How to make your employees more productive without increasing their work hours

According to one statistic from the Bureau of Labour Statistics, Americans daily spend 8.8 hours in the workplace. Lifehack reports: “That is even more than the 7.7 hours we spend sleeping.”

However, spending time in the workplace and working productively in the workplace are ultimately two different things. 

If you get the impression that your employees aren’t getting as much out of their work hours as they could, here are several productivity-boosting strategies for you to try.

Familiarize yourself with each employee’s needs 

Always encourage your employees to let you know any concerns they may have about their work or workplace. Furthermore, when workers do air their grievances, you should genuinely listen.

The better you know your employees’ needs, the more easily you can assist in meeting them. For example, you could offer flexible working to employees juggling many other, non-career-related responsibilities, such as caring for an elderly loved one.

Make sure your employees have the right equipment 

We can probably all recall occasions when we have been eager to get work done but been thwarted by a technological hurdle, like an overly old and slow computer or a spotty Wi-Fi connection.

For this reason, remember to be understanding when issues like this arise — and do what you can to ensure that your staff have appropriate and reliable equipment in the first place.

Automate the process of supplier statement reconciliation 

It can take an awful lot of time for employees to reconcile supplier statements to your invoice data. Hence, if this is still a duty you are routinely expecting your workers to fulfill manually, you could arrange for the process to be fully automated instead.

Xelix offers a supplier statement reconciliation module where key details from a supplier statement in PDF or Excel format can be time-effectively extracted and any discrepancies between the statement and your invoice data can be identified and summarized.

Celebrate employee victories — even small ones  

Naturally, people always like to feel that hard work they put in is appreciated — and your employees will be no exception on this score. When you do recognize victories of your employees, they will respond with renewed motivation and enthusiasm. 

You don’t always need to be particularly adventurous with how you mark your workers’ triumphs. Even just the occasional “Good job” can suffice — though you could also offer extra incentives, like gift cards, for high performance.

Treat your workers to something that is — quite simply — fun 

To an extent, this point can tie in with the one just detailed. However, don’t convince yourself that you always need to wait until your employees have reached a specific milestone before you give them an extra-special treat.

Often, it can work out well to spring these pleasant surprises on people spontaneously. Just consider the fact that, in laboratory research undertaken by the University of Warwick, happiness was found to make people about 12% more productive.

This discovery was made as a result of study participants being shown a comedy movie clip or given free chocolate, drinks and fruit.