Michael Zhou 3m 858 #workplacestress
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Encouraging Employee Efficiency & Productivity While Reducing Workplace Stress
In any workplace, productivity, innovation and efficiency go hand in hand. If you are an ambitious entrepreneur, you would want to cultivate these factors at your workplace. Fair enough! But is your workforce sufficiently productive and efficient.
Consider this: Your employees energetically start their day, stay laser-focused and at the end of the day somehow finish the given tasks. But have you ever gave it a thought what does their workload look like? How many times they end up taking their work to home? While it is true that your staff have to confront with workplace woes that could weaken their motivation levels, but it is in your stride not to let their productivity plunge. So which strategies are you going to implement?
Here is what you help your employees tackle stress and make them more productive:
1. Energize your employees
Employee motivation and well-being are extremely important factors that can have a big difference between your company’s success and failure. To that effect, you have to find ways to motivate your employees in order to keep their stress at arm’s length. You need to energize them to the extent that they wouldn’t deter from giving their 100%. A good starting point to do that is to recognize and appreciate their efforts and give rewards for their great work. Your work culture as well as the office environment should be such that each and every employee would love to work and excel.
Another important thing you shouldn’t miss is to retain your best performing employees by throwing occasional parties for them. It is indeed a good idea to surprise them with gifts and drinks having personalized wine bottle labels. That way, your staff will develop a great sense of belonging to your company, and always contribute towards its success.
Encourage interactive activities
There is no need for your employees to work round the clock like a cyborg. Also, there is no point in being serious all the time since a serious workplace environment is more stress-prone. You rather should cultivate a fun and interactive atmosphere in your workplace. Studies have also shown that fun and interactive activities at a workplace make employees more innovative and productive. There is a growing body of research suggesting happier people work harder. A playful workplace helps draw new talent, relieve stress, increase motivation, and build relationships among coworkers. Nothing builds camaraderie in any workplace than healthy interaction and playfulness.
3. Communication is the key
When it comes to combating stress and encouraging productivity and efficiency, a two way communication is extremely crucial between an employer and employees. Going one to one with your workers will help you create a game plan in order to solve their problems. In response, your employees will confide with you more often regarding important things. In other words, a healthy communication reduces their stress and anxiety. A good communication also allows you to be receptive about their out-of-the-box ideas. This will always make the situation better for everyone, which is why; it is a win-win strategy.
4. Give your employees enough room to be more creative
Creativity is an essential ingredient for any organization to thrive, which also helps you get a competitive edge. You need to cultivate an environment where your employees can get a space to think and relax. This will intuitively spark a creative thinking in them to get their projects moving forward. You can organize regular brainstorming sessions where the staff can give out-of-the-box suggestions regarding projects and their processes. Thus, giving them more room to think freely and encouraging them to make proper analysis of various aspects of a task can work wonders for your organization. It will give you two-pronged results – the employees become more productive and efficient, and will be able to tackle their stress effectively.
5. Be a role model
If you want your team to climb the ladder of productivity and performance, you also need to exhibit managerial and leadership excellence. You should try to lead by example so that your employees get inspired enough to follow suit. The fact is as a leader of your organization, you are constantly under the magnifying lens; however though, you can use this opportunity as a powerful management tool by inspiring and motivating your staff. So how can you become a role model? You can exhibit the following attributes:
- Always show a positive attitude despite you confront any kinds of circumstances. When you show strength, calmness, perseverance, and optimism even in stressful situation, your employees will inculcate the same things.
- You should earn and build trust and always be honest with your employees.
- You should encourage integrity by making decisions for the betterment of business without any personal preference.
- You should cultivate transparency and accountability.
Wrap-Up
Stress is a part and parcel of today’s professional life and falling into its trap can hamper your business heavily. So don’t let yourself as well as your employees to be taken over by stress. Rather, you can effectively tackle workplace stress using various methods. The above given tips can greatly help you in that.
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