Sometimes, work can be dull and monotonous and employees may want to take a back seat and simply go with the flow instead of being proactive. While this may be acceptable at times, it can take a toll on the future of a company if employees become permanently lethargic, unmotivated, and uninterested in their work. A study also reveals that an unmotivated work environment is not good for the mental health of employees in the long run.
As natural as it is for people to make their homes comfortable, it is equally essential to ensure that the workplace is comfortable and pleasant for employees. As an entrepreneur, manager or business owner, it is important for you to know that your employees are content with their work, are regularly challenged, and are rewarded appropriately for their efforts.
You can use several human resource management strategies to keep employees energized and productive and ensure that their motivation levels are at their peak. If you feel that your business isn’t thriving like it should, it might be that your employees are not working at their optimum capacity. It could be due to a lack of engagement in their work, and/or problems with the corporate culture.
Here’s what you can do to keep your employees motivated and make them enjoy work:
1. Train them
Employees should be trained from time to time. If work processes become stagnant and performance begins to dwindle, it is essential to analyze why this has occurred. If it is because of the introduction of a new software or procedure, then it is time to provide your employees with appropriate training.
According to a study, new employees usually work better when they are provided with training as soon as they join. This familiarizes them with work processes and helps them become acquainted with their team earlier than usual.
When an employee feels more comfortable on the job, he/she is more likely to perform better and is more efficient too.
2. Encourage autonomy
Hovering over your employees all the time can decrease their productivity levels. Managers who micromanage their employees’ work generally add to their stress levels on the job, causing them to make more mistakes. Managers thus feel an increased need to monitor them.
Moreover, it has been proven that employees usually perform better when trusted and given a degree of autonomy. It also encourages them to become high performers and makes them remain motivated at work.
According to a study, autonomy motivates employees more than financial incentives. So, instead of dictating procedures for everyday tasks, constantly providing instructions and rigorously monitoring their work, give your employee the freedom to manage her own tasks. But before you do so, make sure you help her understand the standard to which her work should conform.
Employees who feel an ownership to their work, and feel that they are needed within the company perform far better than those who don’t.
3. Streamline processes
It is very important to streamline processes at work to increase employee engagement and optimize results. If your workflow is haphazard, it can lead to employees feeling overwhelmed, underperforming, overworking and eventually burning out.
Alternatively, you could also invest in technology that aids your employees in performing their roles better, such as a CRM software for your sales and marketing teams. Getting more done in less time is a win-win for everyone. Many Fortune 500 companies have invested in technology to better coordinate HR processes while others such as Daimler Trucks have streamlined their manufacturing processes through an IoT network or managed IT services.
Organized processes are essential to increase productivity and can significantly reduce stress levels, which contribute majorly to workplace problems.
4. Add more perks
While employees love financial incentives and raises, they love perks even more! On-the-job perks can make employees particularly happy. Also, with some of the world’s most popular companies increasing useful perks for their employees, small and medium sized companies have also started to realize that its an area that needs attention.
According to a study, four out of 5 employees say that perks are more motivating than financial rewards, which means that they are a surefire way to improve employee productivity and make them feel excited about work.
While giants such as Facebook and Google offer perks such as complementary haircuts, massage rooms, and even nap areas, smaller businesses can give perks such as free coffee and biscuits, or free weekly lunches at the workplace.
You can also give your employees access to a gym, a swimming pool, or throw full-fledged birthday parties on their special days. There are a million different ideas regarding the kinds of perks you can offer to your employees based on your budget and corporate culture.
All in all, the more interesting and useful the add-ons for your employees, the more motivated they are likely to be.
5. Let them use social media
Using social media at work can be distracting and may prove to be slightly detrimental to productivity if workers overdo it. However, boycotting social media, on the other hand, may also cause employees dissatisfaction and a reduction in their engagement levels.
Some employees use social media as a small break in between tasks and others use it to gain inspiration for creativity or to search for information that they may need to incorporate in work. If social media is blocked on office networks, employees might increase its use on their phones, which will continue making them unproductive. Hence, it would be more effective if social media use is allowed at office and employees are only reprimanded if their productivity levels take a hit.
6. Hire employees that are a cultural fit
Every organization has its own unique corporate culture and to ensure that employees remain energized and productive, it is essential to hire employees who are a good cultural fit. While some employees may have employment history, personality traits, and aspirations that are a good fit for one organization, another employee who may be equally qualified for the job, may not be the right choice. It might be because his/her beliefs or behavior might not align with his employer’s values and company’s culture.
Accordingly, it is necessary for recruiters to appropriately analyze an employee’s personality and ensure that it works well with the rest of the team and is a good fit for the corporate culture of the particular organization. This would ensure that employees remain mentally sound and happy and would also decrease the organization’s turnover.
If you follow these strategies, we guarantee that your employees will be more energized and productive at work. Happy employees can make a company/ business thrive while unmotivated employees can result in declining sales and revenue.
Have you tried something that increased your people’s productivity levels? Share it with us in the comments below.
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Hi Natalie,
I’m happy to inform you that this post is included in the recent part of TimeCamp’s weekly Productivity Articles roundup!
Thank you for sharing these wonderful employee productivity tips.
Please find this recent episode here: https://www.timecamp.com/blog/index.php/2017/07/productivity-articles-3717/
Aleksandra Rybacka, SM Manager at TimeCamp
Hi
Indeed a great share. I often face difficulties while working because I always get distracted from the work either by using my mobile phone or getting busy with social media posts.
And by doing all such distracting activities, I always wastes a lot of time and all my important work remains pending. That’s why now I’m thinking to prioritize the most important work to do in the morning before any distraction.
It might help me complete at least the most important task on daily basis and later I can do anything I want. But It’s really important to prioritize the work and increase the productivity.
This article is very helpful for me. This will definitely help me to improve my employees productivity. I think that training them will definitely help. Thanks for sharing this article.