Does it feel like you and your team are constantly being crushed under the weight of new work? Are you constantly struggling to keep up, only to have new tasks dumped on your desk the moment you reach the finish line? This situation isn’t unusual, but it can be frustrating. You know that your team is capable of all-star productivity, but it always seems to be just out of reach. How can you help bring them (and yourself) up to speed?
Boosting Team Productivity Starts with You
Perfect productivity sits right in the sweet spot between quality, quantity, and efficiency. That means that not only are many tasks completed to a high degree of accuracy and excellence but there’s also minimal time wasted in the process. The question is—how do you get there?
The first thing you need to understand as a manager is that there will always be things impacting productivity that you can’t control. These include things like workplace laws and regulations, as well as health/environmental crises like COVID-19.
However, while you can’t control these factors, you can control how you respond to them, and this makes all the difference when it comes to productivity.
One of the most detrimental outcomes of COVID-19 has been its effect on the mental and physical health of employees everywhere. Unwell employees are simply not able to reach their true potential. Stress is a notorious productivity killer (plus, it’s just bad for your health in general). Even before the pandemic, 61% of office employees reported feeling overwhelmed and burnt out from work, and the massive changes we’ve all undergone have not helped matters.
So let’s talk about how you can help cultivate productivity in a work environment shadowed by COVID anxiety.
1. Prioritize Health
First, you can encourage your employees to take good care of their mental and physical health and underline the importance of a healthy work-life balance. Promote health and wellness inside the office, as well as at home. This can be through wellness workshops and seminars, discounted services provided by a wellness partner (e.g., gym memberships, massage specialists, therapists, etc.), and/or an increased number of paid sick days.
2. Emphasize Communication
You can also help take some of the mental burdens off your employees and help promote better productivity through improved communication. Good workplace communication fosters trust, comfort, loyalty, and mutual support. When employees are happy and feel secure, they’re much more likely to be hardworking and productive.
3. Give It to Get It
To foster a work culture where your employees can do their best, you must cultivate a healthy environment. This means building foundational policies to help support your employees as well as comprehensive guidelines about workplace roles, tasks, lines of communication, and so on. The important thing is to follow through with your promises, not just pay lip service to them. Employees need care and support now more than ever, especially if they’re going to continue giving exceptional performances.
Perfect productivity isn’t built in a day, but if you put in the effort to do right by your employees, they will most certainly reward you.
