HR Cloud. HR Cloud is dedicated to providing powerful solutions for your HR teams and creating an exceptional employee experience. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, onboarding, and to save you valuable time!