5 Ways to Boost Productivity Without Over-investing
Wednesday, January 2, 2019, 6:00 AM | Leave Comment
It’s easy to achieve a boost in productivity when you’re determined to commit a vast amount of resources to make this happen.
Purchasing the VIP version of the software that you’re currently using instead of going for a free version, getting high-end gear for every member of your team and giving a massive raise could do the trick.
However, there’s a double-fold problem with this strategy.
First, the ROI is often not a net-positive, which defeats the purpose of the project.
Second, a lot of small businesses and start-ups don’t have this kind of resources, which means that the option isn’t available to them to begin with.
Moreover, it’s much harder to do so on a budget. Fortunately, it’s not impossible either.
Here are several methods to prove it.
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Interact with your employees
The first thing you need to consider is finding a way to motivate your employees without giving them a substantial rise or a promotion that they’re yet to earn. Sure, promoting people is a good way to keep them motivated, yet, doing so when they know they haven’t earned it may take a lot of value from the gesture itself.
In other words, it may make it mean absolutely nothing (aside from a short-term sense of accomplishment). The best thing you can do here is to simply interact with your employees and ask them what it is that they want and need. Of course, they might not always be honest or straightforward with the answer, yet, you may still earn quite a bit this way.
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Aligning goals
Just because something is important for the company, that doesn’t mean it’s also important for the employees. Despite what you may think, not getting out of work is not that good of a motivator. Instead, you should look for a way to align individual goals of your personnel with the goals of your company.
Explain to your team how a successful completion of an important project impacts their career and let them know how the expansion of your business benefits them. Working at a bigger company looks better in their future resume and managing a 10-person team is a greater reward than being in charge of 3 subordinates. Sometimes, all you have to do is put things into the right perspective.
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Slight hardware improvements
In the introduction, we listed getting new equipment as an expensive production-improvement method, yet, things don’t necessarily have to be this way. Sure, getting everyone in the office a new iPhone is expensive, however, equipping every computer in the office with a Samsung SSD could be extremely cost-effective.
Another great idea would be to purchase some monitors so that the creatives and analysts on your staff get the privilege of working on multiple-screen setups. Lastly, purchasing silent peripherals is a frugal method that can help reduce the amount of noise in the room.
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Give employees more control
When trying to micro-manage everything, you’ll both overwork yourself and stretch yourself too thin. This will make you burn out and become less productive, which is a huge problem seeing as how, in this environment, nothing can be done without your direct involvement.
Therefore, what you need to do is give your employees more control and more autonomy. Not only will this get a huge burden off your back as well as help out your team leaders, but it will also show your staff that you believe in them. This will make them take on more responsibility, which should entice them to try twice as hard. Giving your employees the flexibility to choose their own work hours is also a good idea.
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Ergonomic layout
Lastly, you can design your office so that it gives you the edge in productivity. The simplest way to do so is to abide by various ergonomic principles. Here, we’re also talking about adjustability and flexibility.
The height of the desk, the position of the keyboard and the monitor need to be adjustable so that every member of your staff has the ability to set them up for optimal use. As you can see, this particular method could even be considered as the extension of the previous suggestion. It’s all about flexibility and control. By doing this, you can help your employees feel like they have a partial ownership of the business.
Conclusion
While, at times, you may have to commit at least some resources to make these improvements, more often than not a boost to the productivity is simply a matter of reorganization. Make sure that you listen to your staff and show them that they’re not working for you but for their own benefit. Sure, this is what the majority of employers claim, yet, achieving this is another thing altogether.
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Dan Radak is a marketing professional with eleven years of experience. He is a coauthor on several websites and regular contributor to BizzMark Blog. Currently, he is working with a number of companies in the field of digital marketing, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies.
