Help your team work at their best in four small steps

Every business wants to say it runs efficiently, but there’s usually so much to be done to turn this ambition into reality.

There are four key steps, as defined by leaders at PwC, that can help you improve productivity across your team and take your business up a level on the efficiency scale.

Step #1: Understand your workforce

According to PwC, while 77% of all businesses track productivity, only a fraction of these companies look at a breakdown of the detailed tasks workers do every day. So, decisions are often made off the back of very little specific data. In reality, this is something your business should have total oversight of before making any important decisions – especially since PwC’s study shows there’s a direct line between better analytics, employee performance and positive results.

This type of information can help you gain better understanding of which employees could benefit from additional skills training to improve their productivity. It also helps you recognise high performers to make sure you keep on top of rewarding the right people. Not to mention that in-depth data can help managers match daily tasks to individual skill sets, as well as pinpointing training needs.

Step #2: Set realistic goals

There’s a high chance your team will perform better when they understand what’s expected of them.

The best way to set clear expectations? An easy-to-understand, achievable goal-setting process. Firstly, make sure your team aren’t overwhelmed with the tasks they have in hand. Then put SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound) goals in place and use KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to keep track of each team member’s accomplishments, so you can get a better understanding of their individual strengths and weaknesses.

The findings won’t only help you put together development plans, the results will show you whether the team are working towards achieving wider business goals too.

Step #3: Keep an eye on wellbeing

Have you ever thought about setting KPIs to keep track of employee mental wellbeing? PwC’s study shows supporting their wellbeing could include anything from checking in on an individual’s mood levels to asking how they’re coping with their workload.

With this, it’s key to know that mental wellbeing can, of course, mean different things to different people, so you’ll need to remember that one person’s experience won’t be relevant to all. However, keeping an eye on wellbeing data can help you find out why employees might not be dealing well in certain scenarios, and help you know when to offer support.

Step #4: Stay connected

The final point from PwC is about staying in touch with your team on both a personal and professional level. The best way to do this? By creating a sense of community through regular check-ins, especially when people work from different locations.

If you make workload and wellbeing meetings a priority, you’ll be able to keep track of how your team are doing – and technology can help you do just this. If you conduct the meetings in the right way, it will allow you to track how employees are doing, both in their roles and their wellbeing. Staying connected can help employees be more efficient while contributing to their overall happiness and job satisfaction

For example, Perform Plus is a great tool for keeping a hybrid team connected, especially through daily ‘huddles’ – 15-minute meetings for chatting about performance, wellbeing and any issues at hand.

Getting your team working at their best won’t only help them, it’ll help your business be more successful too. After all, a positive work environment is connected to employee happiness.

Once you’ve planned to how to help your team perform at their best, you might want to explore whether a time-tracking tool can help. Find out here.