“If you take care of
your employees, they will take care of your customers and your business will
take care of itself.”
– J
W Marriott
A workplace provides for an interactive environment where
employers and employees co-exist working on a common goal, i.e. the
organization's goal. Any organization banks upon its employees to run itself
smoothly, thus employees are the greatest assets for any company. To keep your
employees and to get the best out of them, you need to treat them wisely and
make them feel an important part of the organization.
When management keenly takes interest in their employees and
invest its time and resources in their betterment, they offer the employees an
environment where they increase their productivity and contribute to the
organization’s growth and success.
But often organization overlook a few things which make them
lose out on good employees or a drop in the employee productivity levels. Let’s
have a look at the common mistakes first, which usually organizations make,
which make them lose good employees or lower productivity issues:
§ Implementing unnecessary rules: Every organization has a defined
set of rules. There is no harm with rules unless they are absolutely
unnecessary. Implementing superfluous rules will make them employees feel
burdened and this can reduce their interest in the work and organization. They
might look to switch companies.
§ Not paying attention to hikes and
promotions:
everyone is working for money. Employees work with sincerity for the
organization and in turn expect good remuneration. To enhance their
productivity, it is very essential to retain their interest in their work.
Salary hikes and promotions are very good techniques to retain your best
resources. But many organizations often overlook his factor. Providing hikes
keep employees satisfied and they think that they are being paid wisely for
their efforts.
§ Forgetting to acknowledge accomplishments: There are various theories that
suggest that everybody has a desire to be acknowledged and appreciated. When
organizations fail to recognize the efforts of their employees and their
achievements, it demotivates the employees and productivity levels. Rewarding
your employees shows that you are noticing their efforts. A simply said ‘well
done’ can work wonders for you.
§ Treating everyone the same: Well, this technique might look
like the wisest one, but sadly it is not. Every organization has a mixed bag of
employees performing with different levels of sincerity and giving varied
outputs. If you treat everyone the same, this gives a message to your top
performers that whatever they do, they will be on the same page as others and
would not be given any special reward or attention. This might demotivate them.
Don't differentiate employees on the basis of their position/role or another
basis, but make sure that good employees don’t feel neglected.
§ Not letting employees go after their
passion: Often the
best performing employees are passionate. Organizations often hesitate in
letting the employees go after their passion and restrict them and want them to
work in a limited sphere, with a fear that employees shall lose focus. It
results in lower levels of employee productivity.
§ All work and no play: Your employees cannot perform their
best if they feel bored at work. Making the workplace fun and interactive
enhances employees’ creativity, productivity, and motivation. Most
organizations focus only on the work part and ignore the need for a light and
cheerful environment.
To sum it up, employees never leave organizations, they
leave bad bosses and managers who fail to treat them wisely and overburden them
with work without paying attention to their needs, desires, and
accomplishments.
How can you ensure an increased productivity level of your
employees?
The key to this is the right way of treating your employees
so that they feel motivated to work and enjoy their work at the workplace.
Mentioned below are a few ways in which you can increase
employee productivity:
1.
Appreciate
your employees
Always appreciate and respect your
employees. If there are any concerns with any employee then as a
manager/supervisor, you should try to resolve it. Try to get feedback from
employees to keep a track of how things are going. Respecting and appreciating
employees will keep them motivated and a cordial relationship between the
organization and the employees, thus, enhancing productivity.
2.
Helping
in professional growth and techniques to survive in the business
Helping your employees in their
professional growth is an excellent means to keep them hooked and motivated to
their work and the organization. Exposing them to difficult choices and
business situations will help them various skills required to survive in
business and corporate. Share the responsibilities with them along with the
required authority. Make them understand the value of delivery work timely.
Establish an example in front of your employees, be the one. Though they might
leave at some point, you will earn a brownie point for your efforts.
3.
Consider
revising your hiring criteria
Do you hire someone just based on
their experience and skills? Do you not consider the attitude of the candidates
while hiring? If yes, then it’s time to re-think and change your hiring
criteria. Hire candidates with a good attitude for work rather than just
skills. While skills and other technicalities can be learned with training and
time, an attitude is what stays on forever, unchanged. An employee with good
skills but a bad attitude will have a negative impact on the work environment
and the work shall also suffer. There might be other problems as well.
4.
Offer
employees opportunities for growth
Employees help organizations in
reaching their goal. The organizations should also contribute to the growth of
their employees. Give employees new projects to work on and should be divided
in proper teams with each team member getting equal opportunity to learn and
perform. This will help in employee learning and skill building. Conduct
training sessions, workshops and seminars. This is an excellent way to keep
your employees updated and make them learn new skills, hence, improving their
efficiency.
5.
Flexible
work timings
In the workaholic era, where
business have a pile of work to do and endless projects, the concept of
Worklife balance is gaining popularity. Employees often stretch their working
hours to complete a task. Increased workload has given birth to increased
stress levels, physical and mental issues, etc. While you cannot cut down on
the work and cannot compromise with your business goals, you can certainly
offer flexible work timings to your employees. This will reduce their stress
and increase productivity and creativity. This will work as a bonus point for
your organization and will help in employee retainment and goodwill
enhancement.
6.
Understand
the value of feedback
Everyone has flaws. You must be
accepting of it. The best way to know how you can improve is to get a feedback
from your employees on what they think of you as an organization and what are
their grievances, suggestions and ideas. Also, the personal grievances or
issues of employees should be taken an account of. This will make employees
feel as an integral part of the organization and at the same time will help you
improve yourself as an organization and have a better employee management.
7.
Communicating
makes it easy
The importance of communication can
never be overlooked, be it any sphere of life. An effective communication
set-up at your workplace can be very profitable for organization and the
employees. Better communication helps in knowing your employees better. You can
be informed of the employees’ opinions, thoughts and perspectives. Employees
will also feel connected and valued.
8.
Make
them learn to be a lion on the battleground
What we mean here is not that you
need to turn your employees into a fighting bull, but a warrior of their own
battle. Develop them in a way that they can face the difficulties, challenges
and stress that their work brings to them. Prepare them for the toughest
situations. They should not freeze when any difficulties come and should not be
distracted from their goals. They should be fearless and daring enough to take
up new challenges. They should know how to raise their opinion and speak when
it is required to. They should be trained in way that even if something wrong
goes with you, they would still be employable. This would work in favor of you
and will build your reputation in minds of the employees. This would build
confidence in them and thus productivity will increase.
9.
Adhere
to business ethics and be transparent
Playing dirty tricks on your
employees will get you nowhere. You should be transparent to your employees and
should not deceive them in any way or the other. Stick to business ethics and
do work with a proper procedure and follow all the protocols yourself. Be a
professional organization if you want your employees to behave the same. Stay
very clear of the company policies and clearly state the rules. No going back
on the words. This will instill a positivity in employees.
10. Get your force together
United we stand, divided we fall! Every employee is an integral part
of your organization and you should work on coordinating your employees and
moving ahead taking everyone along. A united team is bound to perform much
better than a team divided and dealing with too many differences. Individual
differences do exist, and you should work on fixing them in a way that they
don’t into the way of your work.
Concluding remarks
Employees are the most crucial part for an organization and
help in growth of a business. Every organization wishes for smart, capable,
efficient, creative and productive employees. For this to happen, organization
too needs to make an effort to understand their employees and treat them
wisely.
Your employees are as important as your clients. Address
their needs and issues and work in harmony to achieve business and individual
goals.
Turacoz workforce Solutions is a staffing firm which
actively caters to the demands of the companies in Canada and US region. We
offer cost-effective medical staffing solutions. Being a firm in the staffing
business, we know the significance of employees for any organization and know
the dependability of both on each other.
We hope that the points mentioned above would help you in
increasing the productivity of your employees and achieve better results. To
know more about us, write to us at hello@turacoz.in
