Helping your employees to become more productive

With the many hats a manager is required to wear, increasing employee productivity often proves to be one of the most challenging. To increase productivity, you need to take a look at the current policies of company along with the current employee morale level. Try out a few of these tips that will improve employee morale and help your employees become more productive:

• Introduce an incentive program. Some companies like to give incentives for meeting deadlines while others like to use them for employees that are able to lose weight in a company-wide challenge. No matter how you want to introduce an incentive program, it will work. Employees love to be rewarded and incentives are one of the best ways to reward them.
• Compliment your employees. Some employees may feel like you only recognize them if they do something wrong. Take the time to walk around the office and stop by their desk to offer a compliment on their hard work. Thank them for coming into work once and awhile. Employees will take notice of your extra efforts to make them feel appreciated and this will start to boost employee morale.
• Hold a two day training seminar that includes a motivational speaker. A training seminar is a simple way to give your employees the skills they need to effectively do their jobs and keep up with new changes to the company. Hire a motivational speaker to come in and give your staff a pep talk. A motivational speaker is a great investment because they will help your employees become better people and they will give them tips on how they can advance their careers.
• Write down goals for each employee. You need to try and inspire your employees to further their careers and the best way to do this is to sit down with them and come up with a few goals that you would like to see them accomplish over the next year. Recognize their hard work along the way to accomplish their goals as this will keep their spirits up.
• Maintain an open door policy with your employees. When employees know they can contact you, they will be happier and more productive. Don't just leave the door open to work problems, be a mentor for your employees and be there to listen when they need to vent once and awhile.
• Take your staff out to lunch or hold regular pot-luck lunches. Sitting down with your employees for lunch is a great way to get to know them on a personal level and it's always nice to get out of the office for lunch. In addition to going out for lunch, you should take them away for a half-day to do a team building activity. Rent a fun center where you and your employees can do some fun activities like golfing, go-kart racing and even playing video games.
• Give your employees extra responsibilities. Your employees like it when you ask for their help. This shows that you not only trust and respect them but that you really do admire their work and their contributions to the company.
• Encourage your employees to get up and talk with their co-workers. Have some employees observe the way their co-workers work so they can take some pointers back to their desk. You want them to build strong friendships in the office and having them get up and talk once and awhile is the only way you are going to be able to do this.
• Give each employee a different part in staff meetings. Encourage them to share their ideas and opinions and give them a chance to respond to questions.