Workforce Productivity: How Can a Company Improve?

Workers and managers have the responsibility to do everything they can to improve their company's productivity. However, it’s easier said than done, so many office workers struggle with workforce productivity each year. 

Still, there are many ways to improve office efficiency. Naturally, each work team does different things and thus, uses various methods to get how to improve employee productivity and creativity. 

Despite that, adopting specific strategies and tips can help a company improve its workforce productivity regardless of what field it specializes in. You may be wondering what those tips are considering you clicked on this page, so read on to know how a company can improve its workforce efficiency as soon as possible! 

Our website also has a lot of information about office items, setup ideas, and tips for office workers in case you are interested in knowing more about that matter. Productivity improvement is an essential thing for all businesses worldwide since it helps them out-rank their competitors.  

Read the employee productivity tips given on this page to make your company as productive as it can be! Now, let’s get to know what is employee productivity first!

What Is Workforce Productivity?

Workforce productivity or labor productivity are not new concepts to people since economists have been using them for years to measure how efficient workers of a determined zone are. 

In a nutshell, you could say that work productivity is, as we mentioned, a measure to see how much services, products, and income employees can bring to the company they work for. 

Speaking in more practical terms, office managers and company owners use them to see if they need to improve something to keep their business going or if they are good as they are. 

Many people have the misconception that workforce efficiency solely depends on employees, but that couldn’t be further from reality. Every person in a company holds responsibility for how good or bad the business is doing, so everyone has to make an effort to get better results with their work. 

While office workers need to optimize their time and the way they work to improve their work quality and creativity, business owners need to give their employees all the equipment they need to do a good job. That includes being assertive bosses and giving the right directions to them. 

Don’t confuse workforce productivity with employee productivity since, while both can help a company boost its efficiency, they are completely different concepts. The former aims to tell you how productive the people in a place are, and the latter focuses on an employee’s individual performance. 

How to Measure Workforce Productivity

As we mentioned before, economists use workforce productivity to measure how efficient a company, zone, or even country is. However, how can you measure the efficiency of your business? Well, there are many ways to do it, but you should choose the one that best adapts your working style.  

Here are the most efficient ways to measure your office’s productivity:  

Set Goals

One of the most common methods to measure workforce efficiency is to make the team and each worker set specific goals due to an upcoming date. You could even offer them rewards to encourage them to do a better job. 

You - or someone you can delegate that task to - should evaluate if the team was able to complete the objective at hand and if they met the overall expectations you had for it. When receiving profitable results, it’s always good to do something to reward the whole team or celebrate. However, if you don’t receive the results you expected, study what factors kept you from receiving them. 

An effective alternative to this method is to use daily targets and measure tasks. The team must, for example, be able to complete three small projects every day. Doing that helps everyone stay focused on achieving that goal.  

Make a Client Survey

Although you can’t carry out this method if you don’t have active clients, if you can, it can bring profitable results to the company. People love businesses that create a personality for themselves and stay in contact with them; it makes customers feel like they belong to something. 

You can, weekly or monthly, send them a survey to ask them what they think about your product’s quality and overall performance. This method gives you direct feedback from the people you want to please the most: your clients. 

Take advantage of these surveys to ask your customers any information you want to get from them! 

Check Stats

Numbers never lie, and this is not the exception to that. Periodically checking your company’s stats lets you know if something made your efficiency increase or decrease across the month. If you see numbers get better, then try to identify what’s making them rise. 

That also helps you notice if something’s affecting your productivity at work before the problem gets worse, so it gives you more time to think of a solution. However, each company has a different way to carry out things and evaluate progress. Try the one you feel the most comfortable using. 

What Can I Do to Improve Workforce Productivity?

As you could read on this page, there are many ways to improve workforce efficiency, yet, taking the wrong steps could bring negative outcomes for your business. The best you can do is stick to what works and what you read on this page. 

Below are the best plans and tips you can follow to improve your company’s workforce productivity. Whether you use one or all of them, investing time into doing it can bring you profitable results in the long run, so don’t hesitate to try it! 

Get Ergonomic Products for your Office

If you want to improve your company’s efficiency, employees need to work on a productivity desk setup. In case you want to make one, you need to get ergonomic items that can make workers feel better while being at the office. Those products can also prevent physical problems such as back and neck pain. 

The best things to buy when looking for desk productivity items are an ergonomic office chair and an adjustable standing desk. Starting with standing desks, they allow you to work while standing, which makes you stay in your body’s ideal position. 

Take into account that one of the worst issues that office workers go through is back and neck pain; those problems come from being in a bad posture for extended periods. Since you can adjust standing desks, you can switch from sitting to standing any time you feel like doing it. 

Regarding ergonomic chairs, these are office workers’ best friends. The benefits sitting on a high-quality ergonomic chair can give you are endless and also go beyond preventing back pain. Sitting on them gives you top-notch comfort, which makes you feel more active while working, boosting your productivity in the long run. 

You can also adjust ergonomic chairs to your physical needs, so you don’t have to worry about a chair not being your size. The only setback that could keep you from buying one is that ergonomic products are significantly more expensive than traditional office items due to the number of features they have.

Fortunately, companies like Autonomous address problems like that. The Autonomous solution is to not only provide people with budget-friendly office accessories but also offer an employer and employee purchase program. 

These programs consist of giving discounts and special deals for office workers that sign up for them.  

Re-Decorate your Workspace

Despite what many people think, working at an unappealing office can significantly decrease your productivity. The reason for that is that your brain doesn’t perceive the office as a nice place or a place you enjoy being at, which makes you feel stress, anxiety, and mental exhaustion while working.  

Research what the best color for productivity is and choose the one you like better. Designing a new setup for your workspace is always a fun activity to do, so ask all your workmates to help you and make your office the most appealing one you can. 

Try Other Work Models

Things are different from what they were years ago, and offices evolve each day. That makes it possible for new work models to arise and show people there are many ways to work without losing productivity or developing other problems in the future. 

Transitioning to another working model is sometimes what many people need to refresh their working skills and feel more motivated to work harder. If your team is full of onsite workers, consider letting some workers switch to remote working for a while and then do the same with the other group. That’s because remote work models and hybrid work models offer many benefits to employees; benefits they could never get while working at an office.

Remote workers, for example, tend to have more flexible working schedules and deadlines since they have all day to work. Because of that, they usually organize their time and how much they are going to invest into working. 

We are not saying you must switch to a remote work model or a hybrid work model, though. It’s on you to study if your company would work well with a different work model. However, it’s never a bad thing to study the idea.  

Offer Work Stipends

Everyone working at a company, naturally, works for the money. However, that’s not always a decent incentive for people to work hard since it’s something their boss must give them while they work at their company. Considering that, many managers offer their employees work stipends.  

Stipends help office workers pay for many things they can use at the office, and therefore save money from office items and accessories. You could even offer them employee benefits such as free days, service subscriptions, and even a pay increase for everyone who excels at their job.  

Organize Team Bonding Activities

Team working is essential for a company’s workforce efficiency to improve. If your team doesn’t know how to work together, it may be more difficult for them to get activities done on time. It’s normal to have office problems with your peers, yet, preventing them is the best thing you can do.  

You can do that by organizing team bonding activities for everyone in your working team. Doing that not only reduces problems between people from the same team but also allows them to know more about each of their coworkers and understand how they work.

Keep in mind that you don't have to bond with your co-workers every day, but doing it from time to time lets them know you care about them, which, therefore, makes them trust you. 

Wrapping Up

Hope that those above tips are helpful for you to know how to increase worker productivity. Those were only some of the most effective ways to improve workforce productivity, but there are many more left for you to try. We recommend you first try applying the ones you read on this page in your company and see how well employees like the idea. 

If they do, you can try some other ideas that come to your mind. Checking stats tells you how much these tips can help you, so make sure to see how your business does on numbers from time to time. As for ergonomic products, you should get them from Autonomous. 

This company offers the best ergonomic items you can find on the market, and apart from that, it offers you to be part of its employee purchase program. In case you don’t feel sure of your purchase, you can then return it since most products from this company have a decent warranty. 

Dive into our page if you are interested in knowing more things about office working and the products you can use to boost your productivity! We have a considerable number of blog posts that aim to teach you the fundamentals of office items and the ones you should get for your working area.