Workplace productivity drivers are literal items that drive teams and workers to produce in a higher capacity. The drivers can be incentives, processes, consequences, tools, metrics, or concepts.
Each workplace is likely to adopt and use the drivers that work best inside their establishments. The following is an expanded explanation of drivers and some information on how you can use them to promote productivity within your workplace.
Why Productivity Is Crucial
Productivity plays a massive role in business and can make or break a company because of the impact. The main reason for-profit businesses exist is to make a profit. To accomplish that, they need to sell enough products or services to cover the costs of production, equipment, rent, and employees.
Businesses must also have a significant amount of money left over after paying their expenses. Therefore, they need to boost productivity without hiring new workers. Workplace productivity drivers can help accomplish that.
What Lowers Workplace Productivity?
To understand what drives productivity, you must first understand the factors that lower productivity. These are some of the top elements that cause worker productivity to drop:
Low Morale
An extensive study published by the Canadian Center of Science and Education shows a direct link between low morale and low productivity. Workers need to have a sense of pride and accomplishment when they work.
Employees also need to feel like they work for a company with integrity. They risk having poor productivity levels if those necessary comfort levels do not exist.
Unfavorable Wages
Low wages can drop productivity quickly. A worker who earns a low wage may suffer from stress because of difficulty paying the bills. That may cause loss of sleep and an overall sense of fatigue on the job. It may also cause the worker to take a second job to survive, which can also contribute to low productivity.
Underappreciation
According to Forbes, underappreciation is a huge problem. A survey showed that 60 percent of people would quit if they felt as though their employer did not appreciate or value them. If those people would quit their jobs, they would most likely lose a little productivity beforehand.
Physical and Mental Health Issues
Physical and mental health issues contribute to a loss of productivity significantly. Sick employees don’t perform well, and neither do employees who suffer from stress, depression, and anxiety. Businesses can cut down on those instances by ensuring that the employees have access to reasonable healthcare and mental health services.
Mistreatment
Mistreatment is another factor that contributes to low productivity rates. Workers who are berated and humiliated are less likely to meet productivity goals than others are. Those results could come from a lowered self-esteem or a passive-aggressive reaction to the mistreatment.
Poor leadership
Poor leadership contributes to lower productivity and an overall subpar work ethic. Workers are likely to lower their standards if they aren’t receiving any direction or guidance from their superiors.
Improper Training
Improper training tends to lower worker productivity because of confusion and frustration. The workers may be missing key components they didn’t acquire during their training sessions. The missing elements may make it difficult for the employees to do the job effectively.
Micro-Managing
Micro-managing is usually not effective in increasing employee productivity. Many times, it has the opposite effect, and the workers do not put their all into their work because they feel as though they are being too closely monitored.
The lowered productivity comes from the worker’s desire to rebel slightly. Some people don’t like to have management staff members keeping such a close eye on their work activities. Thus, the situation sometimes progresses into resentment and then rebellion.
What Makes Employees Produce More?
Now, let’s review some of the top things that make employees more productive. Knowing this list of impactful items can help you develop an effective workplace productivity driver plan.
Monetary Incentives
The primary reason employees work is to earn pay. Thus, a monetary incentive, such as a raise or bonus, can put some pep in a worker’s step rather quickly. He or she will be motivated to pay bills and save money.
A Positive Environment
Andrew Carnegie once said that there is little success where there is little happiness. Workers don’t mind coming to work and putting effort into their jobs when their environment is pleasing. Some workers might even prefer the workplace to home and volunteer to do overtime.
Recognition
Getting recognized for hard work, achievements, and efforts makes workers want to show up and work hard. Everyone appreciates a little praise from time to time.
Comradery and Teamwork
Having helpful and friendly co-workers to spend the day with is an added bonus. Cool coworkers can turn a mundane job into an exciting job or at least a place the workers want to go every day.
Fear
Some negative productivity boosters exist as well. Fear is something that causes workers to increase their productivity, for example. Many workers are terrified that they will lose their positions if their production numbers aren’t high enough. Therefore, they work their jobs with every fiber of their being.
It’s each business’s choice whether to use a fear-based system to encourage workers to be more productive. Some use a progressive write-up system for productivity.
Other companies give their workers a certain number of months before they hold them accountable for their productivity rates. Using positive elements to boost productivity is the more empathetic path, but fear-based strategies do work to a certain degree as well.
Passion
Passion often increases productivity. A person who is passionate about something will likely stay at the job longer and produce at a higher capacity than others.
Engagement
Employees who are engaged in their jobs tend to produce more work. A study by Go Remotely showed that engaged workers increased their profits, which caused their respective businesses to provide 21 percent more than usual.
What Is the Workplace Productivity Agenda
The Workplace Productivity Agenda was a system put together by a group of union representatives and business leaders to see how they could boost productivity. The agenda focuses on seven drivers that have been found to be highly effective in turning businesses around when productivity numbers were low.
Top Workplace Productivity Drivers and How to Use Them
The Workplace Productivity Agenda focuses on only seven drivers. If you develop a system using those guidelines or something very similar, you will be on the right track. These are some drivers for you to consider using:
Nurturing a Productive Workplace Culture
A productive workplace culture is one where leadership and staff members can work together harmoniously to achieve a common goal effectively. Training leadership to effectively and tactfully communicate the common goal is one way to improve productivity.
Investing in Your Workers and Their Skills
Your workers are your greatest assets. Therefore, you must be willing to invest in improving and growing their skill sets. Putting part of your budget on more extensive training can boost employees’ confidence levels and encourage higher performance.
Strengthening Leadership
The leadership staff is the backbone of the entire business establishment. These members are in control of keeping workers focused on goals and ensuring that their morale is high at all times. Thus, focusing on training courses and coaching products that strengthen them is an excellent way to stay productive.
Effective leaders will be capable of creating a desirable and attainable vision and then working closely with the team to breathe life into that vision. Top leadership members will have the skills necessary to inspire and motivate the team to press forward, even when times seem challenging.
Staying Organized
Organization is a vital part of boosting productivity rates. Successful establishments have workflows and processes that allow growth and enable workers and leadership members to adjust to ever-changing market demands.
A well-organized work environment saves time and indirectly boosts profits by lowering payroll expenses. Teams are capable of getting more work done within a shorter timeframe than ever before.
Collaborating and Networking
Networking and collaborating with other businesses and entities can encourage an overall teamwork mentality. Other organizations may have some solutions and processes that can help you to reduce the cost of performing business operations to increase your profits.
Using Metrics to Gauge Progress
Using metrics to analyze the workflow and production rates can give leadership members an idea of which areas need improvement. They can then use that information to focus on bettering those areas.
For example, reports might show that workers with lower levels of training produce at the lowest rates. Introducing a new training course at that time would be highly effective.
Using Innovation and Technology
Focusing on innovation and the use of technology can drive production rates to unbelievable heights. Technology can give workers the support they need and make their job tasks much more convenient. It can also help supervisory members keep track of the workers.
Drive the Point Home
You now have much more of an understanding of workplace productivity drivers and how they work. Now is the ideal time to begin implementing those drivers so that your business can reach new amazing heights.
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