4 methods for business owners to improve productivity and growth

Whether you’re running a small to medium enterprise or a huge corporation, productivity and growth are at the top of any business owner’s priority list.

Business success is reliant on a host of different variables from the salaries of employees through to the properties that the business owns, but few variables matter as much as staff productivity. Without a focused workforce, it’s easy for small details to slip through the cracks resulting in burnt money or missed opportunities. Which is why it is important to improve productivity.

With this in mind, it makes sense to devise strategies that help improve productivity across the business. To assist, here are a few successful methods that business owners can use to promote efficient working and overall expansion.

Public recognition

One of the most affordable yet effective methods to consider is the implementation of employee recognition schemes. Staff, just like all people, love to have their achievements noticed and be recognised for what they do for the business. Not only does identifying and announcing these achievements make the employee feel good, but it also aligns them closer with the company’s values or goals, whilst simultaneously pushing others by making them desire that same recognition.

The simplest example of this is the ‘Employee of the Month’ scheme, which can become even more powerful if business owners have the staff vote for their winner. Regardless of how you choose to approach it, the key is to announce and congratulate the winner in front of the staff.

Promote stronger inter-employee relationships

Very few companies can run with a single member of staff. Almost all are made up of teams or departments, all working in unison to deliver a product or service. One of the major considerations for any business owner is streamlining how these teams work together through tools, specialist software and processes. However, one area that can be forgotten is the inter-personal aspect of teamwork.

The most productive teams enjoy each other’s company and want to work together. To this end, incorporating methods of helping teams bond is a great way of boosting productivity, as well as improving the work environment as a whole. There are a variety of team bonding ideas out there, from team building activities to social events and occasions. Whatever the budget or scope, investing in the workforce’s happiness is an effective method of helping long-term business success.

Process analysis

From a less employee-driven perspective, process analysis and refinement is another useful method of improving overall productivity. It’s natural over time for processes, systems and methodologies to become outdated or ineffective. Process analysis is the act of regularly reviewing each process that a business uses, allowing them to identify areas that can be improved and optimise them accordingly.

Through this, long-winded or over-complicated techniques can be ousted and replaced with faster alternatives and with faster alternatives, it’s easier to complete work and productivity is improved. An additional benefit of process analysis is the fact that it can help save money being spent on tools or software that is no longer useful or effective. Not to mention the time saved and in business, time is most definitely money.

Conduct regular one-to-one reviews

Finally, it’s important to emphasise the power of one-to-one reviews. Whilst performance reviews can often be seen as the company judging the employee, one-to-ones can also offer a great benefit to the staff too. If approached correctly and as part of the right company culture, these reviews can be a two-way system that allows employees to speak about their concerns or issues.

Having a voice and feeling like they will be listened to is essential to aligning employee values with those of the company. In turn, this mission and value alignment results in staff actually caring about the organisation’s success, helping them go above and beyond to be as productive as possible and grow the business.

These are far from the only techniques that can be used to improve productivity and efficiency but they are some of the most effective. Employee satisfaction is essential to business success, and should be strongly considered by small and large business owners alike.