Team Meetings: 7 Tips For Success & Productivity
Conducting a team meeting is one of the best ways to foster a sense of unity in ...
Make your team a more effective unit and help them get more things done during the workday by taking time to focus on improving employee productivity.
Even small changes in employee behavior and habits now can have a big effect on the way your business operates in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.
Not sure how to go about boosting employee productivity?
In this article, we discuss some of the best tips for improving the way your team works — both as individual members and as a united whole.
Table of contents
How to improve employee productivity
1) Address the work environment
Too often, managers overlook the influence that work environment has on employee productivity. Before you try any of the other tips on this list, take time to really look at where your team works every day.
Depending on the physical layout of the office or workspace, try these suggestions to make it more efficient and a better place to spend time:
- Provide easy access to all parts of the space
- Break up open spaces
- Keep the workspace neat and tidy
- Establish areas for socialization
- Give your employees a variety of work surfaces and seating options
- Set aside quiet areas for focus
- Create collaboration spaces
- Change the paint color
- Provide plenty of light
- Include natural elements in the decor
Once you’ve got the work environment dialed in, you can turn your attention to some of the other suggestions on this list.
2) Establish quiet hours
If your workspace doesn’t have room for a dedicated quiet area, consider establishing quiet hours as a way to improve employee productivity.
For teams that are more energized in the morning, quiet hours might be from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. For teams that are more energized in the afternoon, quiet hours might be from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Think of these hours as a time to concentrate on the task at hand without having to worry about collaboration, communication, and input from others.
3) Set daily goals
Another effective way to improve employee productivity is to encourage your team to set daily goals and strive to complete them before the day is done.
Suggest that they take a few minutes before they leave work to write down group or individual goals they want to accomplish the next day.
Or, if your employees need more direction from management in this regard, distribute a list of goals you’d like them to focus on and a time limit in which to get them finished.
That way, everyone knows what they need to do first thing in the morning and can jump right in without wasting time.
4) Avoid multitasking
Studies show that multitasking — even trying to juggle just two tasks — is the death of employee productivity.
Instead of trying to do two or more things simultaneously, encourage your team to dedicate all their attention and energy to one task at a time. That will allow them to finish the one job faster and with a higher quality of work before moving on to the next task on the list.
It also helps to clearly assign tasks to each employee, role, or shift so there’s no confusion about what everyone needs to do.
5) Emphasize organization
Some employees will be naturally neat and tidy while others will struggle to keep even a small work area clean.
Because organization is often thought of as an innate ability that can’t necessarily be taught, many managers overlook it as a way to improve employee productivity.
But, if you take the time to emphasize organization at work, train your team to strengthen that skill, and provide rewards for an orderly work environment, your employees will improve.
6) Allow your employees to wear headphones
Your employees experience a lot of distractions throughout the workday. People moving around, conversations at the next desk, and even traffic outside the building can pull their attention away from the work in front of them and lower employee productivity.
One solution to this problem is allowing your employees to wear headphones.
Of course, this won’t work in all situations — especially if the employees have to answer phone calls, interact with customers at the front desk, or operate machinery.
But, in more work-focused environments, blocking out the noise with headphones can lead to a dramatic increase in employee productivity.
7) Hire a diverse team
Diversity can have a profoundly positive effect on employee productivity. But hiring a diverse team isn’t always as easy as it sounds.
However, when you get it right, your business will enjoy benefits above and beyond employee productivity, including:
- Positive reputation
- Broader customer base
- More efficient problem-solving
- Deeper talent pool
- Better decision-making
- Enhanced profitability
If you haven’t already, build a diverse team by promoting an active interest in the subject, tapping into the diversity you already have, and promoting from within.
8) Use the right tools
Improving employee productivity in the 21st century is nearly impossible without the right tools backing you up.
Every business is different, but most will rely on a few basic pieces of equipment to get the job done, including:
- Scheduling software
- Task management software
- Computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone
- Desk or workstation
- Chair
- Printer
- Copier
Granted, your list of necessities may be longer or shorter. But, whether it’s one item or 100, having the right tools available will help you improve employee productivity and keep your team working at 100%.
9) Work on challenging tasks in the morning
In most cases, your employees’ minds and bodies will be at their best when they first arrive at work.
Take advantage of this fact and encourage your team to tackle the most challenging tasks first thing in the morning (or afternoon, or evening, depending on the shift they work).
When they finish those tasks, then they can turn their attention to less-intensive activities, like attending meetings and responding to emails.
10) Perfect the way you run meetings
Few things cut into productivity like a meeting in the middle of the morning when team members are at their best.But sometimes, you have no control over when a meeting must occur. But, you do have control over how you run the meeting.
Here are some tips to help you run an efficient, informative, and beneficial meeting for all:
- Keep team meetings to a minimum
- Create an agenda
- Establish clear objectives
- Start and end your meeting on time
- Eliminate chitchat
- Be the leader your team needs
- Review and improve your meeting skills
Build employee productivity gradually
One of the keys to improving productivity — and maintaining it long-term — is to take it one step at a time. Instead of trying to incorporate all of these tips right away, pick one or two that appeal to you and your team and work on them until they become habit.
After those have become part of your standard operating procedures, pick one or two more tips and focus on making those habits as well.
If you find that some tips don’t work for your team — perhaps they don’t thrive under daily quiet hours — scrap it and try something else.
The process of improving employee productivity isn’t about checking items off a list — it’s about finding what works for your team and forgetting the rest.
Take employee productivity to the next level
If you want to take your employee productivity to the next level, streamline and perfect your business’s scheduling, time tracking, and task management procedures before moving on to the other suggestions on this list.
These interrelated processes serve as the foundation on which all employee productivity is built. Without them, it can be very hard to make any progress at all.
We created the Sling app to help you organize, manage, and optimize your workforce so that you and they can focus on productivity rather than worrying about who works when and which task is next in the queue.
Download the Sling app for free today and take the first step toward true employee productivity.
For more free resources to help you manage your business better, organize and schedule your team, and track and calculate labor costs, visit GetSling.com today.
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This content is for informational purposes and is not intended as legal, tax, HR, or any other professional advice. Please contact an attorney or other professional for specific advice.
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