As a business owner or team leader, it is easier to improve your productivity than influence the collaborative output of the entire workforce.
To boost productivity, some managers resort to employing more people, but most of the time, this does not solve the problem. Aside from increasing your payroll expenses, it can also spike employee turnover rates, negatively impacting your company’s reputation.
This, however, is not to discourage you from hiring more hands when it is needed. It is, instead, a nudge that you should evaluate your team to determine if you need more hands or need to make the present team more productive.
Tips to boost team’s productivity without hiring more employee
If you discover the problem with your collective output is not about the number of employees, below are some tips to boost your team’s productivity:
Provide the latest and required tools for work
Software is designed to simplify employee tasks and reduce project completion time. To improve productivity, ensure they have the latest tools to perform their duty.
It is equally important to create a productivity-conducive environment for your workers. Their chairs should be ergonomic, the office lighting should be comfortable, and they should be able to enjoy good air quality.
Use time-tracking and project management software
Checking emails, social media posts, and receiving calls are ways people can easily get distracted at work. Time-tracking software can help track how much time your staff spends on being productive.
Sometimes it is impossible to know what each individual is working on, as it is either kept in their heads or on their computers.
Using project management software keeps everyone informed of the progress of a task and constantly reminds them of the deadline. You can easily see who needs to catch up in their delivery and can instantly query them for better productivity.
Encourage collaboration
Project management software is excellent at keeping everyone on track, but they sometimes fail to account for the fact some employees perform best as a team.
As a team leader or business owner, forcing employees to work as a team is not always possible. Instead, make them collaborate on projects.
One way to achieve effective collaboration is the use of tiered daily huddles. According to Harvard Business Review (HBR), the strategy involves making front-line workers tackle tasks head-on. Next, they escalate the problems they cannot handle to their supervisor; the tasks they cannot tackle are escalated to managers, subsequently to directors, VPs, and finally, the executive team.
This strategy reduces the tasks on each tier table and helps individual employees focus on the tasks they are best to handle.
Reduce unproductive meeting
Meetings are a great way to create a sense of community at the workplace. Remote teams especially need to schedule a conventional meeting.
However, ensure the meeting is short so the team can dedicate more time to being productive.
Any other meetings should be scheduled if there is no other way around it, such as simply communicating via email.
Only people concerned with the agenda of the meeting should be present while others are focused on their tasks. For instance, a discussion on the strategy for expansion only requires the presence of certain company employees.
Adequately compensate employees for their contribution
Do not hesitate to offer your employees a competitive salary as soon as your company’s finances can afford it. It will help attract the best talent and improve your employees’ dedication.
Recognizing employees when they do an excellent job is also paramount. Also, remember to appreciate employees that have spent many years with your firm and contributed to its success. You can present them with years of service plaque and additional benefits to encourage others to stay.
When to hire more employees
Sometimes, making the team more productive without overstressing them is impossible; therefore, hiring more employees is necessary.
Hiring more employees is an action that will impact your finances and also your company’s culture. Here are some signs that could be a signal you need more hands:
Increased administrative work
This is peculiar to small business owners. As the business expands, they handle more administrative tasks like answering emails and following up with clients.
If you discover this is preventing you from handling more essential tasks, you may need to hire someone to manage them.
Poor customer service
Customer service is an integral part of any business’s success. A stressed workforce will have little or no time to answer customers’ queries. This will inevitably result in low customer satisfaction and loss of prospective clients.
It might be time to hire more employees to tackle this efficiently.
Overworked staff
Except you are lucky to have staff devoted to your company’s mission, staff are likely to quit if they are repeatedly overworked.
If your company can afford the growth in size, it is essential to hire more staff. Workers are likely to be more happy and productive when they are not overworked.
