When it comes to the real capacity for your business to excel, measuring productivity is vital. However, if you ever find productivity is lacking, what do you do to solve it? Believe it or not, simply trying to “whip your team into shape” is not going to be as effective as you might think. Rather, below, we will look at some of the steps you can take to open the path to true productivity.

Is your method the best?

Your employee might have a specific way of completing a process but what if better ways of doing the job can be discovered? Systematizing your business is all about finding and documenting the best possible way to complete individual processes. This has to be an open process, too, you have to allow new feedback from employees to potentially change “the way you do things.” However, simply having a method prepared and ready for them to pick it up can help them slip into a much more productive mode of working from their first day.

Are there productivity blockers in your way?

It’s not just about how productive your methodology is, it’s also about how effective you can deal with both internal and external factors that can block your progress. In businesses that rely on highly streamlined processes to maintain as much operational efficiency as possible, root cause analysis tools can be fantastic for helping you get down to the cause of any delays or other productivity issues. Keeping an eagle eye on the workflow of the workplace and being ready to remove those obstructions can ensure that your team is always working as efficiently as possible.

Is your team collaborating well?

The thing blocking one employee might not always be an inherent problem with the process or some new factor in their workflow that they can easily remove. Sometimes, it might be another individual. The ability to quickly communicate with team members, especially those whose work you rely on to do your own work, is key.

You need a team that is innovative, creative, and ready to push their ideas to the limits. But great ideas don’t come easy and one of the best things you can do for your team and your business is work with a business innovation consulting company. It can offer the tools to your team to collaborate in a whole new way. 

It can also help to rely on centralized communication software to help you quickly get in touch with team members and even to track their progress in a shared project, can help you quickly find and solve bottlenecks, or make sure that people are working on the right thing so you can get to your own work more quickly.

Is your team motivated?

Sometimes it can, indeed, be the case that your employees aren’t giving you as much as they can. However, putting pressure on them is not always, or even usually, the best way to encourage the best out of them. Get more from your employees by addressing aspects of the workplace that might be affecting their motivation and their drive. Invest in their careers through training, give them pathways to provide feedback, and ensure their needs are being met.

Productivity is a key driver of value in your business, but rarely is it the case that an employee is holding it back. Rather, you should make sure that the processes are made as accessible and well organized as possible.