Improve productivity in your company with these 10 easy tips here
So you have a company, okay and now you do not know how to increase productivity. You’ve signed up for loads of courses on leadership, performance-enhancing techniques, yoga and pilates, but nothing seems to work out. You have painted your office with loads of different colours and you have also installed a slide in the meeting room (Google style) but again, nothing seems to work out. You’ve gone to a pub-crawl with your workers – to bond – but again, nothing seems to work out. Your productivity is still the same.
Maybe you are getting it wrong. There are many factors that can influence the productivity of your business, many of these factors would not fit in an article like this, but we are going to give you some ideas on how to improve productivity in your company without spending a fortune on trips to Tanzania.
– Set goals.
Both for your company and your product, but also personal goals, it is essential to answer these questions, where are you? Where are you heading?
What do you want for your company? Do you want to increase your benefits? Become a reference within your sector? Create a great brand? Do you want to make big contributions to society?
What do you want to sell? What is the next product you want to launch? How will you make it successful?
What do you want from each person who is part of your team? Have you explained to them their role in the company from the beginning?
If you think these are a lot of questions, then you have not even started with your work. You have to define these and many more things otherwise you will forget why you are doing it, where you came from and where you are heading.
– Encourage communication in your company.
In many cases, productivity losses are due to poor communication of ideas or problems. Maybe two members of your team are repeating the same tasks and nobody notices that. Or maybe they find a recurring problem but they do not know how to deal with it or who to call.
There are many ways to improve the internal communication of the company, and it would be great to use one or maybe more. Scheduling meetings, an email or receiving suggestions. From an internal chat, to an incident management tool (such as Integria IMS.) There are multiple ways to get the information going, with all the benefits that this involves, so bear this in mind, it is actually quite important. Encourage communication and improve productivity in your company.
– Innovation is key.
Do not stop, do not stay still. Your competitors are working, so you should too. The business world does not stop moving forward – if you have been involved in it for a few years I’m sure you know that it is true – and if you are not able to adapt and promote changes to improve, you will be left behind. Maybe the organization of your company and the products and services you offer have reached a good level, but that is no excuse to rejoice. There is always room for improvement, and whoever does not strive to progress will be left behind.
– Use technological tools.
Think about this. For centuries, some hard-working human beings have racked their brains to achieve advances such as fire, wheel, steam engine, Internet or a stick for selfies.
Do you know why they did this? The use of technology increases productivity; this is something that is known since cavemen began using spears instead of stones to hunt mammoths.
Nowadays, there are technological tools that are more advanced than spears, which can help you improve productivity in your company. Use them.
– Train your team.
Investing money in training could be an amazing thing for your company, so think about it. If your people have the necessary training to carry out their work, it will increase their performance.
– Motivate your employees.
In order for them to perform their best, your people will have to feel that they are part of a team and part of your company. A good start could be to define well what is your role in the company and make them see that their work is important for the business to work. On a personal level, there is nothing better than sending a positive message (take a look at this article on the Pygmalion Effect).
– Make your workers feel comfortable.
Would you be able to work if a hammer was continuously hitting on the wall next to you? What if you had to move around the office trying to avoid dodgy loose wires, scraps of food or even a wet floor with leaks? These are bad conditions for everyone.
The work environment should be nice and clean, otherwise you will not get a great performance, and also, your workers will try to fly away from your company as soon as possible (which , in turn, means that you will loose money when trying to hire new people again).
– Offer incentives.
Your employees are human beings, so they are exposed to variations in their moods. To increase their motivation there are multiple methods, economic ones or in other forms (such as free days, for example). You can also use gamification techniques. Do you know what that is? Click on this post.
– Make schedules flexible.
Making schedules flexible for your workers is one the best incentives for your employees. From setting flexible schedules to click in and out to personal or family needs, to facilitate teleworking, it will be something highly valued by your employees and, if well implemented, could improve productivity in your company.
– Be active with those improvements.
Improving productivity is a process that never ends. Therefore, you should periodically dedicate some time to analyse if the measures you have implemented are working and what other decisions you could make in order to keep improving.
And so far these are some of our ideas to improve productivity. Remember that although you cannot paint the walls of your office, Integria IMS has some tools that can help you improve productivity in your company. Discover what Integria IMS can do for you by clicking here.