To improve employee productivity in most small businesses, the key challenge is getting workers to perform more efficiently and more effectively.
Employee engagement – why is it important?
In an article posted by Torben Rick, he offers 20 tips to improve employee engagement and productivity in the workplace. He stresses that you should get your employees involved or engaged in the business. The more they’re engaged, the better the business will perform. This will result in:
- increased profitability
- improved employee productivity
- employee retention
- higher customer metrics and
- better safety levels.
How to get employees engaged in the business?
Here are some very effective activities that every business owner or manager should be doing to get employees more engaged. This will be sure to lead to improved performance levels.
1. Communicate Goals and Expectations.
You need to tell staff members what they should be trying to achieve and how they should be performing. If employees have no idea what their goals or targets are, they will have very little motivation to become involved. Let them know what you expect from them and what the business goals are so that they can be part of the business success.
2. Share Information.
Employees that know what’s going on and how the business is doing are far more motivated to work harder. There’s far more commitment from them when they’re up to date with information, both good and bad, on how the company’s doing. And when sharing information, always tell the truth!
3. Trust.
This is a case of lead by example. Your employees are watching you all the time, so if there’s any deception or falseness in your actions or information, your credibility is gone in an instant. Employees must also learn to trust each other. It is up to you as the business owner or leader to foster this trustworthiness amongst all employees. You can do this by telling and showing them you trust them and stamping out all forms of dishonesty.
4. Feedback.
Employees want feedback on how they’ve performed. You need to tell them. Feedback must be immediate for it to be effective and be given whenever it can be done, even daily. Accompany this feedback with recognition for a job well done. At the same time, don’t avoid giving feedback for a job not done well; but be careful how you do this because it can kill an employee’s motivation and respect for you.
5. Delegate.
Delegate responsibility to others whenever it’s possible. It shows that there’s trust in an employee’s capabilities. Delegation gives them the opportunity to grow within the business and therefore become more involved and more engaged.
6. Incentives.
To get employees to be more engaged and be more productive in the business, reward them in some way or another whenever they do get involved or are more productive. Find out from your employees what motivates them to achieve, set them realistic targets and objectives and reward them appropriately when they reach these goals. Their performance will definitely improve.
These tips are good ideas. But without setting an example, you’ll find that many of your employees will not improve. You’re going to have to be hard on those employees who don’t want to become engaged or won’t improve their performance. To get your business to succeed, lead from the top and stand only for the best.
If you need to find out more detail on how to deal with under-performing employees please read my free Guidelines on Managing Employee Poor Performance.