Heading to 2024: Top Strategies to Enhance Employee Productivity

“Your employees are your company’s biggest treasure”
In the ever-changing business landscape, where change is the only constant, the pulse of success is centered on one fundamental factor: employee productivity. An organization's employee productivity dictates its operational efficiency and serves as the key to long-term growth and competitiveness. Your employees will not be more productive just by being told to be more productive. Organizations must approach their work in a proactive manner in the contemporary workplace. Ensuring a positive employee experience and seamless employee support is key to increasing employee productivity, and achieving the desired ROI.

In order to succeed in 2024,CHROs must have an effective employee productivity strategy that motivates and encourages employees to give their 100% at work to increase their day-to-day performance and boosts business ROI. 

If you are struggling to find effective strategies to enhance your employee productivity, this article is a must-read. In this article, we'll provide a comprehensive guide on how to increase employee productivity. So, let’s start.

What is Employee Productivity? Why is Employee Productivity So Important?

Employee productivity is the key to a company's success. The more productive your crew is, the more your business will be more successful. Employee productivity measures the efficiency of a company's individual employees or a team of employees.

The criteria for assessing employee productivity can be as follows:

• Good quality work
• Employees finish their assigned tasks within a given time
• Employees meet work deadline
• Employees always look for innovative and creative ways to solve day-to-day work issues

High employee productivity ensures that all the company's professional goals are achieved on time. It helps in building a collaborative, supportive and loyal company culture. High employee productivity also ensures that companies can fairly give their employees promotions, cash incentives and other rewards or recognition.

Let's look at the numbers to understand the importance of employee productivity. 

• According to a comprehensive survey conducted by the Harvard Business Review, 85% of employees are disengaged at work, resulting in a significant decrease in productivity.
• Gallup's State of the worldwide Workplace survey states that disengagement is more than just a transient sensation; it has actual implications, amounting to a productivity loss of up to $7 trillion annually for the worldwide economy.
• As reported by G2, annual productivity loss due to fatigue costs $1,967 per employee.
• A Linkedin survey says that more than 96% of talent professionals believe employee experience is critical for boosting productivity.
• Almost 41% of stressed-out workers believe work-related stress and pressure reduce productivity
• A report by Zippia says that poor business communication is responsible for 80% of employee stress. 

Why is Employee Productivity Strategy a Must-have for Organizations?

A survey by VoucherCloud states that the average office worker is only productive for two hours and 23 minutes each day. In all career fields, employee productivity falls to 60% or less each day. For office workers, however, that percentage drops drastically, owing to poor employee experience and support in the workplace. Who bears the cost?

The decrease in productivity, particularly among onsite employees, is attributed to poor employee experience and support in the workplace. The implications are more than just anecdotal; they result in considerable business time and financial expenses. The pandemic's revolutionary influence on the corporate environment needs a proactive response. Organizations must prioritize and implement effective employee productivity strategies to stay ahead of the curve in their pursuit of a more efficient and healthy workforce.

What are the Benefits of Employee Productivity?

Higher employee productivity can result in the following benefits: 

• Enhance employee engagement
• By effectively utilizing resources, it is possible to increase production volumes and lower production costs
• Boost customer satisfaction and business ROI
• Faster time to market, better quality assurance
• Lower overhead expenses
• Greater rewards for stakeholders
• Increasing per capita income 

Now, let’s look at the top employee productivity strategies for 2024 and beyond. 

Top Strategies to Increase Employee Productivity

As mentioned earlier, an employee's overall productivity and commitment can make or break an organization. It is hard to create a workplace where employees strive to accomplish more. Although no single element will significantly boost productivity, specific strategies can. It takes considerable insight into what drives and enhances the work experience within the organization to promote employee productivity.

If you are worried about the low levels of employee productivity in your organization, here are some ways you can help boost productivity levels and ensure the best employee experience: 

• Providing The Best Employee Support
  
  Employee support is an essential part of boosting employee productivity. It involves an open line of communication and tools that help streamline employee queries. And when organizations fail to provide the right support portal, employees have to wait long hours for a service desk agent to show up. This delays their work performance. Companies do not want their employees to feel confused, distressed, or bored during their daily duties.
  
  Employee support also involves the company keeping tabs on their employees' mental well-being, ensuring that they have the most supportive workplace where they can thrive, take needed breaks and be appreciated for their hard work. Thus, organizations need to ensure that employees get timely and personalized employee support.
  
• Get the Best Technology for your Employees
  
  Employees may often feel stuck in the unproductivity loop if they keep doing less-creative, mundane daily tasks. To improve the employee experience and productivity, organizations need to give them the best digital tools, like a GenAI-enabled service desk or GenAI-enabled conversational chatbot which automates routine IT and HR tasks and reduces downtime.
  
  This will allow employees to spend time on creative or analytical tasks that are high on their priority list. Giving them access to premium features of the best service desk solutions helps enhance their work performance.
  
• Personalized Employee Training
  
  Companies' ongoing training and development programs to train their employees regularly ensure that employees are always on top of the latest technologies and trends. Thus, they achieve greater fulfillment in their professional lives. The robust and personalized employee training helps organizations to enhance employee productivity and satisfaction in the long run.
  
• Say No to Micromanaging
  
  It’s high time to bid permanent adieu to micromanaging. Some managers or team leads may feel micromanaging employees can be a great way to ensure that assigned tasks are done perfectly and on time.
  
  2024 should be about trusting the skills and abilities of your employees and letting them accomplish the tasks on their own. Keep communication channels open so that trainees and entry-level employees can always ask managers or leaders for advice if and when they need it.
  
• Appreciation is The Key
  
  A “Thank You for the great work,” “keep it up,” an “economic incentive”, or “ a promotion goes a long way to motivate your employees. Motivating your employees by recognizing their efforts, hard work, and creativity helps in increasing employee productivity, as it works as a positive stimulus for them to carry on their excellent job.
  
• Boost Team Collaboration and Communication
  
  Team chats, team meetups outside the office, team celebrations, and celebrating critical professional milestones with the team- all of these are brilliant ways to improve the employee experience. Team members who genuinely love each other’s company and trust each other work better professionally, which directly affects the quality of work.
  
  The chance to freely communicate with team members no matter where they are placed in the professional hierarchy help in easier information exchange, a sense of approachability between members, and a long-term sense of belonging and loyalty to the company.
  
  Communication also involves bringing up essential conversations about respect in the workplace about gender and diversity and building a safe and supportive environment that improves the employee experience.
  
• Build an Agile Workplace
  
  A workplace with minimum restrictions that allows their employees' full ownership over their work-life? Sounds great, doesn’t it? An agile working environment is characterized by allowing employees to work remotely or unlimited days off. Workplaces that ensure such incentives have noticed significantly less employee turnover.
  
  An office space that facilitates free and open conversations and collaborations among different teams so that everyone can help solve a problem faster and more effectively. Job roles are not written in stone. This makes work more exciting, and employees can pick up varied skills while they work.
  
• Lay down the SMART Goals
  
  An employee needs to understand how their personal goals align with the company’s goals and how, with their skills, they will be contributing to the company’s growth. It gives their job more meaning! The company's SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-based) goals should be presented to the employees so that they fully understand what they need to do to achieve them and how their progress in their job role can be measured.
  
• Optimize Business Meetings and Email communications
  
  Meetings that go on for hours and aren’t relevant can lead to employee dissatisfaction. They should be conducted when needed and should be to the point but informative. Employees who need to listen to the information or participate in the brainstorming sessions should only be encouraged to attend the meeting. Others can just keep doing their daily tasks, optimizing everybody’s time and efforts.
  
  Email communications among colleagues, the top management, and the rest of the employees should stick to the agenda and be sent during regular business hours. An email 5 minutes before someone is ready to clock out of work can be highly stressful and mentally taxing. It’s always great to wait for your employees to check and revert to any professional emails during regular work hours and not make it mandatory for them to reply to office emails asap at any point in the day. 

Conclusion

If a company wants to run successfully for a long time, it’s wise to treat its employees well and implement positive ways to keep employee productivity up. Employees are the building blocks of an organization. Once the latter realizes the need to enhance employee experience, no one can stop a company from reaching new heights of success!

The employee productivity strategies outlined here offer a roadmap for organizations to manage the changing terrain and empower their workforce. Businesses that invest in employee development, embrace work-life balance, use technology responsibly, and promote open communication can adapt to and prosper in the face of future problems. The benefits of increased productivity go beyond the financial line, affecting company culture and employee satisfaction.

Let's toast to a prosperous and productive year!

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FAQs

1. Why is employee productivity critical to firms in 2024?
Employee productivity is critical because it directly influences corporate efficiency, innovation, and profitability. In 2024, remaining competitive will necessitate a high-performing workforce to overcome changing obstacles.

2. How should I measure workforce productivity effectively?

 Key performance indicators include output per employee, project completion rates, and individual and team performance feedback. Using performance management tools and conducting regular evaluations helps to ensure accurate measurements.

3. What role does employee development play in increasing productivity?

 Employee development promotes skill growth and job happiness, which leads to higher production. Investing in continual learning enables individuals to contribute more effectively to the organization.

4. What are the possible consequences of disregarding employee productivity strategies?

Ignoring productivity tactics may result in worse morale, burnout, and higher turnover. It can also suppress innovation and deteriorate an organization's competitive advantage.

5. How soon can organizations expect to see results from using employee productivity strategies?

Results may vary, but organizations typically see favorable changes within a few months of applying these strategies. Long-term productivity increases rely heavily on consistency and commitment to the tactics.