5 Essential Tips for Perfecting Employee Productivity

23 June 2016

Employee productivity is something that every small business owner is going to struggle with from time to time. It is not that employees do not want to be productive, because the majority of them truly do. It is all about perfecting the science of managing employees and helping them find the linkage between their work product and the impact it has on the company and their own career progression.

Small Monetary Incentives
There is no harm at all in offering employees small incentives for productivity. These small incentives do not have to be anything over the top. You would be amazed at how much something such as a $10 gift card to the coffee shop down the street can motivate employees.

Keep on Training
Training is absolutely essential for all employees and it has to continue beyond their initial on boarding phase. Employees need to have available to them ongoing professional development opportunities. Productivity stalls when employees keep on doing the same thing routinely and never change. When we learn new things, we adapt and improve.

Regular Coaching Sessions
Managers should be having coaching sessions with employees every few weeks to go over where the employee stands, how they are feeling on the job from a productivity standpoint and also emotionally. This is where you can work one employee morale and talking through how the productivity is going to help the employee continue to progress career-wise.

Set Realistic, Incremental Goals
Employees want to achieve goals, but sometimes the goals that are set before they are either too difficult to attain, or set too far out. An employee should have goals that are incremental and realistic. During those coaching sessions, set up some goals that the employee wants to try and hit by the time that you meet again.

Be Available for Questions
Business owners and managers need to be available for their employees. Always keep that door open when you can so that employees are not sitting still and spinning their wheels because they are stuck on a problem. The more of a resource that you can be, the more productive employees will be.
The relationship that every business should have with its employees is one where you are working to benefit one another. The employee needs to understand the linkage between their productivity and how impacts the company, and vice versa. Try out these tips to see how they can impact employee productivity for the better in the short and long-term.