Staying productive in today’s rapidly changing work climate can be challenging. As a manager or team leader, are you doing enough to keep your employees productive? Here are some ways you can motivate your staff, improve productivity, and offer a healthier work culture.

Get to Know Your Employees

Take the time to get to know your team members as individuals. What do they like to do outside of work? What are their hobbies? Showing interest in your employees beyond work helps employees feel valued and cared about, which in turn boosts productivity.

If possible, schedule get-togethers outside of work, like a company picnic or a remote lunch where talking shop is all but banned.

Recognize Your Team’s Effort and Celebrate Achievements

It's hard to put in your best effort for a company only for it to go unnoticed. Avoid only discussing mistakes with your employees -- this attitude can quickly put a damper on your employees' moods and their efficiency.

Look for things your team members are doing right and call those to attention as well, ideally even more than you do mistakes or errors. Let your staff know that you see the good work they're doing and appreciate it.

Delegate, But Don’t Micromanage

You can't do everything on your own -- you need your team behind you to back you up. This means you'll have to delegate tasks, which can be difficult to do. It's important that you do learn how to delegate well though, and avoid the temptation to micromanage the task as it's being done by someone else.

Trust your employees and the training you've provided them to do a good job, and address the matter later if the project wasn't up to par.

Make Work-Life Balance a Priority

Employees don't live to work anymore, they work to live. Their job provides them with a source of income, stability, and satisfaction, just like your job does for you. Make sure you promote a healthy work-life balance within your company by encouraging breaks, making sure employees are done for the day on time, and allowing flexibility for real-life issues that come up and require time away from the desk.

Offer Support for Creativity, Innovation, and New Ideas

Few people enjoy the same grind day in and day out. It's human nature to want to exercise creativity in the workplace and come up with new ideas to make workflows more efficient and productive.

Allow your employees the flexibility to get creative with their jobs when managing their performance. Encourage them to come to you with new ideas they have that may work better than the systems that are already in place. Make sure your staff doesn't feel stifled or suffocated by the 9 to 5.

Show Gratitude

Finally, showing gratitude with a simple “thank you,” can be enough to make an employee feel heard, seen, and recognized. This easy-to-say phrase goes a long way to improving productivity even for the most difficult people, giving you the most bang for your buck, so to speak. 

Get On-Demand Management Training from Business Watch Network

Learning how to manage a team underneath you, especially remotely, takes a lot of dedication and hard work. At Business Watch Network, we can help. We offer a wide variety of live and on-demand training webinars for businesses, management, marketing teams, technology companies, manufacturers, and more. Contact us today to learn more.