It is hard to imagine a company reaching good results if its employees are not productive. Someone who is new might have all kinds of ideas and enough motivation to overperform in the first few weeks, but burnouts are common.
The challenge of overcoming lackluster productivity is one that many companies face. The purpose of this article is to cover the methods that improve one’s productivity and ensure that it stays.
Leave Positive Impressions
During the onboarding process, a company should present itself in a way that leaves a positive impression on the new employees.
Of course, whenever someone looks for a new job, it is common to research potential employers. However, it is one thing to look up details online and have an actual experience interacting with your supervisors and coworkers.
The more effort HR puts into welcoming new recruits, the higher the odds of these employees putting effort into their work. Little details count, so do not discard even those things that might seem insignificant during onboarding.
Provide Optimal Work Tools
If the employer is in charge of providing work tools, it should be given that new employees should get what they need.
For example, if your new recruit needs a computer for work, make sure that they get one that works optimally. Dealing with a slow computer, in addition to all the work, puts unnecessary stress and hinders one’s productivity by a lot.
Besides a computer, new employees should also have access to collaboration tools, such as cloud storage (Dropbox, iCloud) and instant messaging platforms (Slack).
Finally, if the work is done in-house, then the internet connection in the office should be strong enough to accommodate everyone, including new recruits.
Offer Opportunities to Learn
Fresh employees should have enough competence to do their job, but it does not mean that their career ceilings should stop.
One of the biggest motivators is the knowledge that you have an opportunity to go up the corporate ladder. And for that, one needs to become better at what they do while also gaining new skills.
If direct work does not provide enough opportunities to grow as a professional, it is common to seek extra training.
Employers who provide training to their employees encourage loyalty and motivate top talent to stay while also helping them with productivity.
Set Enough Time to Take Breaks
Break policy can be tricky. Usually, a lunch break lasts for about one hour. However, depending on the intensity of work, setting extra time aside to let employees rest is a worthwhile consideration.
Crunch time is inevitable now and then, but overworking employees constantly is bound to burn them out sooner rather than later.
A company-wide policy should be in place to ensure that everyone has enough time to take a breather. And if someone requires additional break time, they should get it as well, so long as the demands are reasonable.
Encourage Friendly Competition
A little bit of friendly competition can go a long way in boosting productivity. Let’s say that your company specializes in sales.
What about coming up with an award for the employee who makes the most sales in a week? Knowing that there is something extra for the effort put into the work is bound to motivate employees to do their best.
Note, though, that this method should be used sparingly. You cannot run competitions throughout the year because they will lose value and transform into a nuisance, forcing employees to put in extra work consistently in addition to what they are already doing.
Come Up With Realistic Goals
Set realistic goals for employees so that they do not fall short. If they meet the expectations or even exceed them, it will work as a great form of motivation.
Workers who meet the goals identify themselves as someone who do a good job and are more likely to continue. Combine that with praise from supervisors, and you have another solid solution to solve productivity problems.
Minimize Distractions
Everyone loves to procrastinate, but building bad habits, such as checking social media constantly or talking to colleagues about random things when you should be working, is the opposite of what a productive workplace should look like.
Introducing policies that restrict distractions might seem like a negative thing, but if productivity is a priority, then such a step is more or less inevitable. Especially for those employees who get easily distracted and take a while to refocus on their work.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are quite a few different ways to increase the productivity of your new employees. Try to apply as many different methods mentioned in this article as you can.
Finally, note that different people react differently. If a specific approach does not help someone, do not get discouraged. Instead, try to modify a method to make it work when possible.
James is the head of marketing at Tamoco
