Amazon Polly

When it comes to running a successful business, the number of productive hours in a day is crucial for growth. Often times trying to dissect the issue within your company can make the problem even more complex than it should be. The fact is that fixing this issue is often simpler than one would think. Therefore, the following list includes some of the best ways to increase productivity within your business.

Have a Clear Goal

One of the most common misconceptions about a lack of productivity in the office is that employees are simply lazy. One lazy person might be possible but writing off an entire office as lazy is ridiculous. Instead, stop and ask yourself why your employees don’t seem to be motivated to work hard for you and the company. You will often find that they simply don’t have a clear goal to work toward. As a leader, it is your responsibility to communicate effectively to your employees about the goals of the company, department, and team. This should include weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals. Afterward, make sure that those goals are being looked at and updated regularly.

Involve Employees

A common cause of low productivity within an office is its own policies and procedures. You, as a business leader, must sit down and attempt to figure out what areas can be improved on or eliminate entirely. Sometimes technology can even be integrated to remove redundant tasks. When it comes to organization, employees are a valuable resource, as they are the ones who are actually participating in the workflow. Getting the input of the people who are actually doing the work is key. A great strategy to implement is a town hall meeting. This is where employees are encouraged to voice their concerns and suggestions. Your job here is to listen and act after the matter. It is important that if you do make changes based on the feedback that you receive, that you let people know what the changes are and why. Often, if you don’t let people know that you made the change based on what you heard from them, they may not connect the dots and may still feel like they weren’t listened to.

Introduce Incentives

Introducing incentives in the workplace can help boost productivity. You don’t have to promise large sums of money or promotion, but you can offer smaller incentives that your employees are sure to still love. One of the best things you can offer are additional vacation days, who doesn’t love more vacation days? You could even offer longer breaks or work-from-home days. Get to know what incentives motivate your employees. Leaders should know what drives each and every person on their team.

Every business leader understands the importance of having a productive staff. However, not every leader understands how to fix this very serious issue. I recommend that business leaders take a look at list above to begin laying down the foundation of a strong and productive business.