Every successful business knows that optimising workplace productivity is key to driving the results you want. Every individual team members' productivity contributes to the bottom line and successful outcomes.  

The best organisational leaders know that their talent is their best asset. Even if a company has the best products and services, without robust employee productivity, they can easily fall behind the competition. Today, we'll learn about effective ways to boost productivity in the workplace, while creating a more engaged workforce.

Foster a Healthy Work-Life Balance

It's no secret that happy employees produce more quality work and are more engaged in their work environment. One surefire way to disengage and reduce productivity is for supervisors to micromanage their direct reports, especially if there isn't a good reason or poor performance to address.

Those in higher positions need to recognise that their team members want to feel trusted to get their work done and do a good job. Instead of counting how many hours an employee spends at their desk, measure productivity by how much they get done and the quality of their work.

If a parent needs to take a half hour off work to go pick up a child or an hour to go to the dentist, don't punish them by making them use paid time off or reprimanding them. If they are being productive and meeting goals, give employees more autonomy and encourage work-life balance.

Reduce Unnecessary Distractions

One of the biggest productivity killers out there is all the things constantly vying for our attention, taking away from getting important work done. Social media, instant messaging, email, our mobile devices...the list goes on.

It's easy to get distracted by these interruptions, but fortunately, this is an easy problem to fix. To improve your time management skills, set periods of "deep work" time for an hour to two hours per day. Put it on your calendar so co-workers will be less likely to disrupt you.

Turn off your notifications, don't check your email, and don't answer your phone unless you have to. Tackle your to-do list with intention and cross off as many items as you can. It might be difficult to get used to at first, but it won't take long to become a habit. You'll be amazed at how much you get done during periods of deep focus and no distractions!

Motivate Your Employees to Keep Them Around

Motivated employees feel in tune with their colleagues and work teams, are aligned to the mission and vision of the organisation and have a strong feeling that their work and individual contributions matter.

On the other hand, unmotivated employees feel powerless, that their voices don't matter and that they have no control or tangible idea about how their efforts matter. They often skate by doing the bare minimum. Even if they are highly talented, if they aren't motivated, they won't do their best work and often will leave the company for more satisfying work.

When you make sure your employees are motivated, you automatically create a more productive workplace. There are many ways to boost motivation. Recognise team members that go above and beyond with high performance. Give them promotions, raises, new roles and public praise. Provide ample opportunities for professional development and training courses that empower them to do their best work. Doing so shows them you are invested in their future and development within the company.

Furthermore, be sure to provide opportunities for team members to get to know one another outside of the office. Dinners, seasonal parties, happy hours and recreational activities give your employees a way to strengthen their working relationships. People that like one another work better together, so make sure to make it easy for teams to foster meaningful relationships.

Create Clear Goals and Expectations — and Hold Team Members Accountable

An easy way to limit effective productivity is by not giving team members clear goals and expectations. If employees don't know what their priorities are and what matters most, it can feel like trying to reach the finish line while blindfolded.

Smart organisations use tools that help teams organise tasks and goals so everyone knows who is responsible for completing what. For example, Samewave is social performance management software that helps companies create goals and tasks, collaborate about their progress and communicate via multiple chat streams in real-time.

The software uses the power of Promise-Based Management to increase accountability towards goals and tasks with a transparent environment. When team members make promises to one another in a public setting, they are naturally more likely to hold themselves accountable.

Team members can upload documents, share files and communicate on the go with desktop, iPhone and Android apps, no matter where they are. Best of all, Samewave is free. Sign up, download Samewave and introduce it to your team to streamline workplace productivity today.

Practice Efficient Delegation

Have you ever heard the phrase, 'If you want something done right, do it yourself?' While there can always be a bit of truth to this line of thought, effective, productive teams work together because they trust one another to share the workload and get things done faster.

Also, when one person in a department refuses to share the workload, other team members are likely to feel disengaged, conclude that they aren't trusted and lose motivation. Foster robust communication and teamwork to create the most productive work environment.

Improve Productivity Today

Every organisation has productivity challenges. But, you can make conscious efforts to boost productivity today. Implement these best practices and watch what happens to your teams.

Before long, they will be working more efficiently, communicating more, getting distracted less and showing a higher level of accountability — and you'll be driving the business results you want across every layer of the organisation.