The Importance of Productivity in Business: A CEO’s Perspective

As a CEO, you have your hands full. You set the vision and direction, hire the best people to execute it, give them the resources they need, and check in on their progress frequently, but there’s one thing left!

Do you track their productivity levels?

Today’s business environment is fast-paced and increasingly complex. To stay ahead of the curve, businesses need to identify the areas which can help them score, and one such area is productivity. A recent report showed that 93% of employees need a push to stay productive at the workplace. I have a strong inclination to see how the employees falling under the 7% bracket are doing!

Let’s explore this topic.

Why Does Increasing Productivity Matter?

Working on productivity is imperative for a dozen reasons, including pushing your firm’s bottom line up. Improved productivity can help your workforce complete more tasks in less time, increase revenue, and give you a competitive advantage. It can also enable you to incorporate new projects easily, increase staff morale, and reduce costs. I have seen two different sets of firms, one of which completes the tasks within the stipulated timeline. Whereas the other feels puzzled to meet existing goals while taking on added responsibilities. In many cases, poor productivity can indicate employee burnout or a poor work-life balance. By addressing these issues, you can increase productivity across your entire company.

Strategies to Increase Employee Productivity

When employees are clear about their goals and ways to achieve them, they feel more motivated to increase their productivity. A CEO ensures productivity in the firm by asking their managers to chip in and guide their respective teams. Since CEOs cannot be everywhere, their mission to ensure optimum productivity can come true through managers. These managers can take up responsibilities like goal setting and regular check-ins to discuss the progress of their teams. To encourage your team to become more productive, you can offer incentives that tie directly to their areas of responsibility. For example, if you’re a marketing manager and your team needs to meet specific targets, you might reward them with tickets to an upcoming industry conference. This approach has several benefits. To begin with, it is easy to implement, and the approach is productive with the costs. And second, it helps employees feel like they’re an important part of the company. When each team starts progressing on a micro-level, the impact of effort is on a macro-level.

Monitoring to the Rescue

I’ve been in the shoes of an employee and know what it takes to boost or maintain productivity in the organization. As I kept reading and exploring this topic, two productivity theories – Hawthorne and the Reinforcement theory of productivity pulled my interest towards them the most. The former speaks about implementing a monitoring system to increase productivity in the physical environment, whereas the latter emphasizes rewarding employees to boost their morale and make them productive. 

As you can see, there are a variety of ways to increase productivity, but it’s crucial to find the apt approach that works for your team. With the help of my team, I was able to grasp the mindset of our employees, analyze their working patterns, and implement Hawthorne and Reinforcement theory into our everyday work life. We used various productivity monitoring tools so that an individual remains efficient even when working remotely. Using these tools, employees can monitor their efficiency, in line with their KRA, and can also plan their days to prevent burnout. The ones fulfilling their KRA’s while being productive were appreciated, whereas others are given a push through various pieces of training and one-on-one to analyze their situation. You can set clear expectations for your team members and create an open, collaborative work culture where people can thrive.

A Final Note

Fostering productivity in the workforce and eventually in the firm is equal to building trust. The process is slow but often turns out to be worthwhile for the firms. However, while going on the road to increase productivity, people miss out on the fact that productivity is a journey — it’s not a destination. Even if you make significant changes to boost productivity today, you’ll need to continue to evolve to meet new challenges in the future. The key is trusting the process.