Explanation:
Productivity?
Small Business
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Advertising & Marketing
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Product Strategies
By
Sampson Quain
Updated November 05, 2018
Low levels of productivity at your workplace can affect employee morale, hinder efficiency, and affect profit margins. Unfortunately, low levels of productivity are often the result of a number of internal issues that have boiled over and require your immediate attention. As a business owner, you’re the one responsible for establishing the right structure and culture to drive success. The first step in addressing low levels of productivity at your company is to understand the reasons this issue has come up, so you can develop the solutions necessary to motivate a low productivity employee and get your business back on track.
Lack of Employee Training
You can often trace low productivity at work to a lack of proper training for employees. When your workers aren’t able to perform up to the standards necessary to complete important project milestones, it is often the result of insufficient education or training. Employees that are properly trained are able to perform their tasks without hands-on supervision, which isn’t the case for employees who make mistakes or who take a long time to perform basic tasks. Low productivity at work will result, because you will need to have higher-performing employees correct the mistakes of the untrained employees, which means that they can’t complete their work on time, leading to a decrease in productivity. Ensuring that every employee has the required training to handle a project is the key to eliminating this problem. In some instances, you may have to transfer workers that still can’t perform after receiving adequate training to another department or terminate their employment.
Ineffective Management and Supervision
Whether you’ve implemented a top-down organizational structure or one that is more fluid, you still need effective managers and team leaders to ensure workplace efficiency. Low productivity at work can result from managers who lack the leadership to motivate employees and to keep them performing at peak standard. Poor management is often characterized by inconsistent communication, micromanaging to such an extent that employees are afraid to make even the most basic decisions without approval, and the failure to reward a job well done. A low productivity employee will often give you the signs you need to evaluate your management. It’s your job to talk to that employee to determine if your managers are empowering that person to perform at the standards necessary for success. Your managers may not be sufficiently trained or they may need to understand how to better handle those employees that work under their supervision. Either way, it’s your job as company leader to identify trouble spots in the management/employee relationship and make corrections.
