Productive employees drive innovation, deliver exceptional customer service, and contribute to the overall growth and profitability of the business. On the other hand, disengaged and unproductive employees can lead to missed deadlines, subpar work quality, and a negative impact on team morale and company culture.

According to new McKinsey research, employee disengagement and attrition could cost a median-size S&P 500 company between $228 million and $355 million annually in lost workplace productivity.

Companies can significantly boost employee productivity by investing in strategies to prioritize employee well-being, professional development, recognition, and a results-driven mindset, leading to increased profitability, customer satisfaction, and long-term success.

Offer Incentives

Incentive programs are an effective way to boost employee productivity.

Unsurprisingly, cash incentives can be powerful extrinsic motivators, encouraging employees to go an extra mile  and achieve specific business goals or targets.

For example, your unsold inventory will soon be a misfit for your company’s new sales and marketing campaigns. In this case, you will offer short-term incentives to your sales team to encourage them to sell these products quickly.

Digital cash-equivalent gift cards from platforms like Giftly are excellent options for short-term incentives. One of the main advantages of digital gift cards is employees can seamlessly redeem their rewards and spend that incentive however they want.

The primary objectives of short-term incentives for sales teams are  creating a sense of urgency and motivating employees to go above and beyond for a limited period. Giftly's on-demand digital delivery makes their gift cards ideal for short-term incentive campaigns.

Make Work Meaningful

When people don't feel their work has a purpose or impact,  it could drain motivation and reduce productivity. Behind total compensation, McKinsey found that a lack of meaningful work was the second-highest driver of employee disengagement.

As a leader, it's crucial to connect the dots between an employee's role and the positive difference it makes for your customers or in the world. Some of the best practices are:

• Share real examples of how their efforts directly improve people's lives or contribute to an important mission ensuring employees understand how their role ladders up to broader organizational goals.
• Celebrate successes by quantifying the beneficial outcomes, whether customers served, improved lives, or solved problems.
• Encourage employees to interact directly with those impacted by their work through customer visits, reading testimonials, or participating in charitable initiatives aligned with your company's purpose. Seeing the human impact can re-energize their drive.
• Use team or one-on-one meetings to reiterate those connections and acknowledge each person’s vital role. When people realize their work's significance, it instills a sense of pride that elevates engagement and productivity.
  

Encourage Professional Development

Top performers are typically hungry to expand their skills, take on more responsibilities, and advance their careers. As a manager, if you provide inadequate growth opportunities within your organization, you risk losing the best talent to companies that will invest in their development.

Offer training courses, workshops, coaching, mentoring initiatives, and tuition reimbursement to help employees build new skills. Clearly define potential career paths within your organization and implement processes for applying to stretch assignments or job promotions. Discuss each person's aspirations during regular check-ins and create an actionable development plan.

By prioritizing professional growth, you'll increase employee engagement while expanding the capabilities of your workforce. 

Celebrate The Wins

Recognition is a powerful motivator that improves employee engagement, productivity, and retention. Gallup and Workhuman's research found that if the median organization doubled the number of employees who received recognition or praise for good work in the last week, they would see a 9% boost in productivity.

But not all recognition is created equal. For it to be effective, Workhuman says that recognition needs to feel fulfilling, authentic, personalized to the individual's preferences, fairly distributed, and embedded into your company's cultural norms.

Implement formal programs like employee of the month awards and milestone anniversaries. But also nurture a work environment where impromptu recognition happens organically between peers and managers. Simple acts like public praise in a team meeting, a congratulatory email copied to leadership, or a handwritten thank you note can go a long way.

Get creative with rewards ranging from companywide shout-outs to experiences like lunch with a senior leader. Digital gift cards are an easy, flexible way to provide monetary rewards aligned with each person's interests.

When you celebrate wins big and small consistently, you reinforce the behaviors and mindsets you want to see.

Provide The Right Tools

Equipping employees with the proper physical workspace, modern technology, and resources enables peak workforce productivity.

Start with the physical environment. Provide ergonomic desks, chairs, monitors, and accessories to reduce discomfort or strain. Ensure there's good natural light and temperature control. Designate quiet areas for focused individual work, and communal spaces that facilitate collaboration and casual social interactions key to team building.

From a technology standpoint, implement applications that automate tedious administrative tasks like scheduling, data entry, approval workflows, and documentation. Such automation minimizes drains on employees' time so they can focus on higher value activities. Use effective communication and project management tools to reduce redundant back-and-forth exchanges and streamline daily tasks.

Ensure your employees have access to the latest software, computing power, and connectivity speeds required for their roles. Outdated or underpowered technology will bottleneck their ability to do much work efficiently.

Finally, provide learning resources, productivity templates, and knowledge repositories with helpful information in one centralized location. Employees should not spend time reinventing the wheel or searching for key documentation.

Focus On Outcomes, Not Hours

The pandemic ushered in a new era of remote and flexible work arrangements. Employees ditched lengthy commutes and found better ways to blend personal and professional responsibilities. This shift proved that judging productivity merely by hours spent at a desk is an outdated and ineffective metric.

The lessons of the last few years demonstrate the importance of providing workplace flexibility to meet the modern workforce's needs. Whether your company embraces full-time remote work, a hybrid model, or remains entirely in-person, you should set clear expectations, and empower employees to work when and how they can be most productive.

Instead of fixating on face-time or clock-watching, focus on outcomes and actual work output. Set clear goals, deadlines, and measurable results. As long as employees deliver high-quality work on time, does it really matter if they spent six hours or ten getting it done? Trust them to manage their time accordingly.

McKinsey's research found that a lack of flexibility was the third leading cause of employee disengagement. Rigid expectations about work schedules and locations create unnecessary stress and resentment, especially for working parents and others with non-traditional caregiving roles.

Concentrating on outcomes rather than hours worked gives employees autonomy over how they construct their days. This autonomy increases job satisfaction and commitment to delivering the quality of work your company expects. 

Give (And Take) Feedback

Consistent, constructive feedback prevents employee performance from going off track and wasting valuable time, energy or resources.

When providing feedback, be specific with examples rather than vague generalizations. Frame it around solving problems blame-free rather than personal criticisms. Did a project miss target deadlines? Discuss what timeframes were unrealistic and how to estimate future workloads better. If work quality slipped, note where poor performance fell short of standards and explore what circumstances or blockers prevented the employee's best work.

Feedback shouldn't be a one-way street from manager to team members. Encourage open dialogue and make it a two-way conversation by encouraging employees to share their self-assessments and perspectives on team dynamics or processes that aid or hinder their high productivity.

In addition to formal performance review cycles, create a culture of regular feedback exchanged in real-time after meetings, developmental assignments, or other work milestones. This steady stream of data creates rapid loops for making adjustments and improvements.

Live Your Company Values

Your company values and mission statement must serve their purpose beyond just words printed in an employee handbook. They must embody every aspect of your organizational culture and employee experience.

On your careers site and recruiting materials, you likely tout an inclusive, welcoming community that prioritizes employee wellbeing. You may have a training program on fostering a safe, respectful workplace. But are those values truly reflected in people's day-to-day experiences?

A 2023 Gallup study found employee stress levels at record highs, with fewer workers than ever feeling connected to their company's stated purpose and values. Another survey discovered that 47% of people quit within a year due to toxic workplace environments.

It's not enough to simply say you care about work-life balance, mental health support, ethical business practices, or DEI. Employees see through empty platitudes.

To boost productivity and employee morale, you need to continuously assess whether your lived culture aligns with your professed values. Give employees avenues to provide open feedback. Be vigilant about addressing misalignments through updated policies, more leadership accountability, systemic changes, and retraining.

When employees genuinely experience an authentic culture that lives up to its values, their engagement, well-being, and productivity will flourish.

How Giftly Improves Employee Productivity

Implementing the right strategies for your team's productivity is not an overnight process. However, having the right technology solutions can streamline execution and enhance the impact of your productivity initiatives. 

Giftly's digital gifting and rewards platform is purpose-built to help organizations appreciate employees through memorable, motivating experiences.

With Giftly, you can seamlessly deliver impactful monetary rewards as part of your incentive programs, or as recognition for big wins, milestones, or career development celebrations. 

Digital rewards are easy to send and provide an on-demand, choice-based experience employees genuinely value.

You can also use Giftly for non-monetary recognition by allowing peers to send ecards and kudos. Building a culture of frequent, socially-reinforced appreciation keeps motivation high.

By tapping into Giftly's rewards and recognition capabilities, you can bring many of the key employee productivity drivers to life more seamlessly. Combine it with your broader workplace, culture, and development programs for a holistic strategy that nurtures an energized, high-achieving workforce.

Want to learn more? Give us a shout today.