When it comes to a successful business, your team is only as strong as your weakest link. Therefore, it’s critical that you put together a team of employees that have your business’s best interests in mind, and who are just as passionate about the overall success of your company as you are.
Yet although people may seem to be on the same page as you when you initially hire them, often their productivity tapers off. You can find yourself with a team full of employees that simply aren’t pulling their weight.
Unfortunately, time is money, so if you don’t have the high-performing team that you require to run a successful business, then you’re wasting your time and resources to help motivate your team and streamline your workflow, here are some of the best tips for increasing your employees’ productivity.
Communicate Your Expectations
One of the biggest reasons why teams fall behind is because they’re not entirely clear on what is expected of them. When you clearly communicate to your team what it is that you hope they accomplish, and how you expect them to do it, then there’s less room for confusion and less opportunity for them to come up with excuses.
Regularly communicating by e-mail or in meetings is the best way to ensure that everybody knows what is expected of them.
Encourage Breaks
Many business owners make the mistake of believing that the harder and longer you work, the more productive you’ll be. In reality, breaks don’t just help your team’s morale but they will also boost their productivity.
The more opportunities people have to recharge their battery, the better performance they’ll deliver. Try to encourage your employees to work using the Pomodoro method. This encourages spurts of focused and dedicated productivity followed by periods of stretching or focusing on other activities by working in small spurts throughout the day.
Not only will your team members be less fatigued leading to distraction, but they will be much more motivated to continue working the next day.
Train Thoroughly
It’s alarming to see the number of businesses that can’t pinpoint the cause for their employee’s lack of productivity when half of their employees don’t even know what it is they’re supposed to be doing. Thoroughly training your employees is a must since this ensures that there will be no confusion about how to execute their tasks.
Identify and Eliminate Distractions
The first step towards encouraging focus and productivity is identifying what your employees’ biggest distractions are and eliminating them. Whether it’s too much personal time on their computers or talking amongst themselves, identify what’s holding your team back, and act accordingly. The sooner you can eliminate distractions, the sooner you can get your team on the same page.
