How to treat your employees for better productivity?

A workplace is an interactive environment where employees and employers work together to achieve company goals. Employees are a company’s greatest assets – they are the ones who work day and night for your business. If you want to attract and retain the best, provide them with the best and make them feel that they are an integral part of your company’s mission. When leaders in a company take an active and genuine interest in people they manage, when they invest in real-time to understand their employees at the fundamental level, they create an environment for a more productive bunch of employees and of course for greater growth! This article guides you through some of the common mistakes to avoid and how to treat your employees right for better productivity.

Common mistakes

Most of the mistakes made by a company in this regard can be easily avoided. When you make a mistake, your best employees are the first ones to leave the company. The reason is quite simple: they have a lot of other options. Here are some of the common mistakes that must be avoided to retain your best employees.

1. Make a lot of unnecessary rules

Companies must have some set of rules, but not a set of stupid rules. Many of the companies make unnecessary rules. They think these rules will increase productivity, but the result often will be just the opposite. There are companies that have an overzealous attendance policy that could hamper the morale of employees. Even a couple of such unnecessary rules can drive people crazy. When good employees feel this as a burden, they look for some other options.

2. Treat everyone equally

Some companies treat everyone equally. These tactics only work with school children. While in a company, things are different. If you start treating everyone equally, that shows your top performers that ‘no matter how you perform, you will be treated as workhorses. This feeling can convert your top-performing employees into laggards.

3. Don’t consider hikes

Retaining the employee’s interest in their work is very important for improved productivity. Providing salary hikes are considered important to retain your best employees. It helps them to be more interested in their work as they feel that their company is paying them for their work. Some companies increase the workload eventually and pay the same amount as many of their employees hesitate to ask for a hike.

4. Don’t recognize accomplishments

Everyone likes appreciations. Many of the managers forget or don’t appreciate the top performers. Rewarding individual accomplishments shows that you are paying attention. This can keep the employees motivated. It doesn’t need much time and effort to say a ‘Well done’. With top performers, this will happen frequently if you are doing it right.

5. Don’t let people pursue their passion

Talented employees are always passionate. Providing opportunities for them to pursue their passions improves their productivity and job satisfaction, but many managers want people to work within a little box. These managers fear that productivity will decrease if they let people expand their focus and pursue their passions.

6. Not allow employees to have fun at work

If your employees are not having fun at work, then you are not doing it right. If you want your employees to give their best they should have some fun. The companies which are considered as the best workplaces know the importance of having fun at work. Google, for example, does everything to make work fun. They provide free meals, fitness classes, bowling alleys, etc. The overall idea is simple if the work is fun, you will hang around the office for long and will have a mindset to work better. The managers blame everything under the sun for reduced turnover and decreased productivity. Employees don’t leave jobs, they leave managers who treat them as workhorses.

Best ways to improve employee productivity

Employees are the valuable assets of an organization.  The key to your business success lies in customer satisfaction. Employees are the internal customers of any organization. Making them feel good and motivating them has a higher probability of making significant contributions to the organization. Here are some ways to improve employee productivity.

1. Provide flexible work timings

Employees desire flexible work timings for a number of reasons. Maintaining a better work-life balance is one among them. Every employee will be different in productivity rhythms. Some of them will be comfortable in working early morning hours since everyone else will be offline. So no emails and messages to interrupt. Morning times are good for work that requires creativity and attention to detail. An overwhelming number of studies, surveys and polls reveal that flexible working is the key to retain productive employees. In a recent survey by Glassdoor, it shows that 80% of people choose benefits such as flexible work timings over pay scale and other factors. Not only that, those companies providing flexible work timings have a financial edge over companies with the traditional work culture. In addition to flexible timings, you can provide Paid Time Off (or PTO). You can strategize a PTO policy that benefits both you and your employees. A solid PTO policy would make your employees happy and would eventually help you retain the right talent for your organization.

2. Respect employees

Give respect, take respect. Respect your employees and treat them as if they are eventually going to be better than you. As an employer, you should be with your employees if they have any concerns and try to solve those promptly. Collecting frequent feedback is also a good practice. Giving respect to your employees motivates them and they will be having a good relationship with you and your company. Thus increasing productivity too.