Maintaining productivity during times of uncertainty
While the Great Resignation rages on, working to maintain productivity is top of mind for a majority of companies. Unfortunately, you can't always choose if employees stay or go, but it's beneficial to consider strategies to keep productivity high while navigating this uncertainty. This means focusing on employee engagement and happiness — which inevitably translates into increased operational efficiency.
The most effective methods for improving employee performance and productivity include:
Providing learning and development opportunities
It's vital that you don't underestimate the importance of offering learning and development opportunities to your workforce. These may include industry training courses, mentorship programs or a host of other educational options, and they're much more valuable than you might realize. In fact, statistics from Lorman show 74% of employees feel they aren't reaching their full potential at work due to a lack of opportunities. Implementing strategies to help your workforce grow is not only a necessity to keep workers engaged and motivated, but it's also a linchpin in improving performance and reaching full productivity potential.
Fostering a positive and supportive company culture
Your company culture encompasses your vision, ethics and goals, and fostering an environment based around relationship building, teamwork and support is a necessity to boost morale and long-term loyalty. As a result, employees feel comfortable and supported to do their best work. It's equally important to keep these company values in mind throughout the recruitment and hiring process to continually bring in team members who believe in the same ideals.
Opening your lines of communication
If your company lacks proper communication protocols, you run the risk of inviting avoidable productivity loss. It's vital that managers be accessible to their employees and listen to their concerns and needs so any issues can be addressed efficiently. According to a report from The Economist Intelligence Unit, poor workplace communication can be detrimental to the success of a company — resulting in the failure to complete projects, low employee morale, missed performance goals and lost sales. Implementing structures to improve your communication is beneficial to increase job satisfaction and, as a result, employee productivity.
Re-evaluating goals and expectations
It's significantly easier for your workforce to be productive if managers have made expectations clear and they are aiming for reasonable goals. An overwhelming workload can cause employees to feel like they are failing or underachieving. This is extremely harmful to morale and satisfaction and inevitably leads to burnout. To mitigate these feelings, it's advantageous to re-evaluate what's expected of your employees and ensure it's a feasible amount of work. As employees begin to increase their efficiency and reach goals, they are much more likely to stay motivated and productive in the long run.
Promoting employee well-being, offering consistent support and finding ways to inspire your workforce are key elements in maintaining productivity within your organization. Enduring the Great Resignation means it's possible to lose talent. However, ensuring your employees are happy and working efficiently will likely aid your retention rates and guarantee your business operations continue to run smoothly despite these issues.