Productivity is what keeps your business running. If you don’t get things done, then your business will suffer. Thankfully, there are some things that you can do to improve it. If your employees are struggling with productivity in the workplace, here are some things that you can do to improve it.
Reduce Waste
Start with Kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese word that refers to the principle of continuous process improvement. According to Creative Safety Supply, part of Kaizen is working to reduce waste in the workplace. Kaizen consists of five elements: teamwork, personal discipline, improved morale, quality circles, and suggestions for improvement. By engaging the workforce in your productivity improvement efforts, you will be able to uncover waste at the grassroots of your organization where the employees are closest to the work being performed.
Plan by beginning with the end in mind. You must measure your processes before you can improve your processes. For example, what is the average time to fulfill a customer’s order? How is that measured? Is it measured? Measurements must be in place before you can determine if improvement is taking place.
Don’t make multiple changes at once, otherwise, you will not be able to actually determine which change created the improvement. If multiple changes are implemented simultaneously, it’s possible for one to improve productivity while the other hampers productivity. Don’t be overly anxious to fix things all at once.
Make Employees Comfortable
No employee who feels uncomfortable in the workplace is likely to be productive. As such, it’s important to do everything you can to make employees feel comfortable in the workplace. Making your employees feel comfortable includes making them feel valued. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, including:
- Showing gratitude
- Celebrating company milestones both big and small
- Providing opportunities for professional development
- Making sure management spends time face-to-face with their teams
Create Multiple Feedback Loops
Another important thing you need to do is make it easy for your employees to offer suggestions for improvement. Implement tools such as 360-feedback systems for performance evaluations at all levels of the company. Front-line employees should get a chance to anonymously evaluate management so that they can share their opinions honestly with no fear of retribution.
One thing you might try is implementing a suggestion box. According to Vetter, this can have many benefits in improving your company. This can be an actual physical box or an online version. Make sure to secure it so that feedback can be provided anonymously. Doing this will help employees to be happier with the way the workplace is, thus encouraging them to be more productive.
You can also try holding contests. This method offers an incentive for the ideas that provide the most improvement. Creating employee polls to get feedback on management-initiated improvements can also be helpful. This will allow you to see if your workforce is on board with the changes.
By reducing waste, establishing measurements, making your employees feel valued, and opening the lines of communication within your organization, you should start to see increases in overall productivity. This will help your business immensely in the long run.
Part of making your employees comfortable is making sure they have comfortable furniture in the workplace. Take a look at all of our great options!