Productivity is among the most important influencers of your organisation. Certainly, innovation and creativity are valuable. However, consistent productivity keeps your business both functional and profitable. You’ll also find productive practices provide a solid framework upon which to build innovative activities.

This week’s article is written by the wonderful Katie Brenneman. Thank you Katie for writing this for me.

While this may seem like a simple matter, it’s not quite the same as stating that achieving high levels of productivity is easy. Too many business leaders put all the focus for establishing this attribute firmly on the shoulders of individual workers. They assume a lack of productivity is a failure of the skills or motivations of the employee. Yet, it’s important to recognise how your company has an equal role to play in empowering your workforce to perform at its peak.

Let’s take a look at 3 key resources you can provide your employees to help boost productivity.

Communication Protocols

It may seem strange to think of communications protocols as a resource, but they are vital for your workforce’s productivity. These are also not always a given in any company. While a business might have provided communications tools to employees, they may not have provided clarity on how these should be used in the most efficient and effective ways. Yet, when there’s an abundance of comms equipment and no strategy for use, this can be a recipe for the kinds of chaos that can disrupt productivity.

Start by assessing each area of your business and how communications play a role in the tasks being performed. Wherever possible, work with various members of your staff on the specific needs of their departments. After all, they have practical insights into what has to be achieved and what represents inefficiencies in the workflow.

You can then build clear communications protocols around your findings. Produce a document to set out exactly which communications tools should be used under which circumstances. You may want to request teams condense multiple meetings during the day into a single short morning team catchup as part of the daily routine. This can be particularly valuable as a recent study found that 67% of workers felt spending too much time in meetings distracted them from performing their tasks. Don’t forget to provide training on the use of the protocols to make sure everyone is clear about how they’re applied.

Org Charts

Running a company that has many different staff members with expertise in various areas can feel like an embarrassment of riches. It means you have people who can innovate on your company’s behalf and help solve any potential problem that arises. Unfortunately, there are times this can be detrimental to productivity. If your staff isn’t clear on who has the skills and knowledge they need to address an issue, there can be significant time wasted in asking inappropriate personnel or hesitating to act.

Among the most important resources you can provide your employees, therefore, are clear org charts. Many companies are familiar with this from the perspective of Human Resources (HR). However, org charts can help your employees to understand where each member of the workforce fits into the hierarchy of the organisation. As such, this offers employees an effective resource for quickly establishing who to reach out to for information, questions, or concerns in a specific area.

The org charts you create should be geared toward the most practical use possible. They should include each employee’s name, job title, and photograph for easy identification. You should also keep every worker’s preferred method of contact up-to-date on the chart. Make sure this resource is easily accessible by storing a digital version on the company cloud platform.

Compatible Tools

The rise of our digital landscape has provided businesses with a great range of tools to improve efficiency and global connectivity. However, one of the clear roadblocks to productivity is the inconsistent compatibility of software, hardware, and even files. One of the resources you should provide your workforce is a reliable set of tools that are compatible across teams, departments, and even sites.

This is vital because incompatible tools not only disrupt individual productivity but they also have the potential to derail beneficial collaborations. As such, you should ensure that company-issued smartphones and tablet devices function on the same operating system. This helps to confirm all departments and employees can utilise the same applications and software.

You should also ensure there are common standards for file sharing. Portable Document Format (PDF) files are among the few file types that can be opened on most devices, regardless of the operating system. Most file types can be simply converted to PDFs using online tools and downloaded for sharing. This approach also means your employees can produce accessible files no matter where they are or what device they’re using as long as they have an internet connection.

Conclusion

It’s vital to ensure your workforce not only has the skills to be productive but also the most effective resources. This should include a set of solid communications protocols that provide clarity on how to efficiently utilise comms tools. Org charts can also minimise the time workers waste finding the most appropriate staff member to help solve specific problems. Maintaining a set of compatible cross-company equipment, software, and files could mitigate inefficiencies in collaborations. Remember to work closely with your workers to understand what resources could help keep them productive so everyone benefits from a thriving organisation.

Katie Brenneman is a passionate writer specialising in lifestyle, mental health, education, and fitness-related content. When she isn’t writing, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or hiking with her dog, Charlie. To connect with Katie, you can follow her on Twitter.

Thank you for reading my stories! 😊

If you would like to receive all the productivity and time management content I create each week in one convenient email, you can subscribe to my weekly newsletter here

You can also learn more about what I do here on my website

Finally, don’t forget to say hello on Twitter, YouTube or Facebook