It is the eternal mission of the middle manager: get more work from your employees. If the more comfortable chairs didn’t work and the free donuts didn’t work and the plants in the office didn’t work, where are you to turn?
If you’re finding that your team seems a little demotivated lately, we have plenty of ideas to help you get them back into tip-top shape and work at their best. Take a look at our guide to boosting employee productivity.
Bonuses
Bonuses are a great motivator. When one of your employees earns a bonus, at the end of the working month or at the end of a project, not only will they be prompted into working better simply because they feel valued, but the rest of your team will be motivated into doing better so that they can get their bonus next time. It makes for a good range of boosts to morale that will pay off in productivity.
A lack of productivity usually comes from a lack of motivation, and a key factor in an employee feeling motivated is them feeling seen. A bonus will make them feel valued as an employer while giving them a tangible reward for their work.
Benefits
Benefits are a great motivator for good work, mostly because they inspire company loyalty. Whether you offer gym access or health benefits, there is always the thought on the commute to the office that another job wouldn’t give them that.
Sure, your employees have a salary that they can think about on the way to work, but any job would give them that. You’re giving them a company car, dental insurance, or a whole host of other things.
There’s even a handy tool that you can download to help you organize who gets what. The Zest Benefits app allows you to access and manage all your team members’ benefits and even give out bonuses from one place. You can access Zest via zestbenefits.com for more information.
Hybrid Working
Unfortunately for a lot of middle managers, the concept of hybrid working isn’t going anywhere. Covid proved that it could be done, and now that western employees know it’s an option, it’s practically a right to choose.
At this point, you might as well embrace it. A lot of jobs being posted at the moment are putting front and center that they are offering hybrid or remote working and are getting snapped up.
And hybrid working is beneficial to you too. Your team won’t begrudge having to come in once or twice a week for a checkup, and they will feel refreshed from working from home for the rest of the working week.
Their productivity is bound to go up on either end. Without the distractions that life keeps offering they’ll be able to concentrate better and work more. To help them work better, you can offer your team to use time management software to increase their productivity.
Training
Giving your employees a refresher on the finer points of their job is a good way of boosting productivity. Not only can you perhaps show them another way of doing things, in the style of “work smarter, not harder”, but they will spend less time wondering if what they are doing is correct – and perhaps fix a few overdone mistakes along the way.
But you don’t need to stick to training your employees in the skills they already have. Consider allowing them to branch out. You can sign them up for a course in something new and have them learn skills that they can bring back to your office.
There are a lot of subscription services like LinkedIn Learning that will allow you to sign up your entire team for a business course. Your employees will be given a boost to their self-worth and eager
