Employee productivity has always been an important metric that most companies consider when hiring or firing and promoting or demoting. However, it's quite challenging to pinpoint whether an employee is performing to his or her potential.
The success of an organization relies on the productivity of its workers. In most cases, output of employees doing overtime or double shift is not up to the mark.
When we talk about productivity, it's not about how many hours employees stay in the office. It's about the throughput of that hard work.
What affects employee productivity?
A recent survey finds that more than 55% of employees waste 16 hours per week just checking emails, filling forms, and verifying documents. Well, that's about 3 hours every day during a 40-hour work week spread over 5 days.
There are many factors that influence the overall productivity of an employee. Here are a few that have a huge impact:
Poor health
It could be lifestyle related, but workplace stress plays a major role in the health of a worker.
Employee attitude
The happiness level of an individual has a strong correlation with the workplace efficiency of an employee. In other owrds, if a person enjoys his/her job, he/she will do it with full potential and dedication.
An employee's co-workers, too, have an effect on the productivity of an individual at the workplace. Their bonding and reliance on each other yields manifold benefits in favor of the organization.
Unsuitability
Unaware, incompatible, and non-performing hirelings are a major cause of concern for a business.
At times, people are hired on the basis of their experience and/or educational records. However, such considerations can sometimes mean very little when it comes to result-driven performance. Organizations must assess each candidate well during the interview process.
Uncomfortable work environment
Work culture influences the worker’s mood, drive and performance. If he/she is surrounded by unneighborly co-workers, is in a disquieting seating arrangement, is within poor basic infrastructure, or, above all, is working for horrible bosses, getting results from him/her is unlikely.
Increase employee productivity
Forward-looking businesses are always looking for ways to keep their workers happy. This is evident from the soaring rise in employee engagement activities at leading organizations worldwide.
90% of leaders think engagement activities have an impact on business success.
85% of the world’s most admired companies believe that efforts to engage employees have reduced employee performance problems.
A surefire way to boost employee productivity is to provide the proper technology. With the right tools in hand, an employee will be able to manage his or her tasks easily and make the most of his/her time, knowledge and resources. The effective use of tools will improve accuracy, while boosting the performance metric.
Here are 5 useful tools businesses can use to boost employee and team productivity:
1. Trello
Trello lets employees work more collaboratively and get more done. It allows individuals and teams (at different locations) to manage and prioritize projects and lists in a simple and flexible manner.
The basic version of Trello is free. Trello Gold and Trello Business Class—the paid versions with loads of unique features—are also available for large organizations.
2. OnTheClock
OnTheClock is an online time-tracking tool that enables employees to keep track of employee punch locations. With this web- or cloud-based application, supervisors can deteremine which worker is punched in or out at work.
Having smart features such as payroll reporting integration, a mobile time clock app for employees, time off tracking, and free trial, the application can be incorporated in any process in just 3 minutes.
3. BaseCamp
BaseCamp is a software tool for project management. Its developers promise that the tool helps "increase accountability, communicate more efficiently, and keep everyone in the team on the same page."
With BaseCamp, a supervisor can assign and track tasks, and participate in centralized discussion while increasing the team’s focus time, ultimately improving employee productivity.
4. WorkZone
WorkZone is a popular project management software that can be an efficient replacement for Microsoft’s MS Project and BaseCamp. From project tracking to task management and performance analytics, WorkZone helps teams focus on the projects and activities that are on their priority list.
5. SaneBox
SaneBox is an AI-based email management tool that can be integrated with any email services, including, but not limited to, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Office365, and iCloud.
The application filters all unimportant emails from inboxes and keeps them in smart SaneLater folders, based on an individual’s past behavior while checking their emails. The user gets a summarized notification of each action performed.
Thanks for the mention, @USATODAYmoney! We love seeing how technology can help small business owners succeed. https://t.co/PTzzGgFQAH
— Keap (@KeapGrowing) October 24, 2019
Conclusion
The keys to developing a highly motivated and productive employee are to hire the right talent for each job and to remove every factor that may make an employee uncomfortable at the workplace.
In an era of advancements, technology is seen as a means that eases the complexities we face on a day-to-day basis. Digital transformations have taken the world by storm by streamlining processes and boosting revenue gains for modern businesses.
However, the success chiefly depends on the performance of the workers. A success-eyeing entrepreneur is always ready to provide the best tools and support to employees with intent to improve their productivity.
