Productivity can be an elusive goal in today’s modern workplace. With distributed teams, an array of technologies, and the advent of artificial intelligence, productivity keeps changing. It’s often more outcome-driven, technology-integrated, and focused on employee well-being.
No matter your industry or how advanced your organization is, you have goals to reach. Learn how to maximize workplace productivity at the individual level and through teams, and how to adapt to changing environments. Plus, find out how to overcome distractions and reduce employee overwhelm and burnout to create a healthy, productive workplace.
1. Rethink Your Learning and Development Program
There’s an often overlooked component of the employee experience that can lead to decades-long productivity losses: training. While most organizations have a standard onboarding program, much of the on-the-job training is left to one’s peers. On the surface, this approach may seem efficient, but it can lead to gaps, mistranslated workflows, and inefficiencies.
Organizations that master the art of productivity know that the foundation of their success is knowledge. By prioritizing training, learning, and development, you invest in ensuring your employees understand key components before they start work.
Review your current training protocol and your company’s metrics to identify gaps, which can help organize your efforts. If your error rate for processing invoices is high, that’s a key indicator that there may be a knowledge gap. Working with your department leads to understand the tools used and processes employees must follow for a successfully run invoice. Then, develop a training module to teach employees the correct way of executing an invoice.
Follow learning design principles similar to school course design, defining, breaking down, and showing how it’s done. Use a screen recorder to capture the clicks, pages, and intricacies involved with the task, which can help learning comprehension. This approach to training creates consistency and tracks completion. Knowledge checks can improve learning rates and identify additional training needs.
2. Establish Boundaries and Reduce Channel Fatigue
Many workplaces often manage a myriad of productivity tools adopted in quick succession during the pandemic. As teams strive to identify a new “normal,” they’re often found managing duplicative tools, processes, and practices. This can lead to competing workflow and communication channels that overwhelm instead of create efficiencies.
Leaders should work to establish boundaries around work processes, practices, and tools to position teams to do their best work. If your team is returning to the office entirely or partially, there may be challenges to unpack. In-person meetings may result in assignments made verbally, but set the expectations that all workflows must follow your chosen process. Similarly, digital assignments can come in through many channels, like chat, email, meeting threads, or made using project management tools. This can lead to overwhelm, burnout, rework, and even missed assignments.
Level-set your organizational expectations across the board, defining a channel of choice for workflows. Update your training program to ensure all employees understand how to assign work, update projects, and track progress. Reinforce proper channel use by encouraging peer accountability while having candid conversations between managers and direct reports.
Gather feedback on process effectiveness to periodically assess if changes are warranted based on productivity and technology opportunities. By maintaining a consistent process, your team avoids rework, reduces steps, and captures more productive hours each day.
3. Spark Momentum Through Strategic Alignment
Your employees may be experts in their field, but without alignment with your organization’s purpose, skills mastery has a limit. The most productive teams know that the intersection of job-level talent and achieving major results is strategic alignment. Strategic alignment is more than just plastering your mission and vision on every computer lock screen or meeting room. True strategic alignment is achieved when your organization’s “why” is woven into the fabric of everything you do.
First, identify your organization’s true purpose, beyond widgets and balance sheets. A manufacturer of hospital-grade supplies may have sales targets, but its “why” is to support patient care and healing. Dig deeper into your purpose and label the emotional side of your work to spark a connection with your employees.
Next, integrate strategic messaging, training, and interactive opportunities for your team members. Give them a chance to interact with your “why” as a part of their job and personal development. Bring office team members into your clean manufacturing facility to gain an appreciation of the strict standards of their work. Host physician clients on-site to share how your products make a difference in their ability to heal patients.
With a clear appreciation of how their efforts play into the whole story, employees are more productive and loyal. By understanding their role in achieving patient healing, every step in their processes becomes more important and meaningful. Leverage your shared purpose as a rallying cry for great work, productive output, and engaged employees.
Achieve Your Goals With Sustainable Productivity Strategies
Any workplace change impacts the way your team works, so you want to ensure you’re choosing the best improvements. Once you’ve identified which of these strategies you’d like to use, develop an implementation plan. If your productivity strategy involves new tools, work with your training team to develop modules to support organization-wide adoption.
Treat management as a high-priority population, as they’ll need to both learn the new process and advocate for it. Be intentional with how you launch, nurture, and reinforce any productivity strategy, as your shared success depends on it. When you implement productivity strategies with a plan, your team is more likely to sustain the change and deliver results.
Table of Contents
