How to make most of my team?
What should I do to make my team productive?
These are the pertinent question which bothers you a lot when you are running your business.
It becomes more important to achieve ultimate productivity in initial days of your business as you can’t afford extra resources. Getting the most of your team doesn’t mean working them to death. If employees overwork up to the extent of being stressed then it would be more difficult for you to retain them and hire good talents. It could lead to a bad reputation of not caring for the employees too.
So what are the options you have to make your team productive without stressing them?
You can optimize your office space, change your workflow and monitor work process to work towards getting more productivity from the existing team.
Here are few techniques by which you can ensure greater productivity from your team at workplace-
- Use Colors Wisely
Colors play an important role in office space. It impacts our brain’s performance and can affect the level of motivation. Red and blue colors are known for improving productivity.
Blue is known for igniting creativity and inspirational thoughts. It’s better to use this color at the time of solving a problem or writing a business proposal. Red colors can be used to focus with the concentration. Red is considered good for attention to details. These colors can be implemented in office interiors as well as on employee’s desks.
- Schedule Everything
Scheduling is one of the most important things to do for the productivity. As a business owner, it's your responsibility to educate employees about the benefits of scheduling things.
Almost all employees, irrespective of the industry use this technique but it's limited to certain important tasks only. They probably mark down important meetings and deadlines in a calendar but that's not enough for increasing productivity.
All employees should schedule every single task well in advance. And they should stick to the schedule and deadline. Then only they can ensure timely completion of work. Scheduling everything is critical to ensure the value of time in employee’s mind. And it gives ultimate focus towards work.
- Give Proper Breaks to Employees
Taking breaks at regular intervals is also crucial for employee’s productivity. All breaks should be timed properly and everybody should respect that. Breaks are really important in a job where lots of thinking involve like software development.
Apart from longer breaks like lunch, there should be some shorter and strategic breaks too. A shorter break allows you to refresh the mind and start working with new energy. Some expert says that it's better to follow a rule called 10+2 for shorter breaks. It means work 10 minutes and takes a break for 2 minutes. So in an hour, you should take 5 breaks of 2 minutes. It's a great way to take the shorter break but there is no compulsion to follow the same rule. You should analyze your business and employees and create your own rule which suits you best.
- Limit Use of Gadgets on Desk
Gadgets are double sided swords. Depending on the situations it can be the best friend and or worst enemy for the office productivity. According to a research, an average person checks his phone 150 times per day. It won't take much time for checking notifications but it can surely distract employees from their work.
So what is the solution? Leaving your cell phone on the desk makes you irresistible for using but its easy to handle if you put it in the drawer.
As a business owner, you can create a policy to keep phones or tablets in the drawer during work hours. But it can be a hard policy to implement. So talk to your employees and try to come up with a solution which is good for both.
- Keep Meetings Short
Meetings are really necessary for the functioning of any business. But meeting can be a time killer too if not planned well. So it’s better to make meetings more productive or don’t do that at all.
Sometimes we see that there are few people in the meeting who don’t have any significant role in the meeting. So before scheduling any meeting in your organization, make sure who is really required for the meeting and how much time is needed to discuss the agenda.
So it’s better to have short and fruitful meetings instead of boring and non-productive one.
Conclusion
Productivity is a fickle concept. It varies from person to person. The same thing which encourages someone to stay productive can be a distraction for others. Employees are different and so are their jobs. So it’s your job as a manager or business owner to encourage them in right way to achieve the productivity goals. Nothing is better than communication in this regard. Talk to your employees and try to find out what they love in an office space and implement accordingly.