Are you looking to be successful in business? Whether you are an employee, business owner, or manager, the answer to being successful in business is to be productive. Productivity is no hidden secret but many people struggle with making it happen. But what does it mean to be productive? And more importantly, why is productivity important?
Here’s what productivity really is, why it’s important for everyone in your organization to achieve it, and how you can make it happen.
What Is Productivity?
Productivity is a measurement of performance. Productivity indicates how efficiently a person, company, or other organization converts inputs into outputs.
An input could be capital or labor. An output would be goods or services.
There are many different levels of productivity, starting with personal productivity.
Personal productivity is just that, the measurement of one’s personal, individual performance.
At a higher level, there is workforce productivity, which is the productivity of an entire company’s workforce. However, at a smaller scale, organizations often want to understand department productivity or a specific team’s productivity.
Going even higher up the chain, there is sector productivity, which encompasses all related industries in one sector.
Finally, at the highest level, there is national and global productivity, which measures all industries in a national or worldwide economy.
Why Is Productivity Important
Productivity is key to success at any level. As an individual, you likely have certain goals you want to work on and accomplish, both at work and at home.
At an organizational level, productivity is essential to a company’s ability to succeed and be profitable.
Why is productivity important?
The benefits of increased productivity include:
- Lower overhead costs
- Reduction in time-to-market
- Higher quality products and services
- Efficient utilization of resources
- Company growth
- Achieving team, department, and company goals
Employee productivity, when combined with the efforts of a whole team or department, will positively impact a company’s overall productivity.
Productivity is so important that an entire field has grown up around it: productivity management. Productivity management involves measuring and increasing business productivity.
Basically, if you want to stay in business and be successful, you need to take productivity seriously.
How to Increase Productivity
There’s a lot that goes into increasing productivity in the workplace. However, regardless of your industry, these tips can help increase productivity.
Streamline Processes and Workflows
When was the last time you reviewed your procedures? Are they efficient, or are your employees wasting valuable time doing redundant work? This is where you need to go directly to your employees and ask them what could be improved or streamlined.
Replace Old Hardware and Software
What’s the oldest software or piece of hardware at your company? Odds are you have at least one program or piece of equipment that is outdated, running inefficiently, or in constant need of attention and repairs. You may have even put off an equipment refresh or software update.
Instead, prioritize replacing old systems and utilizing time management software.
Reward Your Employees
No one wants to feel unappreciated at work. Take the time to recognize and reward employees for their productivity. This could be in the form of bonuses, extra time off of work, or free vouchers for local events.
Rewarding your employees is just another way of keeping them engaged.
Give Ownership to Your Team
Hold your team accountable for their work. Let them make their own decisions and give them some independence. Working together as a team ensures a sense of responsibility regarding their work.
It can also help build your employees’ self-esteem, enabling them to feel good about their contributions in the workplace.
Delegate Tasks
Managers need to understand every member of their team. What are each person’s strengths and weaknesses? What are their skill sets?
Allowing each employee to work with their strengths will increase productivity, as well as employee confidence.
Delegating tasks does not come naturally for many leaders. Fortunately, you can learn how to delegate tasks. Aim to delegate tasks that are repetitive, interesting for your employees, and are something they would excel at.
Use Project Management Tools
Using project management software and tools is another great way to increase productivity. Look for a project management software that allows you to easily collaborate, is customizable, allows you to quickly share contacts and calendars, and enables seamless onboarding and collaboration.
Give Constructive Feedback
Without constructive feedback, employees have no way of telling if they are working efficiently or not. Perhaps they were taught a certain way how to complete a process, but how they were trained is inefficient or outdated. Or perhaps a supervisor advised them of a “shortcut” that actually ends up costing more labor and time.
Good feedback is a part of good communication, which is always essential in business.
For best results, pair your feedback with opportunities for learning. This could be in the form of tuition assistance or additional on-the-job training.
Stop Wasting Time
Why is productivity important? When done right, everyone in your organization stands to benefit.
Ask yourself, “What is detracting from our productivity, and how can I fix it?” For many companies, it starts with their time clock software.
Fortunately, our easy time clock software offers a solution. We provide affordable, easy-to-implement timekeeping solutions. Our user-friendly interface means you spend less time reviewing and approving timecards.
Ready to try it out? Our Essential and Plus plans have free trials, so it’s easy to get started. For larger organizations, our enterprise solution is for you.
Contact us to request a demo.
