6 Management Practices That Can Improve Employee Productivity

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In today’s business world, you need to have the right tactics and strategies to make your employees more productive. This can be challenging, especially in an age where social media and other digital distractions creep in on the workplace. However, if you implement the following management practices, you can get more out of your team and boost your bottom line more than ever before:

Set Specific Goals

Productivity is all about getting more done with the time you have. However, if you have not set out a clear plan as to what exactly you are being productive towards, you will have a lot of busy work without real results. Set smart and clear goals to get your team set in the right direction.

For instance, many companies have the overall goal of increasing revenue. While there is nothing wrong with wanting more added to your bottom line, you need to be more specific. Include actual timelines for the completion of certain projects and attach a number to the value of these projects. Then, you can be productive towards something finite and measurable.

Measure What Matters

The famous business guru Peter Drucker was famous for pointing out that if you don’t measure something, you can’t manage it. However, this has often been interpreted the wrong way. You shouldn’t measure just anything for the sake of measuring it.

Many companies make the mistake of looking for productivity in all the wrong places. They track the time their employees spend in the office, for instance. While it is generally true that hard workers will spend more time at work, the reality is that you shouldn’t just look at “time in a chair.” Look at KPIs that directly drive revenue, growth, customer happiness, etc. When you measure what matters, you have a better view of the difference between being effective (productive) and simply efficient (doing something well, regardless of importance).

Respect Mental Health

Mental health today is becoming a hot topic, and rightfully so. For years, businesses have not dealt with mental health of employees with the respect it deserves. However, it is vital that you understand the stress, depression, and anxiety that your workers could be feeling.

One way to do this is to offer meetings anytime with HR if they are feeling down. In addition to this, consider offering a mental health day as part of your paid leave program for employees. This lets them take some needed time off and recharge their batteries. That way, they’ll be refreshed and able to bring their maximum value to the company over the long run.

Leverage Communication Apps

There are many apps and technologies out there today that enable your team to communicate with each other better than ever before. And especially today when you could have team members in different offices all around the globe, you need to leverage these platforms if productivity is important to you.

Take Slack, for instance. It allows employees to send text, documents, videos, and links to each other in real time. It also serves up live chats, video calls, and phone calls for free (or very low rates depending on usage). This means if you have a project manager in New York, they can get progress updates on designers from Texas or programmers from New Delhi.

Meet Regularly

A team that meets together stays together. If your employees are not on the same page, it can cause a lot of confusion. What should have been an easy project or metric to hit for this quarter becomes lost in the shuffle.

Make sure that you meet monthly at a minimum with your whole team. This includes accounting, warehouse personnel, HR, and more. When you refine your goals, your expectations, and your strategy regularly, everyone can funnel their energy into being productive toward your corporate initiatives, not just whatever they feel in the moment.

Spark Competition

There is nothing wrong with a little friendly competition. In fact, the best businesses find ways to be more productive by having their departments compete with each other.

Consider implementing cash prize pools or other incentives each quarter for sales, customer service outcomes, and design effectiveness for your web conversions. But don’t stop there. Any time you can gamify your workplace, you make it a fun and competitive area to work. This sparks creativity and productivity because people are willing to put more energy into their tasks at any given moment when there is a light or reward at the end of it.

If you want to make your employees more productive, it might be overwhelming at first. After all, there are lot of different areas to tackle. However, with the right management approach, you can ensure that your team feels great, works together, and takes actions that decrease expenses and boost revenue. Use the tips above and watch as your productivity shoots through the roof.

Brian O'Connell
Business Writer
Brian is a semi-retired business owner with 15 years experience covering small business, entrepreneurship, careers, and financial planning. He has appeared in dozens of top-tier national business publications, including Time, MSN Money, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, The Street.com, Yahoo Finance, CBS Marketwatch, and many more,

1 COMMENT

  1. Great post… Brian.
    Sparking competition among the employees could have a significant positive influence on the productivity of a company.
    However, several other factors also affect the productivity of a company including job satisfaction and healthy corporate culture.
    A person should do some research on the internet or should take consultation from experienced professionals to boost productivity without compromising quality.

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