Your workplace is a space for getting things done. A place where your business can grow and thrive, or wither and die – depending on how much work you and your employees put in. If you run a business, you need to ensure that you’re aiming for an optimal level of productivity as much as you possibly can – and that you’re mixing up the work with variation so that people aren’t getting bored. Getting bored is the worst. It truly is. Boredom is probably one of the biggest motivation killers there is, but there are ways around it and the other motivation killers in the workplace. Let’s take a look and find out how to manage productivity in the workplace, brought to you by the team at Auscon Projects.
Get rid of the motivation killers
As I said previously, one of the biggest problems facing a workplace’s productivity is the presence of motivation killers. When you’re working in a team, it’s important to observe the environment carefully and to have a look at what the key things are that are affecting employee motivation. Often, the kind of motivation killers will be things like difficult people, abrasive personalities, a lack of organisational hierarchy, not enough opportunities for growth (or development), not enough challenges for employees, people feeling unappreciated and poor communication. You need a different method for approaching each of these kinds of motivation killers, but there are ways around it.
Increase the rewards with some gamification
Motivation is a huge part of increasing productivity. If you have an unmotivated employee, you’ll find that they’re going to get bored – especially if there is a monotonous routine to be done. An effective way to ensure that people are motivated and rewarded is to introduce a gamified element to the workspace. Tasks that were once monotonous aren’t changed in the manner that they are done – but there is now an added motivation for doing them. Gamifying things involves rewarding employees with things like points, leaderboards, challenges and other game-type elements that will make a repetitive task more engaging. In addition, offering perks and incentives, like quality coffee services and other office refreshments, provides an additional outlet to break up the monotony, and will also help increase office morale.
Have clear goals and give plenty of feedback
An employee who has no idea what they’re actually working towards may become disillusioned with their tasks and lose focus and motivation. Set short-term and long term goals and your staff will find that they can manage their workload and their work speed to achieve their set tasks. Any achievements or accomplishments should be properly encouraged, and any missteps or failings in meeting a target should be addressed thoroughly and singularly in a meeting.
Ensure your workplace is ergonomically arranged
If your employees are running all over the place to get from their computer to the printer to the kitchen for a much needed coffee, you might need to take a look at how to better organise the flow of your workspace. Good office design is a vital part of having a productive workforce, and the team at Auscon Projects can help you to arrange your workspace so that it’s geared for optimal productivity.
Use technology to your benefit
There are a huge range of technological tools available in today’s day and age which allows for the management of time, employees and tasks in the one platform. These tools are very simple to use and they are a great method for managing time and ensuring that tasks get done. If your workplace already has things like this in place, make sure that they’re being used properly. If they’re not being used already you might want to consider getting a messaging service or something to share files easily. This kind of technology saves you time on using email as it’s instant and sits on your desktop.
Communicate effectively
Part of people being productive is ensuring that they’re communicating well to each other. You should ensure that regular meetings and updates are being held and that you are speaking to everyone about their progress on a regular enough basis so that people are encouraged to work.
I hope that these short tips on increasing the productivity in your workplace have proven helpful and that you manage to strike the right balance between working hard, having a good workplace culture and getting the tasks that need to be done, done!