The more you know, the more you grow. That's true for employees and leaders alike. When employees are more knowledgeable, they can do their jobs better and contribute more to their team's success. When leaders are more knowledgeable about their teams, they can give them better direction and support.
To improve employee productivity, it's important to understand what motivates each individual in your organization. What are their goals? What keeps them up at night? How can you help them achieve these things?
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There are four things I've found to be especially effective when it comes to improving productivity:
1) Provide feedback
Providing feedback to others can be scary, or intimidating—especially when you respect the person and what they're trying to create. However, you'll find that it's not that hard with a little practice. And that practice starts when you decide to share your opinion with someone else. So go ahead—you might find that many other people also have feedback that they'd like to share too.
2) Encourage growth opportunities
Whether you're a freelancer or in-house designer, growth opportunities are important. When you're offered more responsibility or asked to tackle new tasks you have a choice: You can say yes, or you can be cynical about what the client is asking for. The first choice will help your company or boss see that you're a team player and could help you in the long run if your performance continues to impress. The second choice will brand you as someone who is not willing to go above and beyond for their company and was probably the reason for not being promoted when that position came up.
3) Create a sense of community with your team
Investing time into creating a culture of trust, transparency, and support amongst your team is not only good for your mental well-being but is also great for your business. At the risk of sounding too clichéd, people really do buy from people they like and trust.
4) Make sure everyone knows what they're working on
Is there a specific deadline you need to hit? Are certain tasks harder than others? Let your team know in as many ways as possible. Start a project management software and make sure everyone's input is kept in one place. There is too much work to be done and no one will do it unless they understand how each task ties into the overall project.
The Final Thoughts
If you're looking for an easy way to improve the productivity of your employees, the best solution is to put a time tracking project software in place. Make it mandatory. You don't have to enforce it (the fear of using it will be enough). Record all the time worked by your employees and make sure they can't edit any logged activity after they logged it. Also, implement a flexible start and end times system so they can handle the work whenever they want. And finally, utilize idle time. If a person is idle during any period of time, he/she should be notified that some work is waiting for them and they should get busy with that work immediately.
