Employees who are distracted are a burden on businesses. Employees who feel motivated and engaged come to work regularly, stay longer, and be more productive. Providing opportunities for employees to develop their knowledge is perhaps the most effective technique for enhancing operational efficiency.

If working through a pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that our traditional views on workplace and employee productivity have been completely redefined. Increasing & measuring productivity should be evolving as our lives and workforce continue to evolve in these unprecedented times.

The business world is striving hard to increase its workplace productivity. Discovering the ins and outs of workplace productivity can help companies achieve it. 

In this blog post, we will cover, 

How to increase productivity in the workplace

Give employees control over their working conditions. While some amount of coordination of hours and techniques is unavoidable, embracing the individual working styles of your team can do a lot to increase their productivity. The following are some effective ways to increase employee productivity, 

1. Invest in training

Businesses should invest in training their workers in new procedures to gain new skills. Employees must know how to do their jobs well so that they can perform them efficiently and in the best possible manner. When you encounter a problem with an employee’s work, training them well about the root cause of that problem will help you solve the problem and prevent similar future problems from occurring. 

2. Boost employee morale

Employees need to know what is important and what they should focus on first in order to get everything done within a short period. This way, they will feel less overwhelmed and more confident in their abilities. They will also feel that the company cares about them as individuals, increasing employee morale. 

3. Establish methodologies or processes

Establishing processes for your enterprise that will allow you to create pleasant experiences for your employees, including hiring, onboarding, remuneration, performance management, task delegation, and more. It takes a long time to develop these processes, and it is largely a question of trial and error.

Once you have them in place, your team will be much more organized and efficient. Implementing a project management application, on the other hand, might make it much easier for your HR managers to conduct work satisfaction surveys.

How to measure productivity in the workplace

Establish baseline time requirements for common tasks and use them to measure employee performance. To create the optimal working environment, give your employees the freedom to interact, compete, and collaborate.  

Measuring the work productivity must be done against the number of activities done and not against the number of hours spent. The rate of efficiency, the time taken to complete tasks and number of completed tasks, etc.  

For example, an employee can sit on one task for 8 hours, whereas the same person could have completed 3 tasks at the same time. Knowing how much time your employees spend on tasks allows you to assess their overall performance. 

What affects productivity in the workplace

Workforce productivity is highly influenced by the tools and equipment they use on the job. Workplace productivity is directly linked to the quality of your workers’ tools at their disposal. Technology is an essential part of today’s workplace. Companies that use current technology are more profitable since it aids personnel in their tasks. 

Financial losses may be caused by inexperienced employees who are unable to manage resources properly. Ineffective management practices and a lack of access to essential resources may lead to employee disengagement, affecting individual and overall workplace productivity. 

Examples of productivity in the workplace

Productivity can decrease when there is a lack of planning. Attempting to complete a project with no outline or timeframe can cause confusion and delay. Every project contains small steps, leading you to reach the desired result. The following are some examples of productivity in the workplace, 

Factors that affect productivity in the workplace

Having complex objectives to achieve can be misleading as well as demotivating. It is always good to chunk out smaller, doable, and time-based objectives to keep the task clear. It feels motivated and comfortable to work in this pattern, and as a result, productivity increases. Some factors that can impact your workplace productivity are:

A. Employee goals

Goals make people work harder. Make sure the goals are realistic enough for workers to achieve. Goals give you direction and motivation to achieve success. Without any goal or vision, it’s easy to get off track and slip into mediocrity. You can set both short-term and long-term goals to increase overall workplace productivity.

Set clear, measurable goals for each worker. If your goal is simply “perform better,” it won’t tell you much about whether or not the worker is performing well or how to improve performance. Goals should be specific, measurable, and time-bound — for example, increase sales by 15% over last year.

B. Rewards and recognition

Employee recognition is one of the best ways to keep them motivated. Motivating and recognizing development showcases employees that it’s worth struggling for excellence at your organization. While promotions are a significant way to highlight employees, it’s not always a reliable option.

There are countless ways there to reward hard work, for example, raising wages, allocating more duties, giving rewards, or providing awards. Recognition helps make members feel appreciated, and they will increase their efforts. With increased motivation and engagement, employee productivity will be increased.

C. Provide employee growth opportunities

Employees stay with companies that cultivate their talents and give them opportunities to grow. Companies that want to expand and thrive require employee development. Employee development strategy is an essential mechanism for facilitating business growth. You need to ensure that they’re equipped with the necessary tools to help your business grow.  

You can give your team the skills they need to improve their day-to-day work, boost your bottom line, and get better outcomes through employee development. A better-trained workforce brings maximized output for your company. 

Ways to boost productivity in the workplace

The following are some effective ways that companies can utilize to boost their workplace productivity:

i. Use Workplace productivity tools.

A survey says a staggering 87% of employees are not engaged with their work. Providing the right productivity tool is one of the most important factors driving employee engagement and improving business outcomes. Market leaders say, “Businesses are getting more complex,” so companies need to ensure that all employees have the right tools and are operating in an efficient or flexible environment. 

Companies that have both engaged employees and the resources to adapt to the rapidly changing environment are the ones that can survive disruptive market conditions. In many cases, providing access to simple employee productivity tools can help teams stay organized and complete their tasks more efficiently.

Transform your company to the latest digital transformation trend and procure effective workplace productivity tools that ensure employee satisfaction with the product.  

Employee engagement is an investment we make for the privilege of staying in business – Ian Hutchinson. 

A Digital Adoption Platform like Apty is one such investment that ensures employee engagement and maximizes your productivity by as much as three times, and provides support in real-time.

ii. Clarifying goals

Companies should not think of employees only as a revenue generation tool. They should understand every individual employee and must define the goals for that employee.

A goal without a plan can never be accomplished.

Answering employee questions and having a clear plan to achieve the goal will certainly improve employee engagement; some of the basic questions from an employee’s perspective are:

iii. Listen to your employees.

According to Forbes, Employees whose voices are heard are 4.6 times more likely to deliver their best work. Hearing the voices of employees ensures inclusiveness and equality in the workplace. 

Effective leaders must listen to what employees say, and communication should be a two-way street. Inviting more employees to the discussion table and hearing out different opinions is always a win-win situation. 

“To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace.”– Doug Conant.

One of the secrets to an effective way of employee engagement is allowing for employee input in a company’s decision-making process. Since the company respects their voices, employees feel happy and actively participate in such sessions. 

Furthermore, by listening to your employees, you can get to know the pain points they are facing. 

Alternatively, you can leverage a Digital Adoption Platform like Apty that helps to monitor the employee journey within your enterprise applications and provides insights like where, when & how your employees are struggling with the product in real-time. 

iV. Gratitude is a key

To unlock employee engagement, expressing gratitude is the secret key. Simply showing gratitude like “Thank You, You’re doing great, Good job” can increase employee engagement in the workplace. Doing this will make your employees happier and also boost employee performance. 

More than 80% of employees say they are motivated to work harder and better when the management values and appreciates their work. Unfortunately, in many companies, people are less likely to show gratitude in the workplace. Every individual feels happy when they get appreciated, but this doesn’t happen. 

“The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.”– Donald Walsh

Showing simple forms of gratitude will go a long way in improving employee engagement and making them more productive. 

For example, today’s workplace would be unimaginable without the use of technology. Companies that utilize the most up-to-date technology are more lucrative when dealing with technological challenges. One such latest technology is the digital adoption platform. With a DAP tool, your employees can be made productive right from day 1, and they feel more inclined to work.  

Employee productivity can be boosted by the use of a DAP tool like Apty. Apty can help employees automate certain monotonous tasks, and they can focus on something new and innovative. Apty can help them share the burden and keep them engaged with the help of interactive software walkthroughs.  

Apty goes beyond navigation, shows users how to complete a task, prompts them to correct errors, and tracks and proactively manages compliance with your business processes. Apty can handle the unique challenges faced by your employees and offers a robust solution for enterprises looking to improve their software’s productivity and ROI. 

An Employee Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is a strategy that establishes short-term goals for your employees in a given position. With PIP, employers can help employees who are struggling with their job roles. Every performance development plan sets employee’s professional performance in accordance with the business needs.  

A well-planned PIP creates a win-win situation in which employees are encouraged and supported in reaching their career goals and enterprises benefit from increased employee productivity. 

What is Employee Performance Development Plan?

Employee performance development plans indicate areas for improvement and strategies for achieving the desired performance standards.

Benefits of an Employee Performance Improvement Plan

An employee performance plan can help you create an ongoing process that provides regular data on how each team member is progressing. These metrics can help you assess what support or additional training is needed to help your employees succeed, from collecting feedback to identifying growth opportunities.

An Employee Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) can help employees whose performance has become inconsistent or needs improvement. PIPs should be used as a framework to bring your employee’s performance standards higher. PIPs will help the employees feel valued.

Here are the top 3 benefits of an Employee Performance Improvement Plan (PIP),

A. Improves productivity

Employee Performance Improvement Plan helps increase staff productivity by providing insights into their strengths and shortcomings. Employee Performance Improvement Plan helps increase staff productivity by providing insights into their strengths and shortcomings. A performance management software supported PIP provides a more profound overview of each employee’s performance, accounting for the entire business performance and productivity.

When employees foresee a clearly defined career path within an organization, it encourages them to stay dedicated and improve productivity.

B. Helps utilize employee skills

A performance improvement plan allows the organization to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the employees; therefore, the management can find areas that best suit each of them. By carefully analyzing the performance improvement plan of each employee, the management can boost the morale and confidence of their employees. This way, individual skills are utilized more efficiently, empowering employees to complete tasks with less supervision.

C. Encourages accountability

Employees require to have a sense of responsibility towards their work to achieve desirable results. Some employees understand their roles and perform them effectively with less oversight, but others need guidance. PIP is the best way to improve your employee’s skills and motivate them to be efficient. It provides honest feedback, which helps improve employee accountability by communicating gaps and clarifying the expected results.

In addition, PIPs can also help employers identify potential problems early on and prevent them from becoming more significant issues down the road. By providing employees with feedback and guidance on how they can improve their work performance, employers can ensure that all employees are meeting the organization’s standards and contributing to its success.

How to create an effective Employee Performance Plan?

The following seven tips clearly explain how one can create an effective workforce performance development plan.

1. Set SMART goals

Lack of clarity can lead your employees in the wrong direction and confuse them. Employees must understand what their specific goals are. Use the SMART approach to define employee goals and track them via goal management platform. The more precise your goals are, the simpler it is for employees to complete them.  

Make sure that each performance goal is: 

Leverage the SMART framework, shown above, to provide clarity to employees to help them understand their objectives. 

2. Be open for discussion

The employee Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is a collaborative process. You must enable your employees to be transparent with you and understand their current difficulties. A manager must provide clarity to their employees regarding organizational expectations and employees must be in contact with their manager to follow the PIP effectively. 

This kind of open communication can improve employee engagement and pave way for better business outcomes. Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each employee, based on which, tasks can be aligned.

Discuss personal attributes that employees need to develop in order to succeed in their respective job functions. Ensure transparency in your communication and encourage the same between employees.

3. Prepare a calendar of check-ins

To improve the effectiveness of a Performance Improvement Plan, regular check-ins are important. Frequent check-ins provide structure, a consistent direction, and prevent employees from losing track of the plan.

A study claims that 24% of employees leave their jobs if their managers fail to provide adequate performance feedback. Schedule meetings to connect with your employees to get their feedback. Prepare a calendar for check-ins and stick to it.

Creating an employee PIP and waiting till the deadline to check the employee’s progress is of no use. Regular check-ins help employees voice their queries or difficulties. They will also let you know whether they are on the right track or if any immediate action is necessary.

4. Develop an action plan

This is the next step after employee performance goals and expectations are set. In this step of the process, identify key resources that the business needs to achieve its goals. An action plan template can include objectives, tasks, success criteria, time frame, and resources.

This kind of planning can help employees improve their knowledge and skills needed to accomplish the performance goals. If your evaluation reveals a lack of knowledge, employees can attend formal training sessions or spend more time to self-learn.  

As employees carry out their responsibilities laid out in the action plan, managers can take it upon themselves to give necessary support and monitor their progress to help them succeed. 

5. Monitor and Evaluate the progress

Conduct frequent meetings with employees to track the progress of performance development plans. Some employee performance and productivity traits can develop faster and some might take more time, so identify areas with little to no improvement and make necessary corrections to the plan till the desired performance level is achieved. 

We suggest 30-60-90-day discussions with casual check-ins, in between. All meetings must focus on employee progress. Providing negative feedback during your review process can create an unhealthy work environment.

Instead, inform employees about their improvements and focus on their positive aspects. Instead of providing general feedback to employees (for example, “be more proactive and productive”), be more specific and help them realize what areas they need to improve.

6. Create a structured PIP

Consistent structure must be an overarching theme in your Employee PIP. Providing a structure involves creating a timeline of what you expect from the process. Organize regular check-ins as well as formal meetings with employees and track their performance.  

Your outcome can also be negative. If employees fail to accomplish their goals, there must be a transparent set of consequences. Explain in your PIP that these consequences apply only to those employees who fail to meet their goals. On the other hand, those who perform well must be rewarded to boost their momentum. To reinforce the behaviors your PIP is designed to build, pair it with an employee rewards program that recognizes employees who meet (or exceed) key milestones during the plan.

7. Provide support

A good strategy to improve the effectiveness of your employee performance plan is to provide additional support. Identify reasons for negative trends in employees’ performance. In most cases, it can be due to a lack of training. If your employees’ onboarding and training processes are poor, they can face challenges when given jobs with real responsibility.  

Performing complex tasks without the pre-requisite training can negatively affect employee performance. You must look at all the employee performance factors that impact productivity and provide appropriate support.

Once a skill gap is identified, decide how best it can be bridged. Think of re-training or assigning the employee a mentor or leverage the right tool to boost their performance. 

Summing it up!

An Employee productivity improvement plan is a great strategy that helps employers to support employee Learning & Development by getting the best out of their skills. Enterprises can use PIP as a tool to transform struggling employees into valuable assets. An effective employee development plan can promote a culture of accountability within the organization.

Organizations can increase employee retention and improve business outcomes with the right tools that support PIP. We recommend a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) to make all of this work.

Apty is the next-generation DAP that can provide effective onboarding and training, increase employee engagement, and reduce abandonment rates. With Apty DAP, enterprises can improve employee productivity and performance by 40%.

FAQs on Employee Performance Plan

Work performance is how effectively and efficiently an individual performs their assigned task using all the essential technical and non-technical traits.

Your employees are always trying to perform better to match the set expectations.

Some are efficient throughout the year, while others are only partially productive. Chances are, even the best employee is unable to give their best. The reason could be many, but it is the job of a leader to identify it and make them achieve their full potential.

Being skillful is one thing and being efficient and productive is another. While most of your employees could have an incredible skill set, this doesn’t translate to being highly efficient and productive.

Inculcating efficiency among the ranks will take time but definitely will help you reap the rewards in the long run. It will not only help you but will also help your team to achieve success in both their personal and professional life.

What is Work Performance?

Work performance is how well your employees perform their tasks, and it is critical for an organization’s growth and success. This can include the quality & quantity of work, employees’ job knowledge, ability to work with others, and communication skills.

Here are 25 Ways to Improve the Work Performance of your Employees:

1. Set the Right Expectations:

Often employees are confused about what needs to be done in their new job and what is expected of them. To avoid this, you must make sure your employees realize why you hired them in the first place and set clear expectations for them.

If you think that your team member or subordinate is looking confused, then reach out to them and define what is expected of them.

Benefits:- Doing so will increase the productivity of your employees as they will be more focused.

2. Set Milestones and Goals:

Shooting in the dark could be detrimental to your efforts as you may miss the mark or, worse, hit the wrong target. So, it is always better to have well-defined goals in place, no matter how ambitious they seem.

But it doesn’t mean you should create any unrealistic goals as it could discourage your employees. Create goals that are difficult to attain but not impossible.

Then break these goals into small milestones to have a better picture. Having attainable milestones in place will help your employees to:

Benefits:- Having structured milestones or plans in place helps employees be more effective with their time.

3. Organize, Plan and Prioritize:

Having an objective is important, but the workplace and life, in general, are full of uncertainty. You or your employees may be asked to do urgent tasks while working on something else and be forced to pick which task to prioritize.

But there is no need to be torn between different tasks and projects if you know how to master the prioritization process efficiently.

Well, becoming more efficient and better at managing your to-do list and calendar can help create time to deal with spur-of-the-moment urgent tasks. Many project management tools help you even manage your day-to-day tasks and your employees’ tasks.

Tools like Jira and Trello help you to manage minor to major tasks efficiently and help you to improve employee performance. Here are a few things that you must consider while using these tools:

Benefits :- Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing are the 3 ways to improve work performance in a business that strives to grow. Not doing so will create a chaotic atmosphere.

Delve More:- A Complete Guide to your Employee Performance Plan

4. Ask for feedback:

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve”– Bill Gates.

Constructive feedback is essential for employees’ sustainable progress. Feedback explains objectives, helps people learn from their mistakes, and enhances their self-esteem.

Frequently asking a specific set of questions will help you understand where you stand and the areas that need improvement. This eliminates the risk of receiving negative feedback in the longer run.

Benefits: An employee who receives positive feedback will feel appreciated and more motivated, increasing their performance and boosting employee productivity.

5. Avoid Distractions:

Humans are social beings, and getting socialized is a natural trait. But doing so while being on the job could have a lethal impact on your employee’s performance.

Some of your employees might like to use social media or interact with your colleagues. Social engagement, either in-person or online, should only occur during the break.

Otherwise, what could have been achieved in a couple of hours could now take a whole day just because of social distractions.

As a leader, being too strict could hurt morale. You must instill an atmosphere where each of your employees understands the value of time and its implications on the business.

So, how can you improve employee performance by minimizing distraction? Well, follow these steps to set a good example:

Benefits:- Avoiding distractions will enhance the focus of your employees, and they will accomplish more in less time. But this will only work if you allow them breaks at regular intervals.

6. Do one thing at a Time:

Since we are already talking about focus, let us discuss why doing one thing at a time is essential.

Most employers think their employees can do multiple activities at a time. While they might be able, they won’t always deliver the best results.

When employees jump from one task to another without even finishing the previous task, It breaks their workflow. It demands a shift in the approach and state of mind. As a result, adopting a new task takes time.

It is always better to encourage employees to finish the task at hand to get better results. It benefits not only the company but also the employee as they need not bother about the other task while performing the current one.

Benefits:- Being focused on a single task ensures you don’t waste time.

7. Don’t leave things Unfinished:

“Starting something can be easy; it is finishing it that is the highest hurdle.”– Isabella Poretsis

Sometimes employees jump from one task to the other and, in the process, forget about the old tasks, which eventually come back to haunt us. It is always an ideal practice to finish the job rather than start a new one.

It is easier to initiate a new task than to finish it. Organizations must prioritize achieving a finished state among their employees and reward them for successful completion.

Benefits:- Having a laser-like focus on a single task and not doing multiple tasks will help you concentrate on your job better rather than worrying about a task that was initiated but not finished.

8. Read Something New Everyday:

Every day things around us are changing and upgraded; with every new invention, innovation, and approach, we see the world changing for the good.

In this rapidly changing world, you must stay updated with your industry news and hacks. It is ideal for reading at least one relevant article per day.

Such a habit will keep you in line with current trends and changes.

Benefits:- Self-improvement in work is only possible when you read regularly, and doing so will keep you ahead of your peers.

9. Volunteer to do more:

“Starting something can be easy; it is finishing it that is the highest hurdle.”– Isabella Poretsis

Volunteer and collaborate with your teammates to achieve remarkable results. Volunteering in any kind of project increases team productivity.

Employees have a new perspective on productive engagement when they work together in the community; this rejuvenation frequently extends to the workplace.

10. Communicate Effectively:

Better communication across the board is key to success and one of the few ways a business can improve its employees’ performance.

Surprised?

Well, proper communication boosts efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, and eventually, overall work performance.

According to HBR, 30% of leaders cite a failure in coordination as the single biggest hurdle in executing the company’s strategy.

Because of COVID-19, it has become increasingly difficult to communicate with teams and other stakeholders.

But even in this situation, many companies have overcome this hurdle by being prepared. They have utilized tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack for communicating via video conference or chat rooms. These tools also help you to exchange files which again is a part of exchanging information.

How can you establish the ideal communication channel? Here are a few tips that you can use to figure that out:

Benefits:- Having proper communication among employees could help each of them to learn from one another and achieve better results.

11. Acknowledge Weak Spots and Improve:

Leaders have to help their employees identify their weak spots and grow in their jobs. Appreciating them and shying away from pointing out their weakness will not do any good to you and your employees.

But how can you achieve that? Well, follow these steps:

Benefits:- Identifying weaknesses will help your employee to learn and grow.

12. Learn to say no:

Saying no is a difficult task for most of us. Most of the time, when you have too many things on your plates or if you are simply not interested in taking up that task. It’s also possible that you didn’t have a say in the matter.

The problem is that taking on too many responsibilities and contributing to too many projects makes you overworked and anxious. Saying no is critical to your very own and your organization’s success.

13. Knowledge Sharing:

Each of your employees comes from different background. Most of them have different levels of expertise, passion, and experience.

Whether your employee is a top-level professional or an intern, each person brings something of value to the table, and yet they also have something they can learn.

Sharing knowledge on a regular basis with your team members and other similar groups within the organization on a weekly basis enhances the work performance of employees.

Sharing knowledge is also a part of the collaboration and effective communication, which helps you and your employees grow in your respective jobs. Formal staff advocacy programs can turn shared expertise into ready-to-share company updates, helping employees learn from each other while reinforcing consistent messaging.

Benefits:- Sharing knowledge ensures you and your employees learn new things or validate what you already know.

14. Take Breaks:

At the end of the day, we all are human beings and not machines; even machines need a short break to recover.

Short-break like this helps to regain the concentration and interest of your employees in their job, and they can complete their expected job in a much more efficient manner.

Benefits:- Taking a regular break and utilizing it for having coffee, walking or meditation will help you concentrate better.

15. Take care of your health:

Staying healthy and fit will help you stay at the top of your game for a long time. It’s critical to put your emotional and physical wellness first. Recharge when you can, take regular intervals, set limits, and stay hydrated.

If we want to perform to the best of our ability. We must take care of and maintain ourselves.

16. Reward Punctuality:

Every employee in the organization must be punctual and disciplined, but unfortunately, some of your employees might not be punctual.

Employees can use tools like Calendly to schedule a meeting and link it with their email id to get the notification. This will help employees to be on time. The QR Code Generator can be used to create quick-access codes for meeting links, making it even easier for participants to join without searching through emails.

Further, you can consider offering perks for those who come on time and finish their project or assigned tasks before the deadline.

Benefits:- Being punctual with your task will help businesses achieve their goal in time.

17. Remove the Roadblocks and Bottlenecks:

Before committing to a task, always analyze what you need to do to finish it. List all the possible resources and knowledge your team might require to accomplish the goal.

In consultation with your team, identify the hiccups and roadblocks that you might face, including dependencies on another person or team.

This can be avoided by asking experts in your team to draft a business process chart. Use the chart to identify any gaps in the system and strategize accordingly to overcome them.

Benefits:- Removing the bottlenecks upfront will enable a smooth process.

18. Use right tools:

“You’re only as good as the tools you use.”– Emmert Wolf

Having the right set of tools at the workplace is a standard nowadays, especially when there are many things on your plate. However, many businesses and workplaces fail to do so.

Many tools are available that can benefit your business; however, choosing the right set of tools boosting productivity, even if it means spending a little more than you’d like, is critical.

Benefits – Using the right set of tools improves things like –

19. Avoid Personal Conflicts:

If two employees are not comfortable in the presence of each other, then make sure that they sort it out immediately. Internal politics or conflicts could hurt the overall performance of your team.

Encourage meditation and exercise at your workplace to make your employees calm and composed. Avoiding major rifts is beneficial for your employees in personal and professional life. An agitated and depressed mind can never be productive.

Benefits:- Avoiding conflicts is necessary to avoid any kind of negativity in the workplace and helps the companies to keep the energy level high.

20. Build Workplace relations & Connection:

When you need it the most, collaboration with a team is built on the foundation of relationships and connections made in the workplace. To achieve this, you must understand your strengths and weaknesses, listen to what others have to say, ask questions, keep up with your commitments, connect outside of the workplace if possible, and appreciate each role.

Benefits: You will notice a boost in productivity and general job satisfaction when you create relationships in the workplace. It is beneficial at your workplace and helps in Professional growth in the longer run. Positive workplace connections are critical to professional success.

21. Promote New Skills:

As we discussed earlier, reading and knowledge sharing are beneficial. But regularly updating skillsets via any course or program would boost the knowledge and career of your employees.

It is essential to acquire new skills and upgrade old ones to stay relevant and ahead of ever-changing technology.

You can use platforms like Linkedin Learning, Udemy, and Coursera for personal development.

Benefits:- Your employees need new skills to improve job performance. Helping them learn a skill will make them capable, which is beneficial for the organization.

22. Make Employees see through Leaders’ Lens:

Most of the time, leaders like you tend not to share the pressure you are going through. As management expects better results and ROI, you need to share your team’s expectations and why producing results is necessary.

This will motivate and trigger your employees to boost their efforts, which eventually makes them productive and help you achieve your goals.

Benefits:- Sometimes, understanding executive expectations is important for employees to convert their capabilities into actions. And when employees start to see things from the lens of leadership, their efforts get maximized.

23. Train your employees Regularly:

You must train your employees on any newly rolled out application to make them comfortable and confident.

To do that, you use mediums like Digital Adoption Solution, which helps you create customized walkthroughs for your employees based on their job roles. It also houses all the necessary documents, links, & videos that one might need to complete their job, and it sits right inside your application.

Benefits:- See an ROI of your investment in an enterprise application as your employees become capable enough to use it from the moment the new software is launched – a win-win situation for both the employee and the employer.

24. Automate tasks:

Your employees’ time is valuable and wasting it on a mundane task simply doesn’t make any sense.

Automate the tasks wherever you can. You can use tools like Apty to automate mundane tasks on any web-based application.

The employee can simply use the chat interface and complete their work without opening your application. In the absence of this tool, employees need to open the application and then execute the procedures. Doing these repetitive tasks consumes a lot of time and costs dearly to any organization.

Benefits:- Save time and effort by automating your tasks. It creates opportunities for your employees to work on projects that add value.

25. Utilize data to understand employees:

In today’s digital age, most things are driven by data. To measure the impact of the application utilized by your employees, it is necessary for you to analyze the pros and cons.

Digital Adoption Platforms (DAP) like Apty sit on top of any application and provide you Application Insights such as:

Based on these analyses, Apty guides you through creating Walkthroughs and will help you create training to match your employees’ needs.

Benefits:- The employees can get personalized training, and an organization can understand the effectiveness of their software utilization. Based on these, organizations can improve the business process and training methods. All of these act as ROI boosters.

Wrapping it Up!

If you follow all these 19 ways, it will contribute to improvement in your employees’ work performance.

One important aspect of all is to analyze where your employees face problems. Once you identify that, you will be able to guide them properly.

How can you measure employee performance?

You can measure your employee’s performance based on their accomplishments. Set a baseline and check whether your employees can reach the goal within a particular time frame. Once an employee completes a job, you can gather their feedback on the job done. This will help you understand where they are lagging and help them.

With a tool like Apty, you can monitor employees in real-time and boost their performance with in-app interactive walkthroughs. Apty Analytics understands employee’s behavior and helps you find where they face challenges. Now, you can create customized content to address those challenges.

For any business, Employee Performance is the key to success. Every individual employee must work toward the company’s vision and mission. There is no overarching mantra about employee performance – it is all about how businesses manage, upskill, and motivate their employees.

According to SHRM’s 2020 Report, more than 85% of Employees are not engaged in their Workplace. So, businesses need to find a way to ensure employee engagement, which in turn leads to employee productivity.

Many companies struggle to answer questions such as:

What is Employee Performance?

Employee performance is a measurement of how well or how poorly an employee conducts their required job duties and how promptly they meet their deadlines or requirements

Measuring employee performance can help you identify possible faults in your employee training program and guide you as to how you can improve.

How to Measure Employee Performance?

Employee performance can be calculated from 3 sources:

What are the Factors Influencing Employee Performance?

The key factors that influence employee performances are:

Employees won’t perform in a vacuum. Certain factors like the employer, personal preferences, and many other external factors affect employee performance. We are not going to consider factors that hinder employee performance like personal problems because the organization cannot eliminate these types of factors.

Alternatively, we are focusing on factors that have a positive impact on employee performance. Companies being thoughtful about how to engage their employees can make all the difference. There’s no simple or easy way but there are certain key areas that can create powerful outcomes. The mantra is simple since we know the factors that have a positive impact on employee performance focusing on these factors will eventually increase employee productivity.

Common ways to improve employee performance is to identify underperformance issues and match them according to your employee skills. You must enrich two-way communication to have a positive work environment. Set clear goals and achievable milestones and effectively train employees to stimulate growth and achieve effective employee productivity and performance.

Let’s discuss the three primary factors that companies should emphasize to improve employee performance.

1. Training and Development

Training focuses on immediate improvements such as mastering a change in your business software whereas development focuses on long-term objectives. Employee performance depends on the training he/she gets from the company. Companies have different levels of training and employee performance expectations depending upon the situation.

Investing in training can increase your profit margin by 24% or more because it makes your employees better at their jobs. Training also helps improve retention and decrease turnover. In a recent survey, 68% of employees say training and development is the most important company policy so leaders must understand every individual and provide appropriate training to retain their workforce.

Moreover, training doesn’t end at onboarding. If employees receive no training after their first few weeks on their job, they will feel like the company isn’t investing in their development. Companies must provide a seamless learning environment for employees which fosters employee career advancement.

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them”– Aristotle

Similar to Aristotle’s saying, a modern digital adoption platform makes your employees learn by having hands-on experience with the product (in-app training) by creating interactive walkthroughs. This innovative method decreases the time spent on training by 70% and improves employee performance.

Factors that affect work performance

2. Employee Engagement

The Workplace Research Foundation (WRF) found a 10% increase in employee engagement investments can increase profits by $2,400 per employee per year.

Though the numbers overwhelmingly prove employee engagement plays a vital role in revenue generation.

Employee Engagement = Greater Productivity = Better retention = 21% higher profitability

Since we got to know the positive side, let’s look at the other side of the coin. According to Gallup, actively disengaged employees cost around $450 to $550 billion every year in lost productivity.

Factors that affect employee engagement and motivation

3. Company culture

Employee engagement doesn’t happen all of a sudden — company must focus on employee needs & wants over time and should drive a strong culture. Recognizing consistent effort through a fair rewards system can also play a key role in keeping employees engaged over time.

What is puzzling still is that how does company culture affects employee performance? Let’s have a look at some facts and discourse the buzzword company morale and culture

According to the Glassdoor’s Culture Survey, 2019 report over 77% of adults across four countries (the United States, France, UK, Germany) consider a company’s culture as the priority while applying for a job and more than 50% of respondents said that company culture is more important than salary when it comes to job satisfaction.

While unique perks and high salaries once may have been the keys to attract top talent, but now the situation has altered. Companies must understand that salary alone cannot make your employees happy, culture matters a lot.

“If you get the culture right, most of the other stuff will just take care of itself” – Tony Hsieh

Companies that have strong cultures saw a 4 times increase in revenue. Culture is the backbone of the company that helps in employee retention and motivates your employee performance. Company culture empowers employees to defy the odds and achieve greater performance.

Also, culture needs to be cultivated regularly for long-term benefits, it’s not a one-time objective to achieve. The more the company invests in culture the more employees become engaged. Company morale and culture go hand in hand with performance.

Company culture = Employee happiness & Satisfaction = Employee performance

Impact of employee motivation on employee performance

If you are trying to grow and improve the productivity of your employees, and your business as a whole, focus on growing a culture that champions employees, employee health, perseverance, and productive leadership. A great way to promote employee performance and productivity is to motivate your employees and provide them with ongoing training.

Employees who feel confident and excited about their work are those who are going to stick around. Your turnover will be lower and you’ll have employees who truly know what they’re doing. If employees aren’t motivated to do their jobs well, then their performance will suffer and they’ll spend more time goofing off than actually working productively.

What factors facilitated work performance?

As we discussed above, the factors that can improve employee performance—training and development, which focuses on improvements. Second is Employee Engagement, which must be prioritized as they are the front lines of every business.

Lastly, Company culture. The company should focus on employees’ needs and wants over time. Culture is the backbone of the company. It helps motivate employees to perform.

According to David Farkas, Founder & CEO at The Upper Ranks

“Give your staff precise goals and targets for each activity, and then assess their productivity based on how effectively they contribute to the company’s goals. Monitoring productivity can also assist managers to modify the organization. It’s easy to ignore the quality of your workers’ work while measuring productivity. But you must assist staff to fulfill productivity targets without compromising quality.”

In order to know if your development efforts are working, you’ll want to define the goals at the start. From there, you can work backward to build the steps that will take your organization from where it is today, to where you want it to be. Set realistic timeframes to achieve milestones and involve your department leaders so you get buy-in and support all along the way.

Employee Performance Management

As a company develops plans to improve company culture, they also need to plan for employee performance management. The five steps involved in employee performance management are:

1. Planning- Plan your work before you proceed
2. Monitoring- Set expectations and continually monitor
3. Developing- Develop the capacity to perform
4. Rating- Periodically rate your employee performance
5. Rewarding- Reward and motivate good performers

Rewarding is of two types,

1. Intrinsic Rewarding- the personal satisfaction an individual gets from the job itself.
   1.1 Achievements
   1.2 Job satisfaction
   1.3 Personal growth
   1.4 Informal recognition
2. Extrinsic Rewarding- the external rewards that come from an outside source(management)
   2.1 Incentives
   2.2 Promotion
   2.3 Bonus
   2.4 Fringe benefits

Make employees happy

According to talent-works, happy employees are 31% more productive and show 3 times more creativity than their unhappy counterparts. Happy employees are more resilient and more likely to stay in the same company for a longer period.

Furthermore, happy employees do more work and they are the ones who drive the company toward long-term goals by being more productive and efficient.

Watering the tree of happiness begets employee productivity.

Company culture, co-workers, personal problems, management expectations, and many other things have an impact on employee happiness. Companies must take initiative to make their employees happy by knowing what they want and provide them with the right tools that enhance employee skills.

We hope the above-discussed techniques will be helpful to effectively improve employee performance. To enhance employee engagement and performance even further, you can leverage employee engagement software along with digital adoption platforms. Try Apty today to see how this versatile tool fosters employee productivity, engagement, and overall performance.