Workplace crises come in all shapes and sizes. These might include a company going out of business, restructuring or reorganising, a global economic downturn, or even a global pandemic. However, these factors are thrown your way, and the question always arises: How do I get more done with less?
Let us look at five ways to improve employee productivity
develop a business continuity plan
The productivity of your employees depends on your preparedness to address and handle a crisis. Due to this, many organisations made 2020 the year of implementing business continuity plans. Without such a plan, your entire workplace would not know how to resume work and do it productively. Develop an overall action plan and workforce strategy that prioritises people. But, the programme will mean nothing without a strategy on how to best communicate and deliver it to your employees. You will guarantee business continuity and build trust when you address employees’ issues transparently and openly.
partition your office
Another way to increase productivity in the workplace is by partitioning the office. Office partitions are an excellent solution for generating flow in the office. Create points of open space and barriers in the office that provide privacy and promote collaboration amongst teams.
Create zoned areas with people of the same team sitting together. Teams that collaborate have easy access to one another for smooth communication. A strategic office manager should strive to prevent a silo mentality in the workplace. Silo mentality is where departments work amongst themselves without communicating across floors. An office partition will break down the silo mentality.
listen to your employees
If you don’t listen to your employees, they will be less motivated to do their work or go the extra mile successfully. The pandemic has brought many concerns amongst employees, and they expect their employers to be empathetic. For this reason, employers are conducting frequent employee surveys and using technology that promotes two-way communication at the workplace.
As a result, companies no longer entirely communicate through email updates and announcements. The approach to communication is no longer practical, but it also makes employees miss essential information about the crisis.
Managers should implement a two-way communication process to ensure that their employees are heard. When employees freely speak about their issues, peers and managers understand their negative emotions.
Internal communicators and human resource managers should enable managers to create two-way communication channels among managers and employees about the negative and positive effects of the crisis.
keep your employees informed
Organisations now understand the significance of efficient communication during a crisis. Employers are now making daily or weekly updates to their company’s working policies and operations. Taking an example of the pandemic, all safety tips and information should be communicated in a personal and timely way to employees.
Show appreciation
Employers should recognise, praise, and appreciate a person’s contributions, effort, dedication, and work. Employees enjoy small acts of encouragement from their superiors, like sending an acknowledgment email or saying thank you for doing their job well.
Your employees will also appreciate more visible acts from you, such as talking about their achievements during team meetings, bringing up their work in conversations with other managers, and providing opportunities to work with senior leadership closely.
When leaders demonstrate that they understand employee circumstances, preferences, and needs concerning work arrangements, it provides individualised support to employees, which helps them achieve work goals. This was especially relevant during the pandemic’s initial weeks and remains applicable as the crisis continues. People have varied socio-economic circumstances, living arrangements, family situations, and varying degrees of understanding of remote-work best practices and technology.
Final Word
When your workforce is aligned, your employees will live by your company values, collaborate more efficiently, build stronger connections, and receive change initiatives to triumph over crises. So, bear in mind that you should start by assessing the communication strategies you use with your employees to enhance employee productivity. This is the only way to ensure that the employees understand your business goals and deliver exceptional work results.
Author: Adam Fenbury – Partnerships Manager, Office Fitout Professionals
Photo credit: Scott Graham on Unsplash
