How to create a productive work environment

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March 8, 2022 Business

As a business owner, your sole focus should be on ways to grow your business while the everyday running of it should be left to your staff. However, this doesn’t always happen and your employees can become demotivated and productivity can come to a standstill.

In this blog post, we will look at the best ways you can keep your workforce productive and happy.

1. Hire the right people

To have a productive workforce you need to hire the right type of people. Without the right people, your business is going to have problems. There is an old saying to hire slow and fire fast and this is something every business owner should take into account.

Scott the owner and managing director of Pink Storage says “Our team are vital to the growth of our company. Without the right people, we wouldn’t be anywhere as successful.”

2. Hire your employees to do the job they are good at

This may seem self-explanatory but in business we often see people being hired for one type of job than being expected to be able to do another. This hardly ever works.

Hire a person to do a job and then let them get on with that job. They will be able to perform the tasks to the best of their ability and providing you have hired the right person, they should be productive without much hand-holding.

The moment you ask them to do another job that they aren’t familiar with is when your productivity levels go down and the happiness and morale of your workforce also decrease.

3. Be realistic with your company’s goals and objectives

If you set unrealistic goals for your team and they don’t reach them, then you are going to end up with a workforce that isn’t happy. No one likes underachieving but if you set the bar too high then everyone is going to feel like they have failed.

I’ve seen this happen at many companies and it always ends the same way, with an unproductive workforce that has a high turnover rate of staff. Not only does this create an unhappy environment but it also costs the business owner thousands in hiring fees.

When employees have a realistic goal they have something to aim for and can feel proud when they reach that goal.

4. Pay your staff what they are worth

If you don’t pay your employees fairly, somebody else will.

If you look at websites such as Linkedin you will see how many open roles there are for your staff to potentially move to. Recruiters will often pester your staff too, so pay them fairly and provide them with a good working environment and they will stick around.

5. Provide your employees with a spacious workplace

No one wants to work in a workplace that is cramped and dirty. Having boxes, files or computers without any space can make your employees feel trapped and this can lower the morale.

If you can’t afford to move into a bigger office space you can hire a storage unit to get rid of some of the clutter in your office. Having more space will allow your employees to feel better about their work making them happier in return.

6. Don’t micromanage your employees

Micromanaging your employees is one of the quickest ways to get them to want to leave your company. Many years ago, I worked as a developer at a small agency and one of the management teams used to micromanage every one of our developers and we all hated it.

Every few months a developer would leave for another company and I believe the micromanagement was a huge part of this.

No one wants to be told how to do every single detail of their job. It can frustrate you and more often than not the micromanagement slows down the productivity of the team as changes always need to be made.

7. Praise your staff when they have done well

As a business owner you expect your staff to perform to a certain level, but when a member of staff goes above and beyond, make sure to praise them as they should.

You can even reward them with bonuses and time off. But sometimes all that is needed is a simple thank you. Employees are human and showing your appreciation with a thank you is much better than what many of us have gotten over our careers.

Final thoughts

As a business owner your goal is to be profitable and productive and to get there you need to look after your employees. Many businesses forget this and as a result, are not as profitable or productive as they should be. Using the tips above you should now have a better idea of how you can help create a productive work environment.