How to Build a Productivity Culture for Your Team

As a manager, it's impossible to ignore the importance of maintaining a high productivity standard within the team. Typical business objectives are directly affected by the amount of output the team can manage per measurable unit of time. It's up to the manager to effectively coordinate resources to maintain whatever predetermined standard is required for optimal business operation. This is where productivity culture comes into the mix. 

The team needs to all be pulling in the same direction where objectives are concerned. While it's not necessarily an easy task, a manager may find that shaping this culture and maintaining it is way more doable when everyone is in a single office space.

However, when remote work gets into the mix, management gets a little more challenging. This is where the best manage shine and others are left to the wayside. Note that creating and fostering a positive productivity culture for remote employees is not an impossible task. The question is, how do you approach it? Consider the information below, and your job as a remote manager should be a little less complicated. 

1. Management of Resources

A big part of productivity culture management is understanding resource necessity and making appropriate decisions. There are two general types of resources being addressed here. The first is human resources, while the second speaks to non-human resources.

As far as the human side of the spectrum goes, areas such as staff morale maintenance, team building, personal development, and understanding strengths and weaknesses fall under this umbrella. Even in a remote setting, a manager needs to understand where each team member stands as individuals and part of the team. It takes a concentrated effort to collect the information that is necessary to pull this off. Additionally, strengths must be effectively utilized for business objectives, while weaknesses must be eliminated and mitigated wherever possible. 

Non-human resources include all the supportive tools and equipment that the team needs to get the job done. Though everyone is remote, the onus is on the organization to equip the staff members with all they need to work effectively. 

A good equipment example for productivity culture maintenance is the SmartDesk 4. Not only do you get your typical adjustable standing desk functionality, but numerous smart features also promote a productive routine and good health. Such a piece of equipment fosters the most significant levels of efficiency in the remote workplace. 

You can consider other accessories and fixtures with an ergonomic design, such as an ergonomic chair, a keyboard, and a mouse. 

2. Objectives Must Have a Sense of Clarity

In the remote workplace, everyone must understand the objectives that they are working towards clearly. Managing a team in multiple physical locations can be a chore. If the said team is working with no roadmap, that makes the possibility for chaos even greater. 

The flexibility of a personal workspace has its merits. Be that as it may, it can contribute to consistent procrastination, which is only compounded by poor objective communication. If you want the best possible productivity culture, people need to know what they must do and why their contribution matters.

The best way for a remote manager to handle this aspect of the job is to analyze the business's strategic objectives carefully. Use them to form smaller and more short-term goals that directly feed into the team's tasks. Ensure that these tasks are communicated, and that team members understand and feel like an essential part of company success. Good staff morale should never be taken for granted. 

3. Maintain Team Presence

Even in a remote setting, the feeling of isolation takes a toll on mental health. Though you may think that no one is going to forget it, all team members need regular reminders that they are still a part of a unit. Furthermore, everyone needs to understand that they are valuable individuals and not replaceable pawns.

Video conferencing and other virtual meeting types can help with this to a great degree. Establish a recurring session that is dedicated to the team feeling. You can elect to use this time to review where everyone is with their tasks. Alternatively, you can do a series of team building activities to help all members to have some fun. While it's good to have a reason to relax, going this route is also a great way to ensure that no one feels left out.

As a remote manager, you should also invest time in doing individual check-ins with everyone who reports to you. You should schedule this based on your team's size, but ideally, you want to have at least one such check in every month. 

4. Try Not to Micromanage 

This is another area in which a lot of managers make a huge mistake. Remember that your job is to bring people and other resources together and maintain a beneficial productivity culture. Doing so allows each subordinate to remain motivated to take on the tasks necessary and effectively carry out a job function.

In a remote setting, people feel more independent than ever. You don't want employees feeling as if you are telling them how to behave in their own home, for example. Even if the remote workspace is not a home, you still need to be careful. Would you want to feel as if you are in a cage while you work remotely?

You don't want to be one of the managers who are guilty of excessive micromanagement. While your job requires you to achieve a particular outcome based on your team's output, you need to give the team members some agency level in what they do. Taking a step back and allow them some measure of creative control to boost staff morale and job satisfaction. These are both necessary aspects of reaching desirable productivity. 

Conclusion

Productivity is one of the most important measures of how well a team is functioning. Additionally, the measure contributes to the success of the business. As a remote manager, you need to establish and maintain a good productivity culture, so that your subordinates commit to the tasks at hand. Use the information above to help you.