Employee Productivity

Businesses, especially small ones, very often succeed or fail based on their level of employee satisfaction. A workforce that's happy to be there and excited about doing their jobs means better employee productivity and more success for the business. A workforce with low morale, on the other hand, won't put forward their best effort and can become apathetic to the needs of the business as a whole.

Thought most people understand that a business that's successful means more job security and better wages and benefits, if employees are terribly unhappy in their jobs, often their performance will greatly suffer and lead to less productivity and problems for a company. Happy employees simply do a better job, and make for better businesses. But how do you keep employees happier to ensure better employee productivity? There are several methods a company can use. While some are simple common sense, others are far more important than many people think and may not occur to some managers naturally.

There are obvious things, like fair wages, fair working hours, fair distribution of the workload, benefits and rewards. These things should be a given, so if they're not, ensuring that they are will help improve employee productivity. But other more subtle things are the ones that are often overlooked.

It's easy to think that the more you pay an employee, the more productive he or she will be. And while wages are certainly a factor in job satisfaction, there are actually other things that are more important. The thing that experts believe most employees want most from their jobs is a sense that their work is appreciated and valued. Many people would stay in a job that pays less if they felt needed and appreciated in that job over one that paid more but gave no sense of value to the employee.

One of the best ways of showing this type of appreciation is simply to show it publicly. Praising employees in front of their peers and co-workers is something that all too often goes undone. But everyone wants to be recognized for hard work. When that doesn't happen, employees become dissatisfied and may work less hard next time, or look for a position in a company that they believe will appreciate their contribution. In addition to praising and rewarding employees for a job well done, there are other strategies that serve to show that employees as a whole are greatly appreciated.

Bring employees in on decision-making processes. Instead of a manager announcing a new process, HR business plan or change, employees should be consulted first. For instance, look at something that's a non-vital process like a parking policy. If management simply announces that assigned parking spots are being changed with no explanation as to why and no input from employees, that will serve to make employees feel simply ordered around and will undoubtedly anger some who aren't pleased with the change.

But if management asked employees if they were satisfied with the current parking policy, what they would change about it if not, and why, then employees are made part of the change process. Of course, the information gleaned from this should be used to help make the decision. While every decision will make someone unhappy, this type of human resource planning process will ensure that people, at the very least, felt their opinions and needs were heard and addressed. That alone can show that employees' needs and opinions are valued within the company. The more that's at stake, such as something like getting a new computer system or merging two departments, the more employee input can help both the company and the employees.

Another side of this is to allow employees to help set company goals. Rather than a manager of a sales department stating that this month's quota is X, the manager should bring the employees in on the decision making process. Find out why some think that's unattainable and why others think the goal should be higher. Listen to their opinions on how best to meet the goal. And then, once goals are set, reward employees for striving for it and/or reaching it. By bringing people in on the decision making process, it will not only boost employee productivity, but will make goal-setting more efficient because the people actually doing the work can offer great information in the process.

Remember These Keys to Employee Productivity

Employees want to feel appreciated, and they also want to feel needed. Praise can take a company far, but so can bringing people into goal-setting and hearing their opinions and ideas. In addition to feeling appreciated, employees that feel they're really having an effect in a company, and that they're part of something important, have even better morale, which translates into better employee productivity, satisfaction, employee loyalty and lower turnover rates.