4 Steps to Make Employees Productive from Day One

Every workday counts. All companies want to improve their employee productivity, but not all of them understand just what is required to actually get new employees to that productivity. A Forbes study revealed that that there are a shockingly high number of employees in non-management roles who are not working at their productive capacity. This is likely because they are disengaged and out of touch with the organizations’ vision or because they’ve simply lost all motivation to keep up their efficiency. That’s a significant problem but there are ways to boost productivity and get employees engaged once again. Here are four ways to motivate your new employees, and keep them engaged in order to maximize their productivity – from day one! 1.Choose Leadership Over Management Too often organizations believe that management and leadership are interchangeable. Not so. Leaders of an organization set the goals, priorities, direction and purpose for the organization, but they also lead by example. They can leverage the greatest amount of interest and commitment from employees because they work with them, not against them. Leaders motivate. They are respectful of their employees’ talents, engaging and encouraging. They delegate, provide encouraging feedback and lead by example. 2. Ensure Employees Share Your Vision A collective vision of an organization is critical. Too often a vision is crafted and understood by only the top officials in the organization. To have any real opportunity to make change you need buy in from every level of your organization. Don’t keep your employees away from engaging in your vision, make them a part of it. Effective leaders involve everyone from the start, and as such, have a strong following and excellent 3. Relax Your “Rules” The best managers are not “rule enforcers.” Instead, they are there to help integrate solutions, foster positive relationships and provide meaningful and constructive feedback. Of course feedback will not always be positive, but it’s in the delivery and way the leader will communicate the challenges. No one works best while feeling “watched” or judged or overly criticized. No one is going to be productive in those situations. If you want productivity, you need energized employees who share in both the challenges as well as the progress of the organization. Keep in mind that not every employee will learn in the same way. Learning technologies can be particularly useful in training new employees. Gartner states that,

Online solutions that use an algorithm to provide learning activities — that is, lessons to students based on factors such as individual characteristics and previous level of attainment — relieve teachers from planning every lesson and frees them to coach, tutor and mentor students as they work on assignments.

4. Use Incentives After you’ve relaxed your rules, created a collective vision, and demonstrated strong commitment to leadership over management, the next step is to create a financial incentive for all productive employees. They’re now committed to you and working hard to achieve your vision, so invest in some economic rewards for lower-level employees. In a large enterprise, for example, lower-level employees can be overlooked. Whether at a large company such as Valero or a mid-sized company such as Pegasystems, this issue is relevant. This helps build up trust and allow everyone to benefit from increased productivity. Too long have big financial rewards been given to only upper management/leadership. Change that and reward the efforts of everyone. Maybe there was a time long ago when there was a general understanding that better and more productive employees were those who needed to be micromanaged and hovered over. But the time for that thinking is long past. It’s about leadership now, and strong respectful guidance. The most productive employees are engaged, eager and proud models of behavior for your business. They are advocates, and will be your most productive employees. To boost your employees’ productivity, demonstrate your commitment to them.