Assuming that the motivation of your employees is their own personal thing that every one of them has to resolve on their own is not just lazy but also quite counterproductive and inefficient. Sure, some people are determined on slacking and there’s nothing you can do about it, however, the majority of your employees are just looking for slightly better work conditions in order to unleash their full potential. Fortunately, with just a couple of tricks on your side, you can make your workplace productivity skyrocket. Here are five such tricks.
1. Restructure your team
The first thing you need to understand is the fact that there are some people who, although decent employees, just don’t work well with others. While their performance might not falter, they might often get into arguments with their coworkers or do other things that make the performance of people around them go down. While firing these people (after identifying them first, of course) would be the simplest solution, in the digital environment, you might have a more humane alternative. Simply allow these people to work from home as telecommuters and you’ll do everyone a favor without having to fire anyone.
2. Show appreciation
When it comes to motivating your employees, all you can do as an employer is show some appreciation for the effort that they’re investing. While some may immediately think about promotions and raises, these aren’t great solutions to this problem. Sure, you give one promotion and motivate them for a couple of days, weeks or months. Still, what do you do the next time they’re in the same spot? Promote them again? Realistically speaking, how often do you expect you can do such a thing? The same thing goes with giving one a raise. Therefore, you need to look for alternative ways of demonstrating appreciation.
3. Minimize distractions
Another thing you can do to boost productivity in the workplace is to minimize the number of distractions that your employees are exposed to. First of all, you should give every person in your employ enough personal space and do as much as you can to make the room soundproof. For instance, you can order rugs online in order to lower the volume of foot traffic across the room, thus making the place both quieter and more serene. Other than this, you can also invest in some silent peripherals like noise-canceling earphones and silent keyboards. This way, you give your entire team a significant boost.
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4. Ownership of the workplace
The next thing you need to do is make everyone feel like the company in question is their own. In theory, this means that you should give them some shares in the company, however, there are a couple of ways you can do this even without undergoing such trouble. For instance, by giving them more responsibility or a chance to customize their work hours, you may ensure that your employees take you more seriously. Apart from this, the method of allowing them to work from home (which is something that we’ve already discussed) can be seen as a major reward for some of your employees.
5. Help them out
The last thing you need to understand is the fact that it’s basic human nature to care for your own wellbeing first and then worry about others. Each of your employees is primarily concerned with their own income, job stability and career path. Provided that you can satisfy these three basic needs, it’s completely realistic that you expect optimal productivity in return. If you can just show them how giving their best is in their own interest, you’ll already ensure that your business is in a much better position. For instance, by telling them how good their participation on a major project would look in their resume, you can easily make them want to volunteer for it.
Conclusion
As you can see, all of these methods are fairly simple and their effect on the productivity of your staff is quite self-explanatory. Just keep in mind that motivation isn’t always an intrinsic thing. Sometimes, suitable short-term rewards, work environment and even coworkers may have a strong psychological impact on one’s abilities and motivation. Fortunately, all of these things are something that you, as an entrepreneur, have direct control over.
