During an 8-hour workday, the average employee spends only 4 hours and 12 minutes actively working. This represents a significant amount of time inefficiency on a daily basis that could be costing your business.

In this article, we’ll explore some tools you can use to keep your employees motivated and inspire them to put 100% into everything they do while boosting your bottom line.

Disengagement is the Enemy of Productivity

Increasing productivity starts with improving the level of employee engagement in your organization. Disengaged employees can negatively impact company resources. In fact, this cohort costs the world $8.8 trillion in lost productivity, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report. That’s equal to 9% of the global GDP.

The report also found that:

• Disengaged employees take more sick days and are tardy more often.
• Their behavior can undermine the accomplishments of more engaged co-workers.
• Disengaged employees often exhibit constant complaining, miss deadlines, and achieve poor sales results.

Boost Employee Productivity with These 5 Goals

1. Create Digital Experiences

Providing employees with the modern tools and technologies they need to do their jobs is a great first step in increasing productivity. The best digital workplace platforms allow people to access company information and collaboratively share important documents with colleagues at any time.

A great way to do this is through a mobile company communication app that allows workers to access the company intranet and receive important company news and updates while on the go. This app also makes it easy for management to give spontaneous “shout-outs” to employees to acknowledge their achievements. This creates a positive working environment, which increases collaboration and productivity.

Did you know? 85% of employees are more motivated when their company’s internal communications are effective.

2. Provide Incentives

Acknowledging people when they go above and beyond will motivate them to be even more productive. Incentive ideas to recognize and encourage high performance include extra paid time off, cash bonuses, and free meals. You can award these incentives randomly or establish a formal incentive program.

Another way to incentivize your workers is by promoting from within. Seeing people being rewarded for their hard work will motivate other employees to improve their performance so they can enjoy similar opportunities.

3. Make Feedback a Two-Way Street

Giving people constructive feedback on their work performance is vital so they know where they are excelling and where they can improve. While performance reviews have traditionally been the mechanism to give feedback, these reviews are typically infrequent. Giving continual, informal feedback can be more effective in improving employees’ performance.

It’s important that feedback is bi-directional, so ask your employees for ideas on improving efficiency and productivity. You might uncover roadblocks to productivity in your workplace, such as:

• Inadequate training or supervision
• Ineffective or poorly organized meetings
• Unnecessary, unwanted, or unproductive interruptions

4. Introduce Flexible Work Arrangements

Introducing flexible work options means letting your employees decide when and how they work most efficiently. For some people, that might mean working from home to cut their commute time and avoid distractions in the office.

For others, such as hourly workers, it might mean introducing shift scheduling flexibility so they can adjust their working hours slightly to fit the times when they’re most productive or to fit their personal schedule (for example, an employee who arrives at work a little later can get their child to school worry-free and still complete their work duties.)

5. Offer Financial Wellness Benefits

People who are worried about their debt levels and meeting day-to-day expenses will be less productive than those who feel confident about their financial situations.

Financial wellness tools and resources, on-demand pay (also known as Earned Wage Access), and individual counseling are inexpensive and easy-to-implement employee benefits, and most workers want them. Many employees believe that they would be happier and more productive overall if they could feel more secure about managing money.

Did you know? 54% of people surveyed rate Earned Wage Access as an “extremely important” benefit for employers to offer.

The Rewards of Getting it Right

Productive employees adhere to deadlines, achieve their goals, and contribute to the company’s success. This happens in several ways:

• Better customer service: When employees complete all their tasks efficiently, they can spend more time with customers and address any complaints and concerns faster. This encourages people to become regular customers, which increases the company’s profits.
• Less stress: When employees are productive, they’re able to complete all their tasks on-time. This lowers their stress levels, as they won’t worry as much about their workloads.
• Improved recruitment and retention: Employees who are productive and engaged with their work tend to be passionate about their careers, which motivates them to work even harder. These people are more likely to stay with the organization long term to advance their careers and develop new skills. This saves the company money by reducing recruitment and training costs. It can also help organizations boost their brand image to attract new talent.

Boost Employee Productivity with Payactiv

Payactiv helps companies get their employees fully engaged in both work and life. Our all-in-one Livelihood platform takes a holistic approach to improving financial wellness and increasing employee productivity and satisfaction.

Interested in learning more? Request a demo for your company today!

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