Hear from Experts: Keeping Teams Productive at Work
Tags: Productivity Hacks, Productivity, Teamwork, Team Productivity, Team

We are almost done with the year 2020. Among many adversities that this year has brought us, being productive at work has been a real challenge.

Therefore, we turned to the experts that remained vigilant in times where being productive was a big struggle for many across the globe.

We have highlighted the top expert opinions and advice they used to keep their teams productive.

Communication

Status Update Meetings

We have a Team Status Meeting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday where we talk about the status of our projects via a Zoom video call.

We communicate via the social media and project management app, Slack, and make sure my team adds To-Dos with a clear goal and deadline, so I know what they are working on and when they can deliver. I don’t tell them what the deadline is. I give them flexibility while having them take ownership of their project, so they give themselves their own deadline.

I share with them exactly the impact their work has had in converting a follower into a customer or how it has helped to build our email list or Instagram following.

Thanks to Lizbeth Cardozo — Tiny Milkshake Media

Maintain Communication and Report Accomplishments

A chat program like Slack or Google Hangouts where every team member can communicate readily throughout the day helps to increase accountability and foster easy communication.

Ask employees to report their accomplishments each day or week. When employees know they need to produce a list of accomplishments or completed tasks for you, they’ll make sure they have things to report!

Thanks to Jayson DeMers — Email Analytics.

Have More Brief Meetings

My best tip for keeping my team productive is to have more regular meetings but keep them incredibly brief, like 20 minutes tops. These are more like check in sessions to see where everyone is at with their projects, where they need support, or even personal matters. Having these meetings keeps them productive because it creates a sort of show and tell scenario where they can get feedback on their progress and share what they have been up to, which motivates them to have something done for the next meeting.

Thanks to Alex Azoury — Homegrounds

Stay Connected

Staying connected and putting extra emphasis on communication has been vital in keeping my employees engaged and motivated through this time of working remotely. As a leader, I’ve been more present and available to my team members. I do daily check-ins with employees to keep them on track but also to listen to any concerns or feedback they might have to offer.

It is extremely important to me to keep my team happy, comfortable, and optimistic. A happier employee is a more productive and engaged employee. In my company, I focus on inclusivity and transparency. It is vital to set up a stream of communication in which employees feel comfortable to express their thoughts as well as making sure those thoughts are fully heard.

With feedback from our employees, we assign challenges to specific leaders to implement visible improvements in our company culture and daily workforce environment. Furthermore, we encourage and offer help to find a healthy work-life balance for each of our team members. By trusting and empowering our employees, they feel appreciated and valued which makes them happier and more motivated.

Thanks to Ashwin Sokke — WOW Skin Science

Keep Communicating

One way to keep the team productive is to keep up communication with all members of the team. Keeping up communication in the office helps promote a supportive culture and eliminates any possibility of miscommunication in the workplace. Ultimately, improving workplace productivity and also improves teamwork in a department.

Another important way to keep up productivity and morale in an office or team is to ensure that your team gets the recognition they deserve for a job well done. When employees get their due recognition they end up becoming more productive and motivated which is exactly what you want.

Thanks to Omair Khan — Physician Thrive

Know Your Team

Assess your employee’s strengths and weaknesses

Observing where and what your team lacks and/or is skilled at are crucial in distributing rightful assignments and support. By doing so, the balance of teamwork is feasible. And as a result, employees become more productive as one would not be stuck in a workload that could be done by someone who’s more familiar with performing the task.

Thanks to Robert Johnson — Sawinery

Invest in Your Team Member’s Skills

Each team member has unique skills and abilities that differentiate him/her from others and to keep them productive you need to do two things in this regard. First, you need to match the right (member) skill to the right task.

The second thing, you need to develop the team’s skills continuously; by providing them with up-to-date courses, and training in their field. I truly believe that investing in your team members’ skills is a sign to show your care to them and will help them to be more productive at work.

Thanks to Gerardo Juarez — Sheepbuy

Each Team Member is Different

Know that your team consists of individuals who thrive under slightly different conditions. If you shift your focus to be more results-oriented rather than worrying about HOW your employees are working, you may find they are more productive anyway. Some people need to work in a reasonable, spread out the way while others feel the need to binge their work in extreme ways.

You can’t impose a working style on a team, rather rely on deadlines, meetings, and targets to frame their productivity. Think of it as the box within which they can be creative and move around and adjust their schedule to suit their needs, especially if you are in a WFH environment.

Thanks to Ian Kelly — Nuleaf Naturals

Time Management

Time Audit

What has worked for our WFH employees to sustain their productivity is adhering to a process called *time audit*. It involves my staff writing down their intentions and views on how they’ve spent their time in the office and then tracking how they actually work. We notice that there’s a significant difference between what they intend to do and the real actions they’ve taken. With the time audit process, they’ve become more conscious of their pending tasks and have become more motivated to perform beyond their margins.

Thanks to Michael Hamelburger — The Bottom Line Group

Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro technique is a productivity hack that improves individual efficiency over time. The idea is to divide time into sets of 25 minutes of work followed by 5 minutes of break. Each 25-minute session is considered as one Pomodoro. During the Pomodoro, you have to pick a task and do that alone. No distractions. After 25 minutes, you have to stop doing the task and take a mandatory break for 5 minutes. For the next Pomodoro, you can move onto the next task.

Over time you will be able to measure the amount of Pomodoros taken for a task and track its improvement. This strategy also reduces burnouts and keeps people fresh during the day. The quality of work is also enhanced because of the undivided attention provided during the Pomodoro.

Thanks to Zach Reece — Colony Roofers

Use Block Scheduling

We encourage our team to utilize block scheduling. Each hour focus for 45–50 straight minutes and eliminate all distractions. Then use the final 10–15 minutes to grab a snack, check your phone, surf the web, etc. Also, stepping away for a solid lunch break can increase your productivity throughout the day by encouraging a “brain break.” As humans, we need time to decompress and if we focus our energy into small uninterrupted increments of time, we can be more productive over the long term.

Thanks to Kristen Fowler — JMJ Phillip

Time Blocking Emails

Timeboxing emails is a phenomenal way to increase productivity throughout the day. All too often we find ourselves living in our inboxes; slaves to the notification icon. By allocating specific times throughout the day to check emails, productivity is dramatically increased. Not only does this remove distractions, but it also helps you prioritize important tasks first.

Thanks to Michael Schaeffer — Dialight

Take Advantage of Tools Available

Automate Mundane Tasks

One of our biggest ways we keep our team productive and inspired is by always working to try and automate repetitive, mundane tasks that can cause burnout. By using technology to replace the monotonous work that stifles productivity and creativity.

Thanks to Zack Zarilli — Surefire CPR

Provide your team with the Necessary Tools and Technology

We believe that it is an employer’s responsibility to provide their team with the essential tools when working from home under a pandemic. Hence, we are actively looking into this at all times.

We have equipped our team with project management tools, Asana, and Slack, Google Suite for internal communication.

Moreover, if the employees encounter any problem with the office laptops, we have them fixed as soon as possible. We also ensure all our software to remain updated at all times so that no internal crash occurs. All of these factors help to maintain employee productivity levels.

Thanks to Jill Sandy — Constant Delights

Have a Central Place for Project Work

Having a central place for project work can help eliminate the need to chase people for updates, allowing team members the freedom to just get on with things. Look at the digital options available that facilitate this and invest in whichever suits your needs immediately. The number of calls we all face on a daily basis can be overwhelming as well as a distraction, so anything that allows you to reduce this will invariably make everyone more productive.

Once you’ve done that, then maximizing productivity is about spreading the workload as evenly as possible. Not just between individuals, but also prioritizing what needs to be done now and what can wait. Overwhelming your teams can cause them to lack focus and skip between jobs rather than giving one item their full attention before moving onto the next.

Knowing what’s truly business-critical will allow you to filter tasks in the order that they need to be done, and leaves people to concentrate on what’s actually necessary. Flooding inboxes with several “high priority” items lessens the importance, and the urgency, with which things get done.

Thanks to Zoë Morris — Frank Group

Support your Team

Adapt to Changing Business Needs

I keep my team productive by adapting to changing business needs/requirements to the benefit of my employees.

This winter, we are shifting to a 4-day workweek. Why? Because we realized that the current business environment needs employees who can maintain a work/life balance.

By being flexible and not holding tight to business practices that are no longer beneficial to my team, my employees know without a doubt that we have their best interests at heart. It inspires and motivates them to continue being productive.

Thanks to Daniel Cooper — Lolly

Encourage Work/Life Balance

Invest in making work/life balance part of your company’s culture. Some policies that can instill work/life balance are: not working over the weekend, allowing employees to work from home and shifting to a 4-day work week if your workload allows. Balance cultivates happier employees, and happy employees are highly productive.

Thanks to Reuben Yonatan — Get VOIP

Invest in Employee Assistance Program

Happy employees create positive and productive work environments. Try to create a culture where everyone can thrive while working together toward a common goal. Institutionalizing a program to provide confidential counseling services to help team members work their way through challenges relating to work, family, stress, finances, and other personal issues are the first essential step in that direction.

Thanks to Simonas Steponaitis — Hosting Wiki

Keep the Environment Stress-Free

A good leader will always be approachable. This only happens if you are a good listener, understand the problems, and solve them in an unbiased way. But that’s not enough. The working environment should be stress-free. The most productive work happens when people work without any stress and it is the responsibility of a team leader or senior to implement it.

If you find out that it’s getting hectic and teams are not able to cope up, then try to calm things down. Give them a break or talk about something that’s not a part of the work. Then switch back to the work and see the results. Working without stress is the most important part of team productivity. It is a basic solution to many problems.

Thanks to Adam Rowles — Inbound Marketing Agency

Designated Relaxation Space

Allocate a designated relaxation space for employees. To boost your employees’ productivity, you need to assure that your people are well-taken care of. We are all aware of how toxic and stressful can a day be in the office. Thus, creating a space where employees can unwind, relax, and even take a power nap is a huge booster for their productivity. This type of initiative can help alleviate their stress and anxiety in the workplace.

You don’t need to invest a great amount of money or assets in creating a relaxation space. A simple bean bag will make a big difference. Knowing that they have allocated space to breathe, relax, and ease the tension throughout the day will make them feel like they are well taken care of. Thus, it allows them to recharge their brain and body that keeps their productivity high.

Thanks to James Pearson — Eventuring

Take Care of Employees’ Emotions

Besides providing effective working tools and making an organized schedule, an employer should also take care of employees’ emotions. Especially now, as working from home can contribute to loneliness and negative emotions, employers should do what they can to provide emotional support to employees. Leaders should set the tone for their offices or home working environment with a calm and upbeat presence, which helps create a level-headed workplace where people can still get things done.

In a fully remote work setup, managers should also be more available than usual for check-ins and other questions that may come up given the unfamiliar circumstances. Set virtual office hours and be present on instant messaging apps throughout the day to help employees.

Leaders should additionally encourage self-care among their employees, who mentally are trying to adapt to remote work, the stress of new environments, and the stress of daily updates around COVID-19. Managers should advocate for Remote employees to exercise, get quality sleep, take showers, and continue on with lives as normally as they can.

Thanks to Caroline Lee — Coco Sign

Conclusion

Using the above tips you can get more productive in your personal and professional life.