If your organization struggles with employee productivity, you aren’t alone. Many organizations face challenges with keeping teams active and engaged. Our comprehensive guide to boosting employee productivity offers actionable tips and strategies for maximizing output — without burning out your workforce.
Read on for highlights and be sure to check out the full ebook to learn more!
The cost of lost employee productivity
While technology has accelerated workforce productivity and allowed organizations to produce more in less time, many workers have hit a wall. In 2022, 68% of employees said they were not fully engaged at work — and their disengagement is having a significant impact on employee productivity.
The cost of lost productivity due to employee disengagement is estimated to be roughly $8.8 trillion per year.
The misuse of technology, the rise of remote workforces, and an increase in employee burnout are just a few of the reasons why employees are checking out, instead of getting things done.
But there are solutions to these problems. Our ebook looks at how you can increase employee efficiency, effectiveness and motivation with the right tools, training and expectations.
You’ll learn:
- What employee productivity is — and what it isn’t
- Why remote worker productivity is so important
- Proven strategies for boosting productivity in the digital workplace
- Different methods for measuring productivity
- The tools you need to support employees and encourage teams to do their best work, all while boosting company success and profits
Organizations can boost productivity without driving workers into more burnout and disengagement. And it’s worth the effort to keep employees engaged and motivated to do their best work, whether that’s in an office or at their kitchen table. Gallup reports that highly engaged teams show a 17% increase in productivity. What’s more, organizations with a high level of engagement report 21% higher profitability!
What is employee productivity?
Employee productivity is how companies measure the contributions of their team. Employee productivity can be measured by the units of output (goods, services, deliverables, etc.) an employee produces as a result of their input (time, effort, resources, etc.).
It’s important to note that employee productivity is not the same as productivity time.
- Employee productivity is the overall amount of output an employee produces in a set period of time.
- Productivity time is the amount of time an employee is productive during a set period of time.
Pushing more productivity time (active working hours) isn’t always the answer to increasing employee productivity.
Boosting productivity doesn’t mean forcing employees to work more. It’s about empowering employees to do more with their time.
Explore the difference between productivity and efficiency
Measuring employee productivity
If you have a goal to improve employee productivity within your organization, you need metrics to help you understand if you’re moving the needle in the right direction.
Without metrics or performance indicators that show productivity measurements, how will you know if you’re getting better, getting worse, or remaining the same?
The most basic way to measure employee productivity is through the output-input formula (Employee Productivity = Output / Labor Input) — but that’s just one way of measuring productivity.
Other productivity metrics and guidelines to consider include: .
- Time utilization. How well is your team utilizing their time at work?
- Task completion time. How long does it take for your team to complete specific tasks?
- Work quality. What is the quality of the output your team produces?
- Project progress. What are the current stages and timelines for in-progress projects?
- Customer satisfaction. How happy are customers with the quality of your products and services?
- Revenue per employee. How much revenue does an employee produce for the company?
- Task prioritization. How well is your team prioritizing tasks and managing urgency?
- Error rates. How many errors or inaccuracies are team members making?
- Utilization of technology. Is your team using technology and tools to the best of their abilities?
- Absenteeism. What is the rate employees are late or don’t show up to work?
- Training participation. How much does each employee participate in new training or learning programs?
- Meeting efficiency. How effective and efficient are your meetings?
Employee productivity isn’t only about the direct connection between producing more and making more. It’s about creating a working environment where employees can do their best work while remaining motivated and engaged. So, how do you make that happen?
Tips for increasing employee productivity
The key to boosting employee productivity is helping your team optimize their input so they can maximize their output.
The goal isn’t to make employees work more. It’s to get them to produce more.
If you focus too heavily on productivity time, it can actually decrease employee productivity by causing burnout, employee disengagement, and both actual and quiet quitting. According to Gallup, 76% of employees experience burnout on the job at least sometimes, and 28% say they are burned out “very often” or “always” at work. Gallup also reported that companies lose an average of 15% to 20% of total payroll in voluntary turnover costs due to burnout.
Boosting productivity without increasing burnout means rethinking how you support your team. It’s about helping them make the most of their time, skills and resources to work more effectively and efficiently so they can do more in less time. You need to set accurate expectations, eliminate obstacles, and give employees the motivation to do their best work.
Our ebook includes proven strategies to guide this effort:
- Streamlining internal communications
- Improving collaboration capabilities
- Breaking down knowledge silos
- Offering quick access to business-critical tools and information
- Using recognition and rewards systems
When executed properly and with the best employee experience technology, these strategies will optimize working environments, empower teams to do more with their time, prevent employee burnout, and increase both output and profit.
Get the full story on boosting employee productivity
It’s clear there is a problem with employee productivity. Many organizations are experiencing a drop in employee output as employees become less engaged, more burned out, and more disconnected from the resources, tools and training that allow them to do their best work.
But there are solutions to these problems — and we’re sharing them in our latest ebook.
Get the full story on the employee productivity problem and how to fix it. Download the ebook today!
