Hiring the right people with the most relevant skillset for your business is halfway to building a productive workforce. The other half is ensuring that your employees are spending their time efficiently and on the right tasks. So what are the best ways to do this exactly?

Susan Culp, author of the article: ‘How to increase Productivity in the Workplace’, advises that you should always communicate to employees that they are have ownership and accountability of an area of the business. Promoting ownership means that employees tend to best achieve tasks the best way they can. Promoting accountability means that employees are expected to take action and make decisions.

Sometimes it’s challenging to motivate employees who complete a lot of repetitive tasks. Culp recommends using strategies like gamification for repetitive tasks to motivate employees. This involves encouraging employees to take something positive away from the tasks that they complete. The game environment tends to boost motivation levels as employees view tasks as challenges.

Following up with employees is also key to increasing productivity, says Neil Jones, in his article: ‘12 ways to improve productivity in your workplace’. All too often, employers think that setting deliverables with employees is enough. However, by regularly following up with them, you are communicating awareness of which tasks should be progressing, advises Jones. He also adds that ensuring that deliverables are achievable is also important. It’s important that employees feel achievement through reaching goals. If goals are continually unreachable, it will result in employee burn out and disenchantment.

Breaking up the monotony by rotating roles, argues Jones, can be a clever strategy for providing employees with skills and experiences that they would otherwise not receive. The additional benefits are that employees can view the business in a more holistic sense which contributes to their overall business knowledge.

Open and honest communication is recommended by Rebecca Knight, author of the article: ‘How to boost your team’s productivity’ to increase productivity. Knight recommends asking team members to communicate challenges they have in a quarterly forum to see if everyone is on track to achieving their goals.

If you would like support on how to implement workplace changes to improve productivity, speak to the HR Consulting team at Flexi Personnel.