Every company has one type of asset that can be completely unpredictable – their employees. There are simply too many things that can affect their mood, their focus, their attendance and their productivity. Without them, little work can be done. Business owners rely on them. So how can you improve your employee effectiveness starting right now?
ENGAGED
Engage your employees. Make them feel connected to you, your brand, your company culture and your product offering. To become engaged, we need to see and feel something. We need to be present, and we need to be able to interact. It’s a two-way thing. If your team members are off sick, or inadequately stimulated in the workplace, you cannot possibly engage them. Each member of staff is different, and you need to connect with each of them. Keep them engaged by injecting new stimulation into their working day regularly.
EXCITED
To actively sell or promote your brand or product, you need your employees to be excited by them. This often means you have to be excited by them. Over time, the novelty and fun of something new wears off. How can you reinvigorate a brand or product to become exciting again? If your staff are excited, they are naturally more energetic and potentially more productive. This energy is what a company culture needs to keep things stimulated and moving in the right direction.
ENTHUSIASTIC
Motivation is key here. If your employees are not motivated to work hard for you, they won’t. You want your enthusiasm for results and success to rub off here. So spend time with your team. Help them understand why you’re so enthusiastic. Show them why they should also be enthusiastic about their role in making your business great. Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm, so pick members of the team to lead by example. Once your staff members are enthusiastic, your customers could become enthusiastic too.
EMPLOYEE EFFECTIVENESS – GIVE IT A BOOST
Did you know that poor health costs the US economy over half a trillion dollars a year? How much is employee absence costing your business? The three Es aren’t possible if your employee is absent with ill health. It isn’t just the employee that should be responsible for his or her health. You have a responsibility too. You must provide a healthy environment and the appropriate breaks from duties. But you can do so much more than that! There are many health schemes and benefits that employers can provide to help staff stay on duty like these at www.OurUrgentCare.com/service-category/employer-services/. You can offer employees help with medical care, and you can do plenty to prevent illness too.
While banning donuts and cakes may be a bit extreme, some employers are striving to invest in healthier options. Vending machines have had their day. Now bowls of fresh fruits and free drinking water are available in the office. Cakes and biscuits have been replaced with seeds and nuts. Soda has made way for smoothies. If your staff are reaching for snacks quite often, why not get them up out of their seats and moving about? Banning food at desks (for hygiene reasons, of course) encourages employees to walk down the corridor to the break room. Why not provide an outdoor break room for some fresh air too?
There are many benefits from this approach. Fresh air, exercise, and healthy snacks can reduce instances of illness. Beyond this, you may find that focus is better, energy levels are higher, and general happiness can be improved. High sugar intake during the day can lead to sugar crashes. This might cause lethargy and even the odd sign of moodiness. If your productivity seems to dwindle in the afternoon, consider changing your snack options. Go grab some fresh air!
Standing meetings, and even walking meetings can be very beneficial in the workplace. Improving the circulation to the brain by moving the body can help generate fresh and innovative ideas. It can increase the speed of thinking and response. In fact, in can change the whole dynamic of a meeting! Standing or walking can help reduce meeting times and increase the productivity of that meeting too. You’ll feel like you’re going somewhere and have that all-important forward momentum every company needs.
Do you offer gym memberships? Would your employees make use of it if you did? Why not encourage a more active lifestyle in your office? Bring in Yoga instructors, sports massage therapists, and step aerobic trainers, for example. They can offer a quick 30-minute session during the lunch break. You might even permit an extra break mid-afternoon. All of these ideas can help improve physical and mental health to benefit employee effectiveness.
BRING IN THE TEAM
Motivation should be quite high on your list of management responsibilities. Keeping your staff fired up isn’t always easy. There might be problems at home, or relationships in the workplace could be tense. Creating a team that works well together is one thing. Creating a team dynamic that brings out the very best in each member is something different altogether. Can you do it?
A good team dynamic requires a careful mix of personalities and skills. You need each team to work together to complete tasks. As each task can be broken down into several components, you might be keen to find people that can take on each one individually. However, it might be best to look at the project as a whole. Find the people that can support each other in completing each element together. Key person dependency can lead to arguments and problems should they be absent.
So how do you nurture an entire team together? Each team will need a leader. That is someone who can step in and make the final decision in your absence. This hierarchical approach doesn’t suit every personality type. Careful selection is key here to make sure you find someone each of the others fully respects in that role. The contribution is also important. Every employee should have the opportunity to contribute their ideas. You have to give them a voice. Actively encourage each viewpoint when you can.
Should you invest in team building exercises? This isn’t always essential. Some companies go through drills and theoretical scenarios in preparation for the real thing. Others are doing the job all day every day and would benefit from a change of dynamic, if only as an exercise. It can be a good way to develop members of a team for a new role or challenge. It can also help a leader take a subordinate position to experience a different view point.
MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS
Now you’ve found the ways that work to engage and excite your employees, you need to measure their effectiveness. Enthusiasm is always important, but it doesn’t mean a member of staff is completing tasks on time. An abundance of energy from your most excited employee can actually be quite draining for everyone else. You need to be channelling their excitement in an appropriate way. Is every member of the team engaged in the right thing right now? A focus and attention to detail are great, but only if it’s put toward the task at hand. Measuring effectiveness can help you identify what’s working and how well it’s working.
To measure effectiveness, you need to have past goals and achievements to hand. This will help you compare today to yesterday and identify improvements. You can probably note from observation if an employee is engaged or enthusiastic about their work. But do you know how far that newfound excitement is taking your company right now? Are they telling their friends how good it is to work for you? Do the customers they talk to respond positively to their attitude and buy more? There are plenty of things you might want to measure, from brand appeal to sales. Adding them all up will help you identify the value of that member of staff.
Of course, beyond the individual’s sales record, you must consider the team as a whole too. One member of staff can be motivating a whole team of people to excel and enjoy what they are doing. How are you able to measure this successfully? Again, observations may be vital here. Reports from the other members of staff can help too. What do you want to know, and how are you going to find out? Regular assessments can be quite motivating as well as revealing. If they’re part of the company culture, you may be able to find out even more.
How do you measure employee effectiveness? We’ve discussed how you can improve it with the three Es – Engagement, Excitability, and Enthusiasm. How you choose to measure effectiveness will depend on your business model. What makes an employee effective in your business? It might be sales value or sales volume. Perhaps you measure effectiveness by the number of sick days they take? Or maybe you have a much broader picture that reaches to the customer, the team, and whole company culture? How are you planning to boost your employee effectiveness this year? Why not take a closer look at the three Es?
If you get any value from this post be free to comment or share. Also feel free to connect with me on Facebook or Twitter!
text me: +385/9193-55474
email: hrvojeh75@gmail.com
skype: hrvojeh75