Increasing your employee’s productivity benefits your business in myriad ways. One of the most obvious benefits is increased profitability. There are many ways that you can train and cultivate productivity in your staff, from training seminars to a positive work environment.
If you notice that any of your staff are not responding well to training and aren’t improving after being told, then it’s imperative that you fire them. Unproductive staff who are unwilling to learn and improve are a liability. Don’t waste your time with them.
This article will explain how to train your employees and increase their productivity:
Automate Sales
If you have a team full of unproductive sales staff, then you could consider introducing software that automates and facilitates sales. This software will allow you to terminate unreliable staff, without suffering a lack in business or function. Out of all of the sales funnel platforms, ClickFunnels is the most popular, and over at supplygem.com/clickfunnels-60-day-trial/, you can get a free trial. You can use this trial to familiarise yourself with the platform and decide whether or not to implement it in your business. If you do, then you can get rid of staff who aren’t fully productive and efficient.
Training Seminars
If you are concerned with your staff productivity, then experts advise hosting some kind of training seminar. The seminar that you hold depends entirely upon your industry, and your staff’s duties. Marketing seminars for example typically involve guest speakers, who are well established in the marketing community. Don’t be reluctant to spend a little money on guest speakers for your seminar, because they can be very motivational and effective. Industry leaders can help to motivate your staff to do better and can encourage them to be much more productive.
Interactive Exercises
In addition to training seminars, you should have your staff practise their daily duties online, using interactive training software. This can help them to hone their skills and become better at what they do. You should be able to have your staff practise online in their spare time without paying them, as part of their routine staff training. With that said, you should incentivize interacting with this software by offering rewards, prizes, and certificates of completion. You may also want to consider having your staff complete courses that award them with accreditations relevant to your industry.
Routine Testing
If your business works in a very complex industry such as engineering for example, then there’s a lot of benefit to holding routine testing. You should warn your staff in advance to give them time to revise. Routine testing will keep your staff alert and productive. This testing will also give you the opportunity to assess the extent of their abilities and identify staff members who aren’t working as diligently as they should. You should conduct routine testing at least twice a year. You should give your staff at least two weeks’ notice before holding one of these sessions.
Delegating Responsibility
If you are able to identify key staff members who work harder than everybody else, don’t be afraid to delegate more responsibility to them. Productive members of staff typically relish the fact that they are being recognized and given extra responsibility. This should improve their productivity massively because now they know that they are ascending the proverbial ladder. It should also motivate other staff, who will see that it is possible to achieve a promotion in your business and will work toward that themselves. With all of that said, make sure that you do not show favoritism when you are giving promotions and delegating responsibility because this can breed contempt among staff.
Positive Environment
Cultivating a positive working environment is a great way to improve productivity. When your staff are happy working amongst each other, they are far more likely to communicate and to be productive. Conversely, if your staff struggle to communicate with one another and there is in-fighting taking place, they will be less productive, and more reluctant to work harmoniously. You can cultivate a positive environment by being friendly with your staff, not exhibiting favoritism, and by holding regular events for your staff to attend outside of work, such as barbecues and nights out.
Rewarding Staff
In addition to cultivating a positive environment, you should give commendation when commendation is due. If you notice that specific employees are working hard, there’s no harm in calling them into your office and expressing how happy you are with them. This motivates members of staff to work harder because they will want to impress you, and ultimately, achieve a promotion. You could also reward staff by offering time off for hard work and giving bonuses in the run-up to Christmas. Bonuses are a very effective way of increasing productivity.
Honesty and Openness
Make sure that you are honest and open with your employees. Transparency will improve their overall productivity because they will feel less like staff and more like partners. If you keep secrets from them and don’t update them on what’s going on with the company, they won’t feel connected to it, and so, will be less productive. By bringing them in and treating them like they actually have a stake in your business, you will motivate them and encourage them to do better. With that said, keep your relationship with your staff professional.
Communication
In addition to honesty and openness, you need to communicate with your staff. This means that if you need something done, then explain it properly. A big problem for many businesses is that managers and senior employees do not explain things properly to people further down the ladder. Ultimately, this leads to staff making mistakes and being reprimanded. When staff is reprimanded because of somebody else’s mistake, they will feel undervalued and their productivity will decrease. For this reason, be clear and concise with your staff, and ensure they know exactly what they are supposed to be doing. When they have an end point in sight, it will be easier for them to be more productive.
Unnecessary Tasks
If you want your staff to be more productive, then give them fewer unnecessary tasks to do. If you have staff who are working on an important project, avoid side-tracking them with something that somebody else could do. Ensure that your staff are working on the most important things and doing their jobs. In addition, avoid delegating tasks to members of staff who aren’t qualified or trained for them. This can cause them to make mistakes, which could make them less productive in the long run.
Home Working
Since the pandemic struck, lots of businesses have had to instruct their employees to work from home. While the pandemic’s mostly over and effective vaccine programmes have been rolled out, your staff can still work from home. Working from home has been shown to dramatically improve employee productivity. One of the main reasons for this is because they do not have to commute, and so, can wake up later, eat healthier, and spend more time with their family. This gives employees a greater sense of satisfaction, and thus improves their productivity and commitment to your company.
Social Distancing
It’s also very important to introduce social distancing in your workplace. This is because many people are still very concerned with the spread of COVID-19, despite vaccine rollouts. Staff who are concerned about becoming sick will be less productive. In addition, staff who actually become sick will have to take time off of work which can decrease overall productivity tremendously. Be sure to introduce mandatory mask-wearing, as well as social distancing. You could also introduce protective screens, which will stop your staff from passing viruses among each other through coughing, sneezing, and talking. Make sure to also give each member of staff their own antibacterial hand gel, which they should use before opening and closing doors.
Technology
Giving your staff the latest and most efficient technology is another guaranteed way to improve their productivity. If your staff are using antiquated software and technology, then they will not be able to complete tasks as effectively as they would if they had the latest tech. You can get discounts on new technology by buying it in bulk. At the very least, you should give the most important members of staff in your business the newest and most up to date technology in order to improve their performance and streamline difficult tasks.
Identify and Set Goals
If your staff doesn’t have any goals, then they won’t be able to improve their productivity. Make sure you regularly set goals for them to meet. This could be a specific number of sales made or a number of phone calls made. By giving them tasks to work toward, your staff can improve their productivity and will work hard to meet deadlines. As long as you follow all of this article’s other suggestions, then setting your staff goals shouldn’t be an issue at all.
If you want to improve your staff’s productivity, then you should start with implementing the suggestions that we have made in this article. Most importantly, be open and communicate with your staff. If they feel like they have a relationship with you, they will work harder just to please you.
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