Stimulating staff productivity

We cannot do everything in our businesses alone. It is for this reason that we keep hiring staff. How do you ensure you are getting true value in terms of productivity from your staff?
I have seen a new employee culture, especially with the younger generation of workers where people want to earn more, but do less.

Employees of SMEs want the benefits offered by the big firms. The trouble with this is that few can actually defend their true value to the business. Some of them are scheming every day to see what loophole they can exploit in the business.

The productivity and discipline of many staff is a big challenge to many employers. How are you dealing with these challenges?

Adopt technology
Businesses cannot afford to keep increasing wages without a matching increment in productivity and revenues. Salaries are earned, not given.

One of the things that is interfering with employee productivity is new technologies. With almost everyone owning a smartphone and many offices enabled with wireless Internet, staff get a lot of distractions. From Facebook to WhatsApp, some workers spend more time on their handsets than on office computers.

As an employer, you need to set rules around this. People must respect working hours and spend that time doing what they are paid to do. If you can, turn off Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or even WhatsApp on your Internet router or server.
Otherwise, embrace the technologies for business use.

For example, adopt social media marketing for your business and monitor it to get true value. The truth, although it is good to respond fast to communications, if you are not careful with them, they can take away lots of valuable business time and negatively impact productivity.

As a business owner, you may also want to invest in surveillance cameras in your premises. These prompt the workers to be more responsible and productive. When you know that the big brother is watching, there will be less idle chitchats. Surveillance can also prevent losses. If someone knows that they can be seen slipping business assets into a bag, they will try not to do it.

If you notice a hostile reaction when you install a surveillance camera in the office, you can be sure that a lot has been going on behind your back.
The knowledge that the employer is watching at all times can, in itself, inspire better performance and improve productivity without the need for unpleasant confrontations.

Team building
A happy staff is a productive one. However, this depends on the employee’s attitude, too.
Investing in compensation strategies such as pay rises, bonuses and enhanced benefits can be quite expensive and is a route that can backfire. As an alternative, think through win-win strategies.

Benefits that may not be expensive but may actually help in increasing the business profit margins.

You can also try our team building events to enhance bonding between the employees and performance-based benefits.

Give recognition, for example, for exceeded sales targets or cost-cutting ideas that bring returns.

You can also allow people to come up with new product or marketing ideas and provide a recognition, even if it is not monetary.

Anything that would make the person feel valued. However, be very careful not to create an entitlement culture in your business where employees begin to count chickens before they hatch.

Keep re-evaluating your strategies around employee productivity to ensure that you are dynamic enough for the benefit of your business.

-Daily Nation