An employee is only as successful as the resources they are given. An individual could be the most skilled at their job, proactive, and hard-working, but if their work environment isn’t up to scratch, they will never achieve their full potential.
As a manager, it is your job to empower and equip your staff with the tools they need to do their best work. By providing them with resources, training, support and reward, you will boost productivity across your workforce and cultivate a team of highly motivated and happy employees. Everyone will be better off for it, and the business benefits will make themselves apparent before long.
So, to help you help your staff reach their potential, here are five tips to ensure your employees succeed at work.
1. Give them freedom
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A manager should never be overbearing, watching their staff all the time and nitpicking over their work. This is called micromanaging, and can be incredibly unproductive. Although it’s understandable that you want to know what is going on within your organisation and have some control over your company’s output, your micromanaging will only serve to stress people out and impact the quality of their work.
If you have hired talented, experienced people, there is no need to watch them so closely. Just ensure that they know exactly what they are meant to be doing from the outset and give them the freedom to work in the way that they see fit. This will enable them to operate on their own terms and maximize their individual productivity.
2. Provide training opportunities
You don’t want your employees to remain stagnant and unchallenged in their role. Allowing them to develop their skills and knowledge will not only help them to improve, but will allow them to better serve your company. Use every opportunity available to provide training seminars, workshops, and courses that allow each member of your team to upskill and gain more responsibility. You could even implement a mentoring scheme where more junior members of the team can learn from senior staff.
3. Adopt new technologies
Almost every day, new technologies are being introduced that are designed to streamline business processes and allow employees to work more efficiently and effectively. You are the one with the purchasing power, so can decide which new software package or piece of hardware your company should adopt. There are so many tools out there that can boost productivity and make your team’s life a lot easier. Perhaps you should adopt some service scheduling software, a video collaboration tool, or a new content management system. The choice is yours.
4. Adopt hybrid working
Hybrid working really took off since the global pandemic, and both employers and their employees have reported huge benefits to productivity. It’s a great compromise between the archaic nine-to-five office structure and the huge leap of going completely remote. It enables your staff to work from home most of the time, while coming into the office once or twice a week.
This improves the lives of employees dramatically, as they don’t have to spend time and money commuting. They can get more sleep, as well as having more time to exercise, eat healthily, and perform personal tasks like picking up kids from school and attending healthcare appointments.
Your staff can work in the environment that best suits them, sticking to the hours they prefer and working in their preferred manner without distraction. They will be far more productive as a result, and happier in their careers.
5. Eliminate time wasters
There are so many things in the office that are a huge drain on productivity. The two main offenders: meetings and emails. Although meetings are always scheduled with good intentions, they are generally far less efficient than planned. WIthout fail, they will start and end with a good deal of chatter, and can turn into aimless sessions rather than productive get-togethers. Shortening meetings can make a big difference, motivating attendees to get to the point quickly in their limited time frame. Schedule them for fifteen minutes rather than thirty, or forty-five instead of one hour.
Encourage good email practice with your staff as well. If an employee stops what they are doing every time an email flashes up on their screen, it will take them so much longer to finish their tasks. Adopting a practice of turning off notifications and only checking emails at a couple of set times each day will improve focus and productivity. After all, if it is truly urgent, the sender would call instead.
What other productivity tips can you think of? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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