It’s a bad sign when your business has high employee turnover. And even when you’ve honed your recruitment skills, employees and teams can plateau. When you’re fighting against a lack of productivity or low office morale, prevention should be your first step. Whether your staff are close to the point of no return or you’re looking to improve your skills as a manager, keep these tips in your tool belt to keep your staff on track.

Two Words: Employee Engagement

How much time do you spend checking in with your employees? If the answer is once a month, please rearrange your priorities. Put it this way, if you were working for someone else and they spoke to you only twelve times a year, would you feel valued or appreciated? Probably not. And notice we say check in with, not on. Hovering over your employee’s shoulders is not a good look nor does it mean “engagement.” Engagement means taking an interest in their work, their development and training, their mental well-being, and the goals they’d like to achieve. By engaging with your employees, you’ll notice a shift in their office attitude and the work they produce for the company.

Are They the Right Fit?

You might be tired of hearing the term “company culture” but it’s an important aspect of any business. Before you start staving off employee unproductivity, be sure they’ll fit into the kind of company culture you’d like. We’ve stressed in a previous blog post that finding people aligned with the values of your business is important. This is especially true for businesses with a strong moral mission, ie. saving the environment or building homes in impoverished areas. So, before you start handing over a contract to the first applicant with the right skill set, ask yourself: are they the right fit?

It’s important to note, though, that it’s not only about fitting into the culture. Strong teams are diverse in their skill sets. That means there should be depth. If you have strong communication skills, it doesn’t make sense to hire five more people with strong communication skills. See where your weaknesses are and find the right person(s) to fill that void. That’s because…

Delegation Is Your Friend

If you’re taking on all the work, you won’t be surprised when you burn out lickety-split. In fact, who are you trying to impress? Aren’t you the boss? Owners and managers who aren’t capable of utilising the skills of their staff are, frankly, not very good. But don’t worry, this is a skill you can learn. Let go of the need to control, trust your employees to get the job done and encourage autonomy. This doesn’t mean hand off the project or task then check in every hour to see if they’re doing it your way. The saying, “Too many cooks in the kitchen,” comes to mind. When we say let go, we really mean let go. Micromanaging your employees will only prove to them that you don’t believe in their abilities.

Are You Taking Care of Yourself?

Talking about mental health has lost much of its stigma thanks to advocates pushing the topic to the forefront of our minds. It’s important to encourage self-care because stress is a killer (and not just of productivity). Promote the importance of work-life balance, of taking care of your health — mental, emotional and physical. As their leader, employees will take their cues from you. If you don’t practice what you preach, you can forget about them feeling confident they should do the same.

Communication Is a Two-Way Street

There are other steps you can take to foster proper mental and emotional health in the office. Start with effective communication. Listen to your employees when they have suggestions, ideas, or grievances. Provide them with constructive feedback to better their performance. Be clear about what is expected of them as well as what kind of targets and goals they should be striving to hit. You want them to succeed because if they succeed, so do you.

Employee productivity is a topic we could go on and on about. These five tips only scratch the surface of ways to boost company morale. There are many other ways including providing them with the digital tools they need to succeed. A manager tool like Logitout’s asset tracking tool means everyone will spend more time on the important stuff and less on menial tasks. So, is your business at peak productivity?