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5 Practical Ways to Increase Staff Productivity

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Every business owner’s dream is to have a team of staff that are highly productive, as this contributes to their success as a business. The reality, however, is that people don’t tend to run on one hundred percent productivity one hundred percent of the time. Luckily, you can still reach a level of productivity that meets your standard if you put a few measures in place. It will require demystifying your staff and for you to figure out what motivates them and how to keep that momentum going on a daily basis. To figure this out, you’ll have to engage in a bit of trial and error and then find what works best for you. Below we discuss five practical ways to increase staff productivity.

Show You Care

One of the ways that you can attempt to improve staff productivity is by showing them that you care about their wellbeing. It may come as a shock to you, or perhaps not so much, to know that a recent survey carried out by the NPD Group found that at least 31 million Americans don’t bother eating breakfast in the morning. Seeing as breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day, your staff skipping breakfast could result in them having decreased levels of energy and being less able to concentrate. It will ultimately affect their productivity and how well they perform at work. A solution to this problem could be providing free fruit, bread rolls, and tea or coffee every morning if your budget will accommodate it. It should give staff the boost they need to start the day off on the right note and help increase their output. Try and see if you can get a grocery store or restaurant to deliver fresh fruit and bread every morning. You could also get the office secretary or assistant to look for Office Coffee Deals that deliver. Staff should appreciate this for the most part, or at least have something to look forward to every morning.

Offer Support

You usually hire an employee because they seem to be knowledgeable and suitable for the advertised role and have been able to pass the assessment given to them impressively. It, however, doesn’t mean that they won’t need support throughout the time they’re working for you. Consider supporting your staff by providing them with opportunities to progress such as dedicated training to help them perform better if you can afford to squeeze it into your budget. There is a tendency for organizations to focus on training for people in leadership positions. However, staff who are at the incipient stages of their career may need it more. Other ways to support your staff include giving them flexibility, so they have time to de-stress and don’t feel overworked. You could also think about replacing old equipment so they can work better and be understanding when they’re enduring work-related or personal issues. This kind of support is a way to build trust and loyalty amongst your staff.

Give Feedback

You can’t always control the way people will react to criticism. However, ensuring that it’s constructive could go a long way in improving employee productivity. It is a management skill to understand each employee’s unique personality and be able to find a way to provide feedback in a way that encourages and motivates them. Also, make a note to give feedback as regularly as possible and ensure it is detailed enough as well as balanced. Let them know areas in which they’re excelling as well as where they need to improve. Take the time to find out what their challenges are, and again, what support you can offer to help.

Offer Incentives

Offering incentives and rewarding good behavior might help increase work productivity. Not only does it make people feel good when they’re recognized and rewarded for achieving, but it also gives them something to look forward to. Common incentives you can try are bonuses for those who meet targets or free coupons to enjoy some form of entertainment. You could also try gift vouchers at stores that you think they’re likely to shop at. Explore different incentives and see which works best to encourage staff to be more productive. Better still, it might be a good idea to conduct a survey and simply ask staff their preferences. Bear in mind, that incentives alone most likely won’t give you long-term results for increasing productivity. Combining incentives with the opportunity to grow and feel like a valued part of the work community should create more long-lasting results.

Don’t be too strict

Putting too many restrictions in place at an office can make employees feel like they’re working in a jail. While it may be helpful in increasing productivity, it can likewise be counterproductive as it may affect their enthusiasm towards work. An example of this is imposing internet restrictions in the office. There is a plethora of valuable information on the internet in this day and age, and on social networks too. You may then find that allowing them to be free to browse and visit social media may help spark their creativity or give them a wider variety of information. It could improve their work productivity, especially if you’re in the media or digital marketing industry or your company has social media platforms. It is understandable that you don’t want your staff spending valuable office hours liking their friend’s pictures. Remember, however, that staff can be unproductive even with all of the restrictions in place.

To increase productivity, you have to think of ways to create an environment that your staff enjoy being in. Although people have different reasons for joining an organization, they’re more than likely to give it their best when they feel its adding value to their lives. This value could be in the form of money, support, and personal development as well as feeling like they’re a part of something significant. Hopefully, these tips help improve productivity, and you’ll have a happy owner and happy employees.  Ultimately, the most productive people are those who feel deeply connected to the work they do and what it contributes to society.

How Time and Attendance Software Can Improve Your Business

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Effectively managing your business (and most importantly, your employees) makes for a happy, healthy, successful working environment. This in turn generates more revenue. Every business owner knows this – but how is it achieved?

It may be the last thing that springs to mind, but using time and attendance software is proven to have a multitude of benefits for both employer and employee. It increases employee security, ensures fairness, and makes everything so much easier for bosses, managers and HR departments to keep track of.

Find out here the several ways that bringing in this software could help your business run smoothly and improve employee satisfaction.

1. Keep Track of Working Hours

See an accurate timesheet for every employee at a glance, all on your computer screen. No more quibbling about lateness and how much overtime somebody is owed.

Attendance software will show you the exact time, to the minute, that a specific worker signed in and logged out for the day. This way, they can be accurately paid. Everyone feels secure when they know they’re being paid fairly; increasing job satisfaction substantially. The clever software also ensures your employees are paid precisely on time – another big plus.

2. Create Employee Timesheets

Many companies use timesheets to track how much time each person spends on each project, and therefore helps the bosses to calculate how much money is spent and made per project.

Use timesheet software to track the time of your employees and gain the most accurate account of what expenditure is going where. Without doing this, you could be spending way over your budget on minor projects, and undercharging clients. You can also see which employees are doing the most profitable work, and who deserves a pat on the back.

3. Easily Allocate Work

Instantly allocate and delegate work amongst employees in the most efficient fashion. Using your software, everyone can see exactly which projects you’d like them to work on, and who they’ll be working with. You can set precisely the amount of time you’d like them to spend on it, and how much budget is set aside for it. Simple!

You’ll wonder how you ever worked without it. This method hopefully removes the need for lengthy group emails and unnecessary meetings. (Of course, you still need those – but having lots per week whittles down the time your employees spend on projects.)

4. Save Time and Money

No more paper schedules, and spending hours trying to make fiddly timetables with Excel. This software saves you the money of printing off loads of paper and buying heaps of files, and lets you keep the time and money spent doing that for more important things. The saying is true – time equals money!

5. Streamline Your HR Team

Can you imagine the simplicity of this software for your HR team? They no longer need to go around chasing people for information about their accurate working hours, expenses, overtime, holiday, sick days, etcetera. It makes their job far easier, and therefore yours.

Their time is now free to go about conducting interviews and sorting necessary paperwork rather than sending frantic emails and running around the office. This one handy piece of software helps to streamline every part of your business.

6. Eliminates Pay Errors

We’re only human – and with that comes inevitable human errors. Within businesses, there are always times when someone feels they have been wrongly paid; whether they turn out to be right or wrong.

With employee time tracking software, this will never happen. All hours are calculated to the minute, meaning everyone gets paid exactly what they’re owed.

7. It is Mobile Optimised

We’re not always in the office, working at our screens. Most businesses require employees to leave the normal work station every so often, and go out for client meetings or other business matters.

Time and attendance software developers know this, and so have created their products to work on mobile and other devices. This way, even if you’re out of office, you can update your timesheet with the touch of a button.

How Can You Keep Your Talent In-House?

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Your most important assets in the business world are not your customers, your market strategies or even your social media followers. They are your employees. Indeed, your team is the core of your business success, from productive performance to customer-focus behavior. It doesn’t matter how clever your business strategy is: If you can’t keep your talent in-house, you can’t succeed for a long time. But ultimately at a time where Millennials, the largest generation in the workplace are described as job-hoppers, it can be difficult to imagine how best to retain your staff. Here are four smart employee-centered strategies that reduce staff turnover to help you build a strong and loyal team.

Enable internal mobility

As your company grows, you naturally need to bring in new talent into your team. However, it can be challenging to keep a strong team when you’ve brought in a new manager. After all, it’s a challenging situation, especially as the subordinate element, the team, is industry-savvy and has a long experience of your products. Understandably, people might feel unvalued if an external professional is trusted with all business decisions. That’s precisely why a lot of companies use Rolepoint to facilitate internal progression. When there’s a chance of promotion, your employees are more likely to stick around.

Create a team spirit

More often than not, people leave companies when they don’t feel involved in the decisions or the everyday processes. Ultimately without a sense of belonging to a team, there’s no reason why people would want to work for a company more than another. Consequently, it’s the responsibility of the manager to make employees feel part of the business. Simple things such as asking for their feedback and including employees in brainstorming sessions can make a great deal of difference. Additionally, creating cross-team projects, where their skills can be assigned to a different team can help people to see the big picture and work together toward a common goal.

Give them amazing perks

Some employees might find satisfaction in building a professional career. But there come a time when you need to be realistic. People don’t work because they enjoy it but because they have to. So there are more likely to want to stay with companies that give them the most exciting perks. As surprising as it might sound, these perks don’t always relate to their end of month pay. For Netflix, it’s one year of paid parental leave, for both mothers and parents. Other companies offer Friday off every week, for example.

What perks come with the job?

Help them maintain a healthy work/life balance

The workplace can be a stressful environment. As a result, employees value businesses that encourage a healthy work/life balance. Options are varied, from introducing gym facilities at work to relieve stress to building a family-friendly environment with on-site childcare services. Although, for a lot of employees, remote and flexible work options remain a favorite as they allow people to work when they are the most productive throughout the day.

In conclusion, the secret to a talented team is not to only to recruit the best candidates, but also to be able to keep them through attractive perks, making them feel valued, and helping them to move their career forward.

What Should You do if You Get Injured at Work

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For most employees, their workplace is a safe environment that is maintained to keep everyone safe. Even if you do have to do a dangerous job, there will be measures in place to keep you as safe as possible. However, for a few people, their workplace is not so safe, and this can lead to accidents and injuries at work. No-one likes to take action against their employer, but if you do get injured, then you need to get the support you need.

What is the First Thing You Should Do?

Having an accident in any situation is scary and a little disorientating. However, when it happens, you need to think clearly and report it to your manager. If you need any medical attention, then in the first instance the first aider should be called and a paramedic if needed. If there are others there with you, ask them to take pictures of the incident on their cell phones including what caused the accident and pictures of your injury.

See Your Doctor

When you first suffer the injury, you will usually be sent to a doctor that has been hired by your employee. They will assess your condition and write a report to the employer. It is important to give the doctor all the information about the accident that caused the injury and any subsequent action taken by a hospital. Your employer should be made fully aware of the injury you suffered and also advised about your current condition. Your employer should give you a form to request benefit help. If they don’t provide one, your doctor or the hospital will also have them.

Seeking Help and Advice

If you think that your accident at work could have been prevented, or if you are unsure of the process, then you need to speak to a specialized lawyer. There is a personal injury attorney in San Diego and other states that can look at your case and decide what course of action needs to be taken. It is important to choose a lawyer that has experience in this type of case because they will be in a better position to advise you.

Gather Your Evidence

From the beginning, it is vital that you start to gather all of the evidence you can about the incident and the correspondence. Keep all your letters, medical reports and emails about your accident or your time off work so that your lawyer can see them. It also helps if your employer denies that something happened, or that an area wasn’t safe. It is also a good idea to keep the receipts of any medical procedures or drugs that you have been prescribed. It will help with finding a settlement figure later.

Many people successfully claim for compensations from their employer for an injury at work, and they have still employed them the same company afterwards. It is important that you know the procedure and who to seek help from at the time.

How To Better Engage Your Employees

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Engaging your employees benefits everyone; your staff is happier, and the business experiences more success. It’s worth your time and energy to find ways that help build a collaborative environment. It’s no longer acceptable to hire people and let them figure it all out on their own.

Guide your employees and make them feel like part of a team. They’ll work hard and be more satisfied overall. Leadership has to step up and take the initiative if you want to experience real change. You’ll be glad to know that there are many practical ways for increasing engagement and creating a culture that encourages involvement and new ideas.

 

Ask for their Feedback

You don’t know what your employees want or what motivates them unless you ask. Be vocal and ask your staff to speak up when they have opinions or grievances to share. Include them in meetings and hold brainstorming sessions to get their input on important initiatives. Have a spot where they can go to share ideas and suggestions on a daily basis. This will not only engage them, but build a deeper connection between each other and different levels of employees.

Innovate Mundane Tasks

Take a look around and dive deep into getting a better idea of what your employees do all day. For example, if you have a call center, try sprucing it up by implementing call center gamification. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it creates a better work experience. Upgrade your technology, innovate repetitive tasks and always be thinking about how to make your environment more engaging for your staff. This will keep them interested in their work and make them want to be loyal to the company for taking such good care of them.

Collaborate with Departments

Silos make it difficult for anyone to feel excited about their job. It makes you feel like you’re the only one doing any work and you never get the bigger picture of how the business works. Engage your employees by having them work together, no matter which department they’re assigned to. Create a company culture that’s informative of what others do on a daily basis, and that knows how to build relationships with each other, no matter their job or title. Set a goal to bring everyone together once a month or quarter and notice how much better everyone starts working together.

Assign Coaches or Mentors

Hold your employees accountable for the work they do. Push and encourage them to work harder by assigning each person a mentor or coach. These meetings will help make sure that your staff members are getting the attention they deserve and progressing along nicely. Your employees will be focused on getting involved in their work and performing better, since they know someone’s watching.

Conclusion

It’s always a good idea to invest in your employees. Keep them around longer by engaging them on a daily basis. Be open about your initiative and seek additional ideas from staff and leadership members.